The first Jarvis Sports Horsham Spinners 1 Star of the 2017-18 season attracted a full entry of 28 players, although two pulled out on the day.

The players were divided into three cadet (U15) bands with six players in each band and two junior (U18s) bands with five players in each band. A pull-out in Junior Band 2 left a group of only four players.

It was felt that this left the players with too few matches, so a cadet volunteer was sought to play in both the junior and cadet band 2 events. Robbie Davidson (Mi) from Greenhouse stepped up and didn’t he do well, as you can read in the reports below.

Cadet Band 1

Strong favourite Bertie Kelly (So) won this band fairly comfortably, winning all five of his matches, although he did drop an end against third placed Adedapo Onakomaya (Sy).

Second seed, Ed Cozens (Sx) from host club, Horsham Spinners TTC, had to work hard for his silver medal against some strong Greenhouse players. He beat Onakomaya 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 14-12) in a very close match and then beat Stephen Fajemilusi 3-1 (10-12, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9).

Next he went 1-2 down in games against Benjamin Boutrolle (Sy), but eventually came through by 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8). His final match vs Elliot Higgins (Mi) was another hard fought-match and he won in four (13-11, 8-11, 14-12, 11-9). He lost to Kelly in their final match 3-0 (9-11, 5-11, 8-11). Boutrolle finished fourth and Fajemilusi came fifth.

Cadet Band 2

One of the original six players pulled out, leaving this as a group of five players. Top seed Ikram Hussain (Sy) won all four of his matches to get the gold medal. He beat third-placed Robert Ionascu (Mi) 3-0 and the others 3-1.

Davidson, playing in two bands, was the runner-up of this band. He won two matches 3-0, but his third win was a close 3-2 (11-8, 11-8, 11-13, 9-11, 11-7) over Sajad Ali (Mi), who ended up in fourth place.

Hussain defeated Davidson 3-1 (11-8, 12-14, 11-8, 11-9) in another close match. Ionascu beat club-mate Ali 11-9 in the fifth set.

Cadet Band 3

None of the players in Cadet Band 3 had any ranking points. Samuel Raji (Sy) emerged as the winner, with five wins out of five. As it happened his first match was his hardest against eventual runner-up, George Harrison (Sy), which he won 3-2 (8-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-8, 11-4).

He also had close four-setters against third placed Harry Searle (Sy) 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8 and Rylie Leonnard (Sx-Arundel TTC) 12-10, 12-10, 9-11, 12-10. He won his other two matches 3-0.

Harrison won two five-setters to grab the silver medal. He defeated James High (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 10-12, 11-6 and club-mate Searle 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 6-11, 12-10. He won his other two matches 3-0.

Searle won 3-0, 3-0 & 3-1. Fourth, fifth and sixth places were decided in a three-way count-back, as the remaining three players all won one match each. Leonnard got fourth place and High fifth.

Junior Band 1

Tesfamaryam Ghezae (Sy) was a late replacement for a Greenhouse player, who became unavailable, but he took advantage of his opportunity by winning the Junior Band 1 in style, without dropping an end. His closest match was against top seed, Alejandro Ito-Aramendia (Sy), but he still won 11 points more than him.

Ito-Aramendia took the silver medal with three wins. He beat third placed Bejay Arjan (Sy) 3-0 (12-10, 11-9, 11-8) and fifth placed Oli Thorne (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) 3-1 (11-8, 4-11, 12-10, 12-10). Ryan Stewart (Sy) finished in fourth place.

Junior Band 2

Three players, Davidson, Nathan White (Sx-Arundel TTC) and Daniel Lam (Sy) ended up on three wins in this band, which meant the medals had to be decided by a three-way count-back. The players finished in the order listed with Davidson’s gold being particularly impressive being that he is unranked at junior level and being that he was also playing in the cadets that day.

White had overcome Davidson 11-9 in the fifth in the first match of the tournament and White also defeated Sundeep Dhamrait (Sy) by the same score and for good measure his third win was also a five-setter against club-mate Lewis Gardner (Sx-Arundel TTC).

Gardner also succumbed to Davidson 11-9 in the fifth, while Davidson narrowly overcame Lam 3-0 (12-10, 11-9, 15-13) in the final match of the group. Lam had beaten White 3-1 and Gardner 3-0. Gardner beat Dhamrait 3-1 to get fourth place.

Results
Cadet Band 1: 1) Bertie Kelly, 2) Ed Cozens, 3) Adedapo Onakomaya, 4) Benjamin Boutrolle, 5) Stephen Fajemilusi, 6) Elliot Higgins
Cadet Band 2: 1) Ikram Hussain, 2) Robert Davidson, 3) Robert Ionascu, 4) Sajad Ali, 5) Sasha O’Halloran
Cadet Band 3: 1) Samuel Raji, 2) George Harrison, 3) Harry Searle, 4) Rylie Leonnard, 5) James High, 6) Lydia Wealands-White
Junior Band 1: 1) Tesfamaryam Ghezae, 2) Alejandro Ito-Aramendia, 3) Bejay Arjan, 4) Ryan Stewart, 5) Oli Thorne
Junior Band 2: 1) Robert Davidson, 2) Nathan White, 3) Daniel Lam, 4) Lewis Gardner, 5) Sundeep Dhamrait