A Victorious Gavin Rumgay (photo courtesy of Philip Pound)

Rumgay ends 10 match losing streak

The Tees Sport Sussex Open Two Star took place on Sunday 28th October at K2 Leisure Centre, Crawley and attracted a full entry of 109 players. There were 40 players in the men’s singles, with a very strong field. The format was groups of four initially, with the top two from each group going into the main draw and the bottom two going into the consolation. Then there was a second round of groups of four for both the main draw and the consolation with all players getting at least six matches. The top two from each second group then went forward to the knockout stages in both main and consolation. In the initial group stage there were three seeded players to suffer defeat. Firstly sixth seed Adam Laws (Sy) fell to no. 18 cadet, Gabriel Achampong (Mi). However Gabriel went out on countback, as he lost to Matthew Man (Wa), who ended up winning the group. Next eighth seed Abdul Wuraola (Sy), playing in his first tournament since his year and a half ban, was defeated by Sri Lankan Amila Thilakarathna (Sx) 11-9 in the 5th. Finally Alain Choo-Choy (Sy) was put to the sword by pocket rocket Luke Savill (K), the England no. four cadet. Other unexpected wins included both Dave Randall (Mi) and Eddie Liu (Sy) beating an out-of-sorts Alex Forshaw (Sx).

In the second stage of groups in the main event Savill continued his run of good form with another quality win over Abdul Wuraola in the fifth set. Another pint-sized player, Jack Bennett (Sx) caused some upsets in his group, downing two higher rated players Paul Carter (Sy) and Thilakarathna (Sx) to grab the group runner-up position. England no. three junior Helshan Weerasinghe (Sx) was unlucky not to progress past the group stages, as he lost in the fifth set to two higher ranked players Laws and Kazeem Adeleke (NIG), the no. four seed. The only significant upset in the consolation groups was the unranked Alan Stone (Sy) beating Mike White (Sx) 3-0.

In the knockout stages top seed, Gavin Rumgay (SCO) was too strong for Savill in the quarters and Craig Bryant (Dv) in the semis. Bryant had accounted for Adeleke 11-9 in the fifth in the quarters. Similarly no. two seed, Chris Doran brushed aside Laws in the quarters and Matt Ware (Do), the no. three seed in the semis. Ware knocked out Choo-Choy in the quarters. For the final there was a general ‘let’ on all other tables and a crowd of about 120 people sat back to watch the spectacle. It was Rumgay who started the stronger, winning 11-8. He was very keen to break his losing streak to Doran, whom he had not beaten for ages. Doran hit back in the second, with an 11-9 game, only for Rumgay to sneak the third 12-10 to a familiar cry of ‘That’s Massive!’ The pattern of the match was mainly Rumgay topspinning with Doran exhibiting his own brand of ‘fishing’ defence back from the table and there were crowd-pleasing rallies galore. In the fourth game Doran repeated his 11-9 second game score to bring the contest to the decider. Rumgay got a great start in the fifth and did not relinquish this, holding out to win the game 11-6 and I’m sure breathing a sigh of relief.

Achampong won the consolation event with wins over Elson Costa (Ox), Jan Collado (GER) and Forshaw all three straight. Forshaw beat Omar Khassal (Mi) and Csaba Balint (HUN) to get to the final. Balint had scraped over the line vs Josh Bennett (Sx) in the quarters 13-11 in the fifth from two games down.

The Good ‘Ould’ Days:

The ladies singles consisted of a round robin of eight players. Top seed Jasmin Ould (K) topped the group, despite a four game reverse to Sri Lankan Nadini Abeygunawardana (Sx). The group was decided on count back, as Abeygunawardana lost in five games to Inken Diederich (GER) and Ould beat Diederich 3-0. Abeygunawardana finished in second place with Diederich in third. Teresa Bennett (Sx) took fourth place with four wins and Hiba Feredj (Mi) was 5th.

Title-winner Jas Ould celebrates her win (photo courtesy of Philip Pound)

One More for Morshead:

Junior Boys Band 1 was a round robin of ten players. Aside from the top seed, Chris Morshead (JEY) who won all of his matches, rankings counted for little in this event. 2nd seeded Olamide Wuraola (Sy) had a nightmare finishing in ninth place with three wins out of nine. Second place went to Karim Khassal (Mi) (seeded fifth), with six wins. However there was a four-way count back for third, fourth, fifth & sixth places, as Jack Josephs (He), Finny Wilson (Sx), Mickel Miller (Sy) and Daniel Pound (Sx) all won five matches each. They finished in the order listed. Josephs and Wilson both excelled, as they were the bottom two players in the rankings.

Shaquille ends victorious:

Junior Boys Band Two consisted of five groups of five players (although two players failed to show up), with the group winners going on to group A, the group runners-up going on to group B and so on, with all players getting eight matches. In Group A Shaquille Webb-Dixon (Sy), the no. three seed, emerged the victor. However he suffered an unexpected defeat 11-9 in the fifth to Harry Collins (Sx), who finished fifth. Second place went to fourth seed, George Tester (Sx), with second seed, Toby Bartram, (K) in third place. Michael Bridger (Sx) won group B on count back from second placed David Pringuer (Sx) and third placed Musa Sharif-Ali (Mi). Top seed for band two, Kester Pardoe came fourth in the group (ninth place overall). Jake Mitchell (Sy) was undefeated in group C, with Patrick Gilbert (E), clinching second place on count back. Matt Van Yperen (Sx) beat all comers in group D including Horsham Spinners club mates James Arnold (Sx) and Erik Van-Mol (Sx), who came second and third respectively. Geme Ryder (Sy) won group E.

Gold for Gozcu:

Junior Mixed Band three consisted of six initial groups of five players going into five further groups of six players, with players placed in second round groups depending on where they finished in the first round groups. Eren Gozcu (Mi) won the band with nine wins from nine. He topped group A in the second round, beating favourite George Hazell (Sx) 11-5 in the fifth. Hazell took second place, but was made to work by Tarik Hamdou (Sy), who finished sixth. Third place went to Hamza Ansari (K). Group B winner was nine-year-old Michael Tunubu (Sy) with five wins, with Rhoda Boadu (Mi) in second place. Group C winner was Shayan Naserbakht (Mi) with Chamika Weerasinghe second. Annabel Bridger (Sx) was triumphant in group D with Chris Daly (Sx) the group runner-up. Finally Scott Covey (Sx) won group E with Horsham Spinners club mate, Joe Worskett (Sx) in second place.

The organisers would like to thank Tees Sports , Ray Hole Architects and Freedom Leisure for supporting the event.

The next Tees Sport Sussex Series 2 Star events will take place on 15th December and 6th January both at K2 again & both for juniors and cadets. Entry forms are available from the ETTA website.

Placings Lists:
Women’s:
1) Jasmin Ould (K)
2) Nadini Abeygunawardana (Sx)
3) Inken Diederich (GER)
4) Teresa Bennett (Sx)
5) Hiba Feredj (Mi)
6) Holly Holder (Sx)
7) Emma Sheen (Sx)
8) Emily Turner (Li)

Junior Band 1:
1) Chris Morshead (JEY)
2) Karim Khassal (Mi)
3) Jack Josephs (He)
4) Finny Wilson (Sx)
5) Mickel Miller (Sy)
6) Dan Pound (Sx)
7) Jack Anthony (Sk)
8) Charlie Bates (E)
9) Olamide Wuraola (Sy)
10) Martin Matuzevicius (Ha)

Junior Band 2:
1) Shaquille Webb-Dixon (Sy)
2) George Tester (Sx)
3) Toby Bartram (K)
4) Nathan Knowles (Mi)
5) Harry Collins (Sx)
6) Michael Bridger (Sx)
7) David Pringuer (Sx)
8) Musa Sharif-Ali (Mi)
9) Kester Pardoe (Mi)
10) Ivan Monderin (Sy)
11) Jake Mitchell (Sy)
12) Patrick Gilbert (E)
13) Sam Lu (Sx)
14) William Goodstone (Sx)
15) Josh Gallen (Bk)
16) Matt Van Yperen (Sx)
17) James Arnold (Sx)
18) Erik Van-Mol (Sx)
19) Niall Harris (Ox)
20) Owen Bryan (Sy)
21) Geme Ryder (Sy)
22) Ethan Ball (Ox)
23) Ryan Gregory (Sx)

Junior Band 3:
1) Eren Gozcu (Mi)
2) George Hazell (Sx)
3) Hamza Ansari (K)
4) Kai Davis-Francis (Sy)
5) Alistair Smith (Sx)
6) Tarik Hamdou (Sy)
7) Michael Tunubu (Sy)
8) Rhoda Boadu (Mi)
9) Joe Russell (Sx)
10) Matthew Langley (Sx)
11) Jake Dale (Mi)
12) Luke Bergin (Sx)
13) Shayan Naserbakht (Mi)
14) Chamika Weerasinghe (K)
15) Toheeb Jimoh (Sy)
16) Kiran Pryce (Sy)
17) Seb Volz (Sy)
18) Matthew Weller (Sx)
19) Annabel Bridger (Sx)
20) Chris Daly (Sx)
21) Nathan Wadey (Sx)
22) Kate Bridger (Sx)
23) Ryan Barnett (Sx)
24) Connor White (Sx)
25) Scott Covey (Sx)
26) Joe Worskett (Sx)
27) Katie Hood (Sx)
28) Ollie Whiting (Sx)