A total of 46 players from Kent and Sussex entered the South-East Inter-Regional Qualification and independent Junior event which was held over the weekend of 20th and 21st February 2016 at Byng Hall, Table Tennis Club in Tunbridge Wells.

The regional events have always been a pleasure to work at and the two days did not disappoint with some fine play. Also what must be commended was the excellent attitude and spirit the matches, for the best part, were played in.

A big thank you too to Gary Howes and all at Byng Hall for their usual excellent hospitality.

The players were playing to represent their region in the Inter-Regional finals in Kettering in May, also to enable them to  play in the individual events.

Due to the nature of the new format the South-East Region Selection Committee agreed that only three players in each event would be put forward to play in the finals.

 

Boys U11 – A Round Robin of Four

Shem Lejarde won all his matches to take pole position, followed by Harry Yip. In third place was Edward Gillhouley and the first reserve Max Wilson.

 

Girls U11

Only two players entered, Alison Webb and Saskia Key, they both qualify for the finals but agreed to play in the U13 Girls event on the day.

 

Boys U13

The most heavily contested event in the competition saw an excellent final in which Sussex’s Fraser Kent got the better of a spirited Julio Key from Kent. In the third and fourth play-offs after being two sets down, Owen Brown took the third, 15-13, and then went on to clinch the third spot for the finals, the unlucky fourth placed Jacob Evans will be the first reserve in this age category.

In the Consolation event Noah Csillag of Byng Hall was the winning finalist beating Lewis Marsh.

 

U13 Girls – A Round Robin of Six

Joelle Bennett, the number 1 seed, had fairly comfortable three set wins in every match to take first place, Isabel Webb at number two also justified her place and the third representative for the South-East is Min Jie Guo. Jodie Morris is first reserve.

 

Cadet Boys

This proved an interesting competition and with number one seed, Chamika Weerasinghe, unable to play, it left the rest of the field with much to play for. Half of the main draw contenders had already qualified for the U13 event so it left an unusual situation with regard to qualification for this age group.

Having an excellent weekend, a determined Fraser Kent, battled to defeat Bertrand Siu in the final. In the third and fourth placed match Mahmood Kelani defeated Julio Key. Fraser elected to play in the U13s at the finals – being able to make the choice as he was in first place in both the U134 and Cadet competitions  – this left both Bertrand and Mahmood as the top two South-East representatives in the Cadet Boys category and are joined by Tom Down as the losing quarter-finalist.

In the Consolation event Charlie Graham-Adams beat George Sainsbury and so these two players will be first and second reserve.

 

Cadet Girls – Round Robin of Four

The results matched the seeding with Alice Hazell finishing first, followed by Lois Perryman, in third place was Catherine Banks and then Min Jie Guo. Alice, Lois and Catherine, therefore, qualify for the finals.

 

Junior Mixed

This event was added to give the cadet players an extra competition on Sunday as well as giving junior players in the three counties the opportunity to become Regional Junior champion. Ben Worley of Sussex took the title overcoming Charlie Graham-Adams who was a valiant Runner-up. In the Consolation event, Kent’s Harry Jones was the winner with Tom Down in the Runner-up spot.

 

Thank you to all players, parents and coaches who supported this new competition and for all those who attended and helped on the two days.

Good luck to all the players in the finals.