The Tayo Situ Memorial, despite being advertised late due to difficulties with getting the venue and date sorted out, produced plenty of matches for the 28 attending players at Dulwich TTC.
The event, which commemorates the death of Councillor Tayo Situ, also clashed with a rearranged National Cadet/Junior League fixture in which the host club, Dulwich TTC had 4 teams. Hence the low turnout yet there were still good matches and prizes for the U13s, U15s and U21s.
The U11s consisted of a group of five players. Three of them ended up on three wins each. However, on sets difference Michael Tunubu of the host club Dulwich TTC came first, Lorcan Gallen (Bk) second and Liam Smith (K) third. Medals were awarded for the top 3 players
James Smith (K) was the clear winner in the U13s with six wins in a round robin group of seven players. Marcus Hensher (Mi) was second with five wins and Josh Gallen (Bk) third with four wins. However, the match between Marcus and Josh went right to the wire and Marcus only just prevailed 11-9 in the fifth.
Out of the 21 matches in the group, only three of them were not 3-0. The other two that were not 3-0 were Marcus beating fourth placed James Knudsen (E) 3-1 and James beating Marcus 3-1. The prizes in this age group were £80 for first place, £30 for second place and £15 for third place as well as medals for the top three players.
U15s Group 1 was won by top seed Daniel McTiernan (Bk), who dropped just one end to second placed Harrison Simmons (Bu) while Jamie Trevillion (Do) won group 2 easily – helped by the fact the second highest player in the group did not turn up. Cheridan Thompson (E) took advantage of this by coming second in the group. Group 3 was won by Jimmy Yeung (Ha), beating group runner-up, Jack Josephs (He) 3-0.
In the quarter-finals there were straight sets wins for Jack over Cheridan and Jimmy over Harrison. Jack gave a good account of himself against Dan in the semi-final, only losing 3-1 (11-5, 9-11, 7-11, 11-13). The other semi was also fairly close with Jamie overcoming Jimmy 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6).
In the final Dan got off to a bad start going 7-0 down. However, he got it back to 10-10, having got used to Jamie’s defensive combination-bat style of play. Jamie managed to hold on to the first game 12-10, but after that it was one way traffic with Dan hitting straight through Jamie’s chops to win the next three games 11-3, 11-3, 11-6.
In the 3rd/4th place play-off Jimmy beat Jack 12-10, 11-5, 12-10. The prizes in this age group were the same as for the U13s. A consolation event was also run in the U15s. This was won by Andrew Chapman (Sy), who beat Sheikh Mustakim (Sy) in a close match 3-1 (11-8, 11-8, 11-13, 12-10).
The U21s consisted of five players. Francesco Puglisi of Dulwich TTC, playing in his first tournament did very well to win the event. He came back from 2-0 down to beat Martin Matuzevicius (Ha) in a nailbiting match 3-2 (9-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9) with his power-hitting style proving too much for second placed Martin in the end.
He dropped just one set against third placed James Mason (Ha). Martin took four ends to dispose of James. For his efforts Francesco won a bicycle worth £200. For second placed Martin he got a £60 Stiga Voucher plus a ticket to the Men’s World Cup in Liverpool at the end of September. James got a World Cup ticket for third place. Again the top three players also got medals.