Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) and Jamie Blair (Do) both excelled to take two titles each at the Burgess Hill 2 Star.

The event at The Triangle Leisure Centre attracted 57 entrants and Maric-Murray justified his top seeding in both U11s and U12s, although he had an exceedingly close match in the final of the U11s against second seed, Ben Poulter (Ha).

Blair too was seeded No 1 for the U15s and came through despite trailing 0-2 in sets and 0-4 in points in the final against Will Michell (Horsham Spinners TTC), but a time-out at that juncture seemed to work wonders and he got back into it and won.

In the U18s, he was unseeded, although he was the fourth highest ranked player and he did it the hard way, beating seeds 1, 2 and 3, as well as beating the sixth highest ranked player in the final.

From a local perspective though, the main talking point was the breakthrough of the talented Owen Brown of the host club, Horsham Spinners TTC. Prior to this tournament, he had never won a medal at a 2 Star, coming closest last May, where he lost the bronze medal match.

He started the day winning his U15s group and progressing to the semi-final, where he met the in-form Blair. He lost this match, but went on to win the bronze medal match vs Keigo Burnham (Warden Park TTC) 3-0.

That was just the start. In the U14s in the afternoon, he was seeded No 3 (a testament to his recent rise in the rankings) and duly made it to the semis, beating the fifth seed. There he beat top seed and team-mate, Charlie Graham-Adams (Horsham Spinners TTC). The final was an absolute nail-biter, with Owen coming back from a large deficit to win the fourth and fifth sets 13-11, 11-9 against Jake Buckley (K).

Under-11

There were 16 players in the U11s and no surprises at the group stage. In the quarter-finals, top seed Maric-Murray beat Max Wilson (Brighton City TTC) 3-0, Francesco Bonato (Mi) beat Charlie Jannels (Horsham Spinners TTC) 3-1, Charlie Nabarro (Mi) beat Saskia Key (K) 3-0 and Poulter beat Jenson Moreno (Mi) 3-0.

In the semi-finals Maric-Murray dispatched Bonato 3-0 and Poulter knocked out Nabarro 3-1. The score in the final was 3-2 (5-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11) to Maric-Murray.

The bronze medal match was just as close, with Nabarro overcoming Bonato 11-9 in the fifth set. Sam Gabriel (Mi) beat Louis Treffel (Brighton City) 3-2 in the consolation final.

Under-12

There were again 16 players in this age group. Nabarro had a very good win at the group stage over third seed (the second seed pulled out ill) Mikaeel Toosy (Sy) 12-10 in the deciding game.

In the quarters, Maric-Murray defeated Abbie Hurley (K) in straight sets, Nabarro beat Noah Featherstone Csillag (K) in four, James Henry (Mi) beat Scarlett Anders (Mi), while Toosy beat Poulter, both of these being in straight sets.

In the semis Maric-Murray beat Nabarro, having lost the first end, and Toosy beat Henry in three close games. The final was a 3-1 win for Maric-Murray.

Henry beat Nabarro in four for the bronze medal. The consolation final was another close one, with Moreno overcoming Bonato 12-10 in the fifth end.

Under-13

Yet again there were 16 players in this category. The top seed pulled out ill, which left the top section of the draw open.

In Group 4, fourth seed Alessio Marrocco (Brighton City TTC) was 0-2 down to Ollie Michell (Horsham Spinners TTC), but recovered to win the next three games. Hurley did well to win the all-girls Group 5, beating two higher-ranked players.

In the quarters, Henry Maric-Murray (Sy) beat Featherstone Csillag in three, Marrocco beat Hurley in four, Henry beat Joe Milne (Brighton City TTC) in three and Michell overcame second seed Toosy for the second consecutive time, in four ends.

The semis were both decided three straight, with Marrocco beating Maric-Murray and Michell beating the higher-ranked Henry. In the final, Marrocco went one better than he had at the group stage, as he defeated Michell in four ends.

Henry won 3-0 in the bronze medal match. The consolation final was an all-girls match, with Isabel Webb (K) overcoming Anders 3-2, as she had also done in their group match.

Under-14

This was the largest event with 18 players in five groups. There was one upset at the group stage, with Jack Trafford (Do) taking out second seed Julio Key (K) in four sets. Key’s fortunes got worse, as he lost to Angus Norman (Sy) in Round 1. Fourth seed, Arthur Bracken (K) did well to avoid a loss to Norman in the group, just winning 14-12 in the fifth end.

In the last eight, top seed Graham-Adams beat Norman 3-0, Brown beat Charlie Cunningham (Sy) 3-1, Samadhi Udamulla (He) had an excellent win 3-2 over Bracken, who is almost 200 points above her, and Buckley, who had lost to Cunningham in the group, beat Trafford 3-0.

In the top-half semi-final, Brown overcame team mate Graham-Adams in four close game and in the bottom half semi-final Buckley beat Udamulla 3-0. As mentioned above, Brown won the final 3-2.

Graham-Adams beat Udamulla comfortably in the bronze medal match, as he had done at the group stage. In the consolation final Lewis Marsh (K) came back from 1-2 down in ends to beat Ed Cozens (Horsham Spinners TTC) 13-11 in the decider.

Under-15

There were 17 players in the U15s. Group 4 was a ‘Group of Death’ with fourth seed Key, as well as the in-form Norman and the under-ranked Burnham. They all won one match each and Key was the unlucky one, who went into the consolation event. Norman topped the group, with Burnham second.

In the quarters, top seed, Blair beat Buckley, Brown beat Norman and Will Michell beat Thomas Arnott (K), these three results all being 3-0, while Burnham had a shock 3-1 win over second seed, Graham-Adams, a player ranked 487 points above him.

In the semis, Blair got his own back on Brown, who had beaten him in a recent county match, while Michell confidently accounted for Burnham 3-0. As mentioned above, Blair came back from the brink of defeat in the final to win 3-2.

Brown beat Burnham very easily in the bronze medal match 3-0. Key unsurprisingly won the consolation final 3-0 vs Alejandro Ito-Aramendia (Sy), but he had only overcome Trafford in the fifth end in the semis.

Under-18

There were just 12 players in the U18s, the only event with not enough players to count for bonus ranking points. There were a few surprises at the group stages, with the main ones being two of the three seeds losing a match each. First Timmy Walters (K) narrowly beat top seed Ali Malloch (Do) 11-9 in the fifth. Then Blair took out third seed Billy Keegan (Brighton City TTC) in straight sets. Robert Pelc, the second seed, was the only seed to get through the group unscathed, but he only won 3-2 vs Ito-Aramendia.

In the two quarter-finals, both seeds lost again, with Matthew Johnson (Brighton City TTC), beating team-mate, Keegan 3-2 and Blair knocking out Malloch 3-0. In the semis, Walters beat Johnson 3-1 and Blair continued his fine day, ousting Pelc 11-9 in the fifth set.

The final was somewhat of an anti-climax, with Blair winning comfortably. Pelc beat Johnson in three for the bronze. Arnott beat Ito-Aramendia 3-1 in the consolation final.

Results

Under-11
Main: Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) beat Ben Poulter (Ha) 3-2 (5-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11)
Consolation: Sam Gabriel (Mi) beat Louis Treffel (Sx) 3-2 (11-3, 9-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-4)

Under-12
Main: Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) beat Mikaeel Toosy 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 11-13, 11-7)
Consolation: Francesco Bonato (Mi) beat Jenson Moreno (Mi) 3-2 (11-4, 11-8, 3-11, 9-11, 12-10)

Under-13
Main: Alessio Marrocco (Sx) beat Ollie Michell (Sx) 3-1 (11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 12-10)
Consolation: Isabel Webb (K) beat Scarlett Anders (Mi) 3-2 (7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 10-12, 11-4)

Under-14
Main: Owen Brown (Sx) beat Jake Buckley (K) 3-2 (11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 13-11, 11-9)
Consolation: Lewis Marsh (K) beat Ed Cozens (Sx) 3-2 (11-7, 3-11, 9-11, 11-8, 13-11)

Under-15
Main: Jamie Blair (Do) beat Will Michell (Sx) 3-2 (4-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7)
Consolation: Julio Key (K) beat Alejandro Ito-Aramendia 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-3)

Under-18
Main: Jamie Blair (Do) beat Timmy Walters (K) 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-6)
Consolation: Thomas Arnott (K) beat Alejandro Ito-Aramendia 3-1 (11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 11-9)