Sussex Series 2 Star Report:

At the recent Sussex Series 2 Star, 79 players contested 5 ability bands on 18 tables over 9 hours in the excellent K2 Leisure Centre venue. Each player got 10-11 matches over the course of the day. There were many surprises & none of the top seeds won their band. In fact the best finishing position for any of the top seeds was 3rd. In most bands there were initial groups of 7 or 8, with the top 4 going into the top section of the band & the rest in the lower section, where more group matches took place. There was a very large cash fund of £1000, as well as a fund of £700 Tees Sports vouchers. Our thanks go to our 4 sponsors: Tees Sports, Heritage Oil, Griffin Security & Technology and Ray Hole Architects. The prizes were spread throughout the bands with at least 3 players in each band receiving prizes. Pictured are the Band 5 top 3 players from left Jake Coombes, George Tester & William Goodstone.

Forshaw Uses the Force:

In band 1 the top seed was Tyrone ‘Konnich’ Wells (Mi) of the BBATT club. He duly won all 6 of his matches in his initial group, with Gabriel Achampong (Mi) taking 2nd place in the group. Hugo Pang (Do), the 2nd seed didn’t fare as well, finishing in 4th place in group 2. Joseph Langham-Ferreira (Sy) took advantage of this to top the group, beating Alex Forshaw of Crusaders & Horsham TTC’s into 2nd place. However in the top group, it was Alex who emerged the winner, as he won all of his remaining games. Four of Alex’s wins were in 5 sets. This was quite an achievement when you consider that he was only the 6th highest ranked player in the event. Alex went home with £200 cash for his efforts. Another success story of the day was Adam ‘Read-the-Spin’ Reed (Mi), only the 9th highest ranked player in the event, who finished in 2nd place, beating club-mate Wells into 3rd. Joseph & Gabriel were 5th & 6th respectively.

Great Play from Gray:

In band 2 the rankings were thrown out the window from the word go. 1st seed Liam Grant (Sy) ended up 6th in his group (& ended up 10th in the band), which was won by his Crusaders club-mate George Harris (Sy). Ryan Williams (E) ‘punched above his weight’ to take 2nd place in the group. Leon Thomson also outdid himself by finishing 3rd in the group. It was a similar story in group 2 with 2nd seed Jamie Trevillion (Do) only managing 5th place in the group with 4 wins. In fact there were 4 players with 4 wins in this group & they had to be separated by no. of sets won. Instead it was Brian Gray (K), who topped the group, with Zachary Mandell (Mi) (also 4 wins) excelling to get 2nd place in the group. Gray continued his winning ways in the top group & won it out, being one of the 3 undefeated players on the day with 11 straight wins. It is all the more impressive when you realise that he only dropped 3 ends all day! 2nd place in band 2 went to Harris, who lost to Gray & also to Thomson. Williams took a creditable 3rd place. Brian also left with £200 cash.

King of the ‘Khassal’

Band 3 was simply a group of 12 players with all playing each other. Again the top seed was condemned to a low position, with Jack Anthony (Sk) finishing in 6th position with 6 wins. In addition 2nd & 3rd seeds, Andrew Lockwood (K) & Timur Hashimi (Mi) only took 5th & 8th places respectively. First place was contested by 3 players with 9 wins & 2 losses. These were Charlie Bates (E), Karim Khassal (Mi) & Jimmy Yeung (Ha). A countback was required to separate the players & by virtue of a better sets difference, Karim was pronounced the victor. Karim had two 5 set matches & interestingly one of these was against the player who ended up last in the band, which shows how close things were. 2nd place went to Jimmy & 3rd to Charlie. Karim had been only 5th seed for the band & Jimmy was 8th seed. For Band 3 downwards Tees Sport Vouchers were awarded as prizes with £100 for the winners.

Marvellous Martin Makes his Mark

In band 4 the rankings would have been more accurate if they had been turned on their head. Top seed Erik Van-Mol (Sx) of host club Horsham, had a decent start with a couple of easy wins, but after his first loss to Ovi Eyarhono (Sy), he seemed to go downhill from there, with only 2 more wins to his name out of his remaining 8 matches. He eventually finished in 18th place in band 4 (out of 24 players). Anyway Ovi went on to win the group & Nathan Knowles (Mi) was 2nd & another Horsham player, James Arnold (Sx) did well to finish 3rd in the group. Group 2 was also a big upset with the lowest (David Pringuer of Sussex) & 2nd lowest (Martin Matuzevicius of Hampshire) ranked players finishing 3rd & 1st in the group respectively. 2nd place in the group was taken by 3rd seed for the band, Kareem Bandaogo (Mi). The trend continued in group 3 with 2nd lowest player, James Mason (Ha) winning all of his matches, but 2nd place in the group was contested by 2nd & 4th seeds for the band, Harry Collins (Sx) & Matt Van Yperen (Sx) from Horsham TTC.  They both had 5 wins, but since Matt beat Harry he took 2nd place in the group. This was more significant in band 4, as only the top 2 in each group went forward to a top group of 6 players. This top group was dominated by club mates Matuzevicius (in 1st position in the band with a 100% win rate) & Mason (in 2nd place with just the 1 loss). Martin showed his mental toughness in winning all 4 of his 5-set encounters. Matt will be pleased with his 3rd place finish & 4th place went to Kareem.

Tester passes Test:

In band 5 most of the players had no ranking points, so it was likely that the seedings would be inaccurate. This proved to be the case, although all but 1 of the ranked players did end up in the top group in the afternoon. In group 1 William Goodstone (Sx) won all of his encounters, with Andrew Chapman (E) taking 2nd place in the group & Ricky Roberts (Mi) 3rd place. In group 2 George Tester (Sx) beat all before him & Jake Coombes (K) was 2nd with 1 loss & Sophie Tofalides (Mi) in 3rd. In the top group George continued from where he left off, although he did have to survive a scare against Ricky, when he found himself 2-1 down in games, but he stepped up a gear & won 11-3, 11-3 & remained unbeaten on the day to win the band 5 title. Jake also won his remaining matches to clinch 2nd place in the band & group 1 winner, William took 3rd place. 4th place went to Andrew. A special mention should be given to Kieran Bonner (Sx) of Horsham, who although he did not win any matches, took it all in his stride & enjoyed himself & will learn from the experience.

Placings:

Band 1:

1. Alex Forshaw (Sx)

2. Adam Reed (Mi)

3. Tyrone Wells (Mi)

4. Joseph Langham-Ferreira (Sy)

5. Gabriel Achampong (Mi)

6. Daniel Barna (Sx)

7. Hugo Pang (Do)

8. Charlie Austen (Mi)

9. Josh Bennett (Sx)

10. Daniel McTiernan (Bk)

11. Jonathan Meikle (Dy)

12. David Rahbani (Mi)

13. Finny Wilson (Sx)

14. Daniella Gray (K)

Band 2:

1. Brian Gray (K)

2. George Harris (Sy)

3. Ryan Williams (E)

4. Vinal Patel (Sx)

5. Shane Clark (Mi)

6. Leon Thomson (He)

7. Zachary Mandell (Mi)

8. Finn Morgan-Bayliss (Do)

9. Omar Khassal (Mi)

10. Liam Grant (Sy)

11. Jamie Trevillion (Do)

12. Jack Josephs (He)

13. Daniel Pound (Sx)

14. Tom Windram (K)

15. Adam Corell (Sx)

16. Oliver Hack (Ha)

Band 3:

1. Karim Khassal (Mi)

2. Jimmy Yeung (Ha)

3. Charlie Bates (E)

4. Armagan Huseyin (E)

5. Andrew Lockwood (K)

6. Jack Anthony (Sk)

7. Blair Phillip (K)

8. Timur Hashimi (Mi)

9. Jamie Diddams (K)

10. Musa Sharif-Ali (Mi)

11. Emma Sheen (Sx)

12. Kester Pardoe (Mi)

Band 4:

1. Martin Matuzevicius (Ha)

2. James Mason (Ha)

3. Matt Van Yperen (Sx)

4. Kareem Bandaogo (Mi)

5. Ovi Eyarhono (Sy)

6. Nathan Knowles (Mi)

7. David Pringuer (Sx)

8. James Arnold (Sx)

9. Harry Collins (Sx)

10. Hiba Feredj (Mi)

11. Regan O’Neil (K)

12. Josh Gallen (Bk)

13. Toby Bartram (K)

14. Mason O‘Neil (K)

15. Chris Clifford (He)

16. Sam Lu (Sx)

17. Hannah McErlane (Do)

18. Erik Van-Mol (Sx)

19. Nathan Hack (Ha)

By Rory Scott