38 players took part in the Jarvis Sports Horsham Spinners Veterans 2 Star Ratings tournament in the College of Richard Collyer, Horsham.
Veteran players were split into four bands of seven or eight players, although one player from Band 1 didn’t show up, leaving it with six players. Only one of the top seeds won their band.
The senior event was a very large round-robin group of 12 players, with all players therefore getting their money’s worth with 11 matches each! The event was refereed by George Gray from Crawley Community TTC.
Vets Band 1
No 3 seed, Rory Scott from Ireland and host club Horsham Spinners TTC, overcame higher ranked players Steve Horton (Wo) and Jason Thompson (Wo) 11-9 in the fifth and 11-6 in the fifth respectively to get the gold medal. He also got a revenge win 3-1 over Andy Frain (Wa), who had trounced him at the recent VETTS National Masters event, as well as beating the tricky Samson Bekele (Sy) a close 3-0.
Unfortunately Graham Barnes (Sx) had to pull out injured, having played just one match, losing a close five-setter vs Frain. The lowest ranked player in the group had also failed to show up, as he was also injured, meaning there were effectively only five players in the group. Luckily for the players, Martin Gunn had arranged to come along and play against the Band 1 players using his sandpaper bat. Now these matches didn’t count for ranking points, since sandpaper is not legal in TT England ranking events, but at least it gave the Band 1 players an extra match.
Martin lost 0-3 to Horton, but beat everyone else, including fifth set wins over Thompson and Scott. Horton got the silver medal in Band 1, with a five set win over Thompson. Frain beat Bekele 3-1 for fourth place. Bekele had actually led 2-0 vs Thompson, a player ranked over 550 points above him, but Thompson regrouped and came back to win the next three ends
Vets Band 2
Leo Veinsreider (Sy) was the clear winner of Vets Band 2, only conceding two ends all day. He would have done well in Band 1. Roger Pingram (K) with his awkward long pimples style got the silver medal, winning five of his seven matches, losing to Tim Vaughan (Ch) 3-2 (12-10, 11-6, 10-12, 8-11, 14-16).
The top two seeds, Vadym Krevs (UKR) and Henry Arthur (Np) both won four matches, but since Krevs overcame Arthur in the fifth set, it was Krevs, who came third. Fifth place went to Tom Carr (So), who scraped a narrow victory over Vaughan 12-10 in the decider, as well as two other wins. These two both won three matches. Vaughan came sixth on count back, but had also lost another five-setter (11-9 in the fifth) to Arthur. Both Dennis Hayden (Sx) and Ajay Shah (Sy) won once each, but Hayden finished above Shah, as he had beaten him.
Vets Band 3
Yury Zhelyabouskiy (RUS) did very well to win Band 3, as he was only the fifth highest ranked player out of seven. He won five and lost one to Chris Pullinger (Sy), who actually only won that one match.
Two players won four matches each, Sue Pingram (K) and John Dyson (K). However since Pingram overcame Dyson in five sets, she took the silver medal.
Paul Nicol performed well to come fourth, with two unexpected wins and he only just lost to Dyson in five ends. Jonathan Chernett (Sy) managed two wins to finish fifth in a two-way count-back with John Wyles (Wi), who also won two.
Vets Band 4
All seven of the players in Vets Band 4 were unranked. Minesh Agnihotri (Sx) from Brighton excelled to win all six of his matches. He won five matches 3-0 and beat Stephen Nelson-Smith (Ha) 3-2, having lost the first two games convincingly. Bassam Mocharrifie (Bu) won five matches to finish in second place. He only beat Ian Fowlds (Sx) in five ends and dropped another three ends.
Nelson-Smith won four matches to come third. Alison Jordan won three to come fourth, beating Adrian Harvey (Sx) 11-9 in the fifth, while Fowlds won two to come fifth, also beating Harvey in five. Harvey beat Pramila Muthiah (Sy) for sixth place.
Seniors
As well as playing in the vets bands, three veteran players also took part in the Senior event. This was initially just to make up numbers, so we had at least eight players in the Seniors, but some late entries pushed the number up to 12 players, which meant all players played 11 matches, except the vets, who took part, who played 16-18 matches.
Top seed, Rory Scott, won all 11 of his matches, but was extended to five sets by Rafal Bajda (POL) and lost an end to each of four players. The decisive match proved to be his final match against eventual runner-up Matt Gold, who had been the third highest ranked player. Scott lost the first game, but regrouped to win the next three, two of which were close. Gold did very well to win 10 matches and take home the silver. He was taken to five sets on two occasions, first by 13-year-old Owen Brown (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC), who led Gold 2-0 in games and 10-8 in the third and secondly by second seed Carsten Hovestadt (GER).
Third place went to Murray Wilson (Sy), who won nine matches, just losing to Scott and Gold. Wilson was also take to the fifth by Bajda. Vadym Krevs was next in fourth place, with eight wins, beating both Sandra (Go) and Hovestadt 3-2. Hovestadt won seven and finished fifth, Go took sixth place with five wins, Dean Haskett (Do) was seventh with four wins.
Bajda also won four, but came eighth, as he lost to Haskett. Yury Zhelyabouskiy and Brown both won three and Zhelyabouskiy came ninth as he beat Brown. Tenth placed Brown had a good 11-9 in the fifth end victory over Haskett. Juan Munoz-Lopez (SPA) won two to finish eleventh.
Final Placings
Vets Band 1
1) Rory Scott (IRL)
2) Steve Horton (Wo)
3) Jason Thompson (Wo)
4) Andy Frain (Wa)
5) Samson Bekele (Sy)
6) Graham Barnes (Sx) (retired injured after 1 match)
Vets Band 2
1) Leo Veinsreider (Sy)
2) Roger Pingram (K)
3) Vadym Krevs (UKR)
4) Henry Arthur (Np)
5) Tom Carr (So)
6) Tim Vaughan (Ch)
7) Dennis Hayden (Sx)
8) Ajay Shah (Sy)
Vets Band 3
1) Yury Zhelyabouskiy (RUS)
2) Sue Pingram (K)
3) John Dyson (K)
4) Paul Nicol (E)
5) Jonathan Chernett (Sy)
6) John Wyles (Wi)
7) Chris Pullinger (Sy)
Vets Band 4
1) Minesh Agnihotri (Sx)
2) Bassam Mocharrifie (Bu)
3) Stephen Nelson-Smith (Ha)
4) Alison Jordan (Sx)
5) Ian Fowlds (Sx)
6) Adrian Harvey (Sx)
7) Pramila Muthiah (Sy)
Seniors
1) Rory Scott (IRL)
2) Matthew Gold (Sy)
3) Murray Wilson (Sy)
4) Vadym Krevs (UKR)
5) Carsten Hovestadt (GER)
6) Sandra Go (SIN)
7) Yury Zhelyabouskiy (RUS)
8) Rafal Bajda (POL)
9) Dean Haskett (Do)
10) Owen Brown (Sx)
11) Juan Munoz-Lopez (SPA)
12) Umar Haroon (PAK)