Sussex Circuit Archive 2010-11
Horsham Community Circuit - April 2011
Report by Rory Scott
The recent Horsham Circuit on Mother's Day held in Forest School, neared full capacity for the morning event, with 26 players (Max Capacity is 28). The afternoon event however had only 9 players, but they all played each other & so got 8 matches each in the spaces of 3 hours.
Weston Makes his Mark
Morning Band A:
This was won by the top seed Mark Weston, who played in the K1 division of the Crawley & Horsham League. 2nd place went to Colin Holmwood, who joined Mark's division at the end of the season, after a lengthy break away from the game. These two adults, being at a significantly higher level then the other entrants, had to start their matches at minus 4 points each game in their initial groups (i.e. they had to win 4 points before getting to 0). However, they both still won their matches comfortably. There was an upset in group 3, however, with 4th seed, Luke Baldwin, narrowly taking out 3rd seed Freddy Goodall, 11-9 in the 5th. All the other initial group matches went according to seeding, although Freddy also struggled vs Reece Gathern, only coming through in the 5th set.
Then all the group winners were placed together in a group & runners up in another & 3rd place in another. The top 2 players played each other in this round of matches & it was Mark, who came out on top. He beat Colin 11-9, 11-9, 11-6. The runners-up group couldn't have been closer & all 3 of the matches between Freddy & U11 players Ben Hainsworth & George Hazell went the full distance. Freddy beat Ben 9 in the 5th & George 7 in the 5th & George had a good win 9 in the 5th over Ben. The 3rd group was the exact opposite in that all of the matches were decided 3-0. Reece was the winner of this group.
Then to give the players some more matches (as the 2nd stage groups finished early), I again put group winners together & the same for 2nd & 3rd placed players. In group 1 Freddy managed to beat Mark with Mark starting from -4 points in each game. In group 2 Colin won comfortably over George & in group 3 Ben had a good win over Luke in 4 sets.
Poole Position:
Morning Band B:
There were 16 players in Band B in the morning, which was perfect, as we could have 4 groups of 4. All 4 initial Band B groups were won by players from Holbrook School, which dominated the recent Horsham Primary Schools Competition. David Poole won group 1, with all matches being decided 3-0. James Christer repeated this feat in group 2. Group 3 winner was Daniel Weekes & Callum Steer had a very close encounter vs Jack Holmwood, winning 11-9 in the 5th to top group 4. Other interesting results were Richard Hewitt winning 11-9 in the 5th vs Kyle Pike & bother Mark Hewitt winning by the same scoreline vs Emily Gibbons.
The matches in the top group all went according to seeding & were all in straight sets, with David Poole 1st & James Christer 2nd. The extra practice David gets at HTTC has enabled him to leap frog players like James, Daniel & Callum who usually only play once per week. So David was the clear winner of the Morning Band B & remarkably did not drop a single game en route to the title. In group 2, Alex Weston had a great win over Jack Holmwood, coming from 2-0 down to win 11-3 in the 5th to win the group, so Alex's only loss on the day was to Band B winner Davie Poole. In group 3 Kyle Pike was desperately unlucky to finish in 3rd place, as he lost to 1st placed Sam Barnett 8 in the 5th & to 2nd placed Mark Hewitt 14 in the 5th. Group 4 consisted of only 3 players, as Cameron Parfitt had to pull out due to aches. Therefore to give them more matches, when the 3 players had played each other, I got them to play each other again, but this time gave head starts to the players who had lost to make for closer matches. Emily won all 4 of her matches 3-0 despite having to give away head starts to her opponents on playing them a 2nd time.
Brilliant Brook:
Afternoon Event:
With only 9 players taking part in the afternoon (probably due to it being mother's day), there were not enough players to split into 2 bands, so I decided that they should all play each other, with parents umpiring some of the matches, to enable to kids to get through the matches quicker. There were a few count-back situations in this group. Firstly for 6th, 7th & 8th place there was a count back, as Owen Goldsmith, James Bryer & Simon Courquin had all won 2 matches each. They finished in that order. There was also a count-back for 4th & 5th place, as Jamie Sherwood & Kyle Pike had both won 4 matches each. As Jamie had beaten Kyle 4th place went to him. As for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place, there was another tie. 8 year-old Anish Padalkar had a very impressive win over former double Band A winner (at the 3rd Horsham circuit), Freddy Goodall. Anish came from 2-0 down to win 11-6 in the 5th. Freddy could not compete with the barrage of forehand topspins coming from the talented youngster. Freddy beat Tom Brook 3-1 & Tom beat Anish 3-0. Therefore on count back, Tom emerged the Band A winner & Freddy was the runner-up. Anish got a very respectable 3rd place. Band B was awarded to Kyle & Owen was the Band B runner-up.
Final Placings:
Players are from Horsham TTC unless otherwise stated.
Morning Band A:
1) Mark Weston
2) Colin Holmwood
3) Luke Baldwin
4) Freddy Goodall
5) George Hazell
6) Ben Hainsworth
7) Reece Gathern (Steyning)
8) JP Rushton
9) Alistair Smith (East Grinstead)
10) Chris Barnett (Steyning)
Morning Band B:
1) David Poole
2) James Christer
3) Daniel Weekes
4) Callum Steer
5) Alex Weston
6) Jack Holmwood
7) Richard Hewitt
8) Jonathan Grainger
9) Sam Barnett (Steyning)
10) Mark Hewitt
11) Kyle Pike (Steyning)
12) Jack Errett (Warnham)
13) Emily Gibbons
14) Kirsty Silvester
15) Sean Baldwin
16) Cameron Parfitt (Worthing)-pulled out after 1st group
Afternoon Event:
1) Tom Brook (Band A Winner)
2) Freddy Goodall (Band A Runner-Up)
3) Anish Padalkar
4) Jamie Sherwood (Billingshurst)
5) Kyle Pike (Band B Winner)
6) Owen Goldsmith (Band B Runner-Up)
7) James Bryer (Billingshurst)
8) Simon Courquin
9) Max Steel (Worthing)
Horsham Community Circuit - December 2010
Overall Band A: Jammy James
The Overall Band A event was won by Horsham & Sussex Cadet, James Arnold. However, he did not have it easy. He endured 5-set matches vs runner-up Michael Bridger (Warden Park TTC) & Horsham team mate, Freddy Goodall. He scraped over the finishing line vs Michael 11-9 in the 5th & he trailed 1-2 down in games to Freddy, before coming back to win. The match between Freddy & Michael also went to 5 sets with Michael winning with a last gasp 12-10 in the 5th scoreline. However despite Freddy's heroics vs the top 2 players he failed to beat either Marcus Bracey (Lancing) or Sam Dallas (Horsham). Sam did well to beat Marcus in the last match 13-11, 7-11, 12-10, 9-11, 14-12-couldn't have been much closer!
U14s Band A: Super Sam
U14s Band A was won by the aforementioned Sam Dallas, who defeated all of his opponents as well as playing in the top group! Robert Hearn (Horsham) excelled to finish 2nd in the group despite not having played since early September. Sisters Annabel & Kate Bridger of Warden Park TTC did well to both finish above Horsham's Chris Purdy. These 3 were involved in a count back, as they all won 1 match each. Annabel won the count back with Kate in 2nd.
U14s Band B: Top Tom
Tom Brook (Horsham) won the U14s Band B event, winning all of his matches 3-0. Kyo Kaneko (Horsham) came closest to nicking a set only losing 11-9, 13-11, 11-9. However Kyo was defeated by Shaquille Sadler (Upper Beeding), who took 2nd place. Billingshurst TTC players Jamie Sherwood & Samuel Keeble finished 4th & 5th respectively. The match between them was a close won with Jamie shading it 11-8 in the 5th.
U14s Band C: Excellent Ed
Ed Higgs of East Grinstead, who has had almost no formal coaching & only plays for fun at school emerged as the clear winner in U14s Band C. No doubt East Grinstead coach Martin Jezisek would like to get Ed down to his coaching sessions! Ed only dropped 1 set on the way to the title & that was to Horsham's Emily Gibbons, who finished in 2nd place. Emily won her remaining games 3-0. Last month's morning Band B winner, Stuart Cutler came in 3rd, ahead of Billingshurst TTC players, Daniel Cannons & James Bryer.
U11s Band A: Cool Chris
Band A of the U11s consisted of 4 Horsham players all from Holbrook School plus Upper Beeding player, Chris Barnett. Chris won all of his matches but was pushed to the 5th set by runner-up, JP Rushton, who shares his first names with former World Champion, Jean-Philippe Gatien of France. JP in turn was extended to 5 ends by David Poole & won 11-6 in the 5th. The remaining places were filled by Daniel Weekes (4th) & James Christer (5th).
U11s Band B: Amazing Anish
Horsham 7-year-old, Anish Padalkar cleaned up in the U11s Band B. He dropped just the 1 end in total & that was to Nathan Wadey (Horsham), who finished in 4th place. He won 11-5, 11-8, 11-1 vs runner-up Callum Steer (Horsham). 3rd place went to Josh Lang (Horsham). There was a real battle for 4th place between Callum & Harvey Hayden (Horsham). Harvey took first blood, winning the first 2 sets, but then Callum turned the tables winning the 3rd, 4th & 5th. The 5th set was 11-9 to Callum.
U11s Band C: Keen Kieran
Keiran Bonner in his first ever tournament managed to win 1st place in the U11s Band C. His consistent style of play keeping the ball on the table won out in the end. He had close games against all of the other competitors. There was a count back for 2nd & 3rd place & also for 4th & 5th place. Both Rebecca Spreadbury (Warnham) & Joey Kent (Horsham) won 2 matches each, so 2nd place went to Rebecca, as she had beaten Joey. Similarly, Jack Errett & Victoria Kent (both of Warnham) won 1 match each. Victoria clinched 4th place by virtue of her win over Jack.
It's great to see so many Horsham players playing in these events, but it would also be nice to see some players travelling from Brighton/Chichester/East Grinstead/etc. Haywards Heath has also been well represented. I am planning further Horsham Circuit events in Forest School this season. Forms will be emailed out & handed out as usual. See below for dates:
1) 26th Feb OR 12th March
2) 9th April
3) 7th May
Final Placings:
Overall Band A:
1) James Arnold
2) Michael Bridger
3) Sam Dallas
4) Marcus Bracey
U14s Band A:
1) Sam Dallas
2) Robert Hearn
3) Annabel Bridger
4) Kate Bridger
5) Chris Purdy
U14s Band B:
1) Tom Brook
2) Shaquille Sadler
3) Kyo Kaneko
4) Jamie Sherwood
5) Samuel Keeble
U14s Band C:
1) Ed Higgs
2) Emily Gibbons
3) Stuart Cutler
4) James Bryer
5) Daniel Cannons
U11s Band A:
1) Chris Barnett
2) JP Rushton
3) David Poole
4) Daniel Weekes
5) James Christer
U11s Band B:
1) Anish Padalkar
2) Callum Steer
3) Josh Lang
4) Nathan Wadey
5) Harvey Hayden
U11s Band C:
1) Kieran Bonner
2) Rebecca Spreadbury
3) Joey Kent
4) Victoria Kent
5) Jack Errett
Horsham Community Circuit - November 2010
Taylor Tops Table
The first Circuit event of season 2010-11 was held in Forest School, Horsham on Saturday 27th November. It attracted 17 entrants for the morning event & 21 for the afternoon, despite there being 2 no-shows in the afternoon. For both AM & PM the players were split into 2 ability-based groups (Bands A & B). In the morning band A, which consisted of one large group of 9 players all playing each other, 12-year-old Ben Taylor of Bognor Regis emerged unscathed, winning all 8 of his matches. He only dropped 2 ends all morning. In second place was 9-year-old Kate Cheer of Crawley (a member of Horsham TTC), who is now ranked no. 1 in England in U11 Girls. A Sussex U15s 3rd team call up may not be that far away? She lost 3-1 to Ben. In 3rd place was Alex Bryant of Warden Park Table Tennis Club based in Cuckfield. A very good showing for the 11-year-old, who has only been playing for 18 months.
Stupendous Stuart
In the Morning Band B, there was again a clear winner from a large group of 8 players all playing each other. This time it was 14 year-old Stuart Cutler of Horsham TTC, (who attends the Tuesday coaching sessions in Greenway with Martin Jezisek), who took pole position. It all came down to the very last match, which was between Stuart & another Horsham lad, 10-year-old James John, who attends the Monday Intermediate coaching sessions. Both players had won all 6 of their matches at that point in time, so it was all down to the final encounter & what a match it was! It ebbed & flowed with James taking first blood 11-5. Stuart was having none of it & stormed back to take the 2nd set 11-3 & then the 3rd 11-9. James hung in there to force the game into the 5th set with an 11-9 win. The decider was taken by Stu, who eased through 11-6. James Bryer from Billingshurst finished in a respectable 3rd position & managed to take 2 sets off Stuart.
Matthew Makes his Mark
In the afternoon band A there was a group of 6 & a group of 5. The aforementioned Ben Taylor won group 1, but not without a struggle. He was pushed all the way by Horsham 10-year-old, left-hander Ben Hainsworth, but lying 2-1 down in games he upped his game to come though to win the 4th & 5th sets. However Hainsworth also lost a 5 set match to Upper Beeding ace, 9 year-old Chris Barnett, which meant Chris came 2nd in the group & Ben H 3rd. In group 2 the winner was 16-year-old Matthew Payne of Lancing TTC. He only dropped 1 end vs group runner-up, 11 year-old, Chris Purdy (Horsham). Players to impress were George Hazell & Sean Worley (both from Horsham), who lost 11-9 in the 5th and 11-8 in the 5th respectively vs the higher rated Purdy. George beat Sean to finish 3rd in the group.
After the group stages, play-off matches were staged between 1st in one group vs 2nd in the other & vice versa. The same was done with 3rds Vs 4ths & 5ths Vs 6ths. Then the winners of the 1 V 2 play offs played each other & the losing players from 1 V 2 also played off. The same principle was applied lower down the groups, giving all players 2 additional matches after the groups & a final finishing position or placing. In what you might call the semi-finals, Ben Taylor beat Chris Purdy & Matthew beat Chris Barnett. Matthew won the final 3 games to 1. 3rd place went to Chris Purdy, who defeated Chris Barnett.
Annabel And Anish Are Awesome
The afternoon Band B comprised 2 groups of 6. 13 year-old Annabel Bridger (Warden Park TTC) was triumphant in group 1, winning all 5 of her matches 3-0, although her match vs runner-up Anish Padalkar was a close one: 11-9, 11-8, 12-10. 7 years young Anish beat the remaining players 3-0. He may be one to watch if he puts enough time & effort into his table tennis. Having a brother of the calibre of former Sussex cadet no. 1 Tejas Padalkar, can't be a bad sign either. In group 2 there was a tie for 1st place, as Lauren Pound (Horsham) beat Kate Bridger (Annabel's sister) in a close 5-set match, but then suffered an upset, losing to Horsham player, Sam Chantrill in the 5th set. Lauren topped the group ahead of Kate on count-back, by virtue of her beating Kate. 3rd place went to Sam Keeble. Then the same play-off process as described above for afternoon band A took place. In the semi finals both players from Group 1 won in straight sets. This meant a rematch between Anish & Annabel in the final. This time it was a much better quality match with both players warmed up & hitting big forehands. It went to the deciding set & Annabel repeated the earlier victory to become the Afternoon Band B Champion. 3rd place went to Kate Bridger, who overturned her earlier loss to Lauren Pound, who finished up 4th.
Listed below are placings for the event for each player, followed by where they live & their club (except where name of club is also where the player lives):
Morning Band A:
1) Ben Taylor (Bognor Regis, North Mundham TTC)
2) Kate Cheer (Crawley, Horsham TTC)
3) Alex Bryant (Burgess Hill, Warden Park TTC)
4) Shaquille Sadler (Upper Beeding, Steyning TTC)
5) Sean Worley (Horsham TTC)
6) Maxim Taite-Ellis (Hurstpierpoint, Warden Park TTC)
7) Lauren Pound (Horsham TTC)
8) Jamie Sherwood (Plaistow, Billingshurst TTC)
9) Emily Gibbons (Horsham TTC)
Morning Band B:
1) Stuart Cutler (Horsham TTC)
2) James John (Horsham TTC)
3) James Bryer (Ifold, Billingshurst TTC)
4) Elliot Wakefield (Horsham TTC)
5) Zak Michaelwaite (Horsham TTC)
6) Finley Smithers-Green (Horsham TTC)
7) Sean Carter (Horsham TTC)
8) Max Wakefield (Horsham TTC)
Afternoon Band A:
1) Matthew Payne (Worthing, Lancing TTC)
2) Ben Taylor (Bognor Regis, North Mundham TTC)
3) Chris Purdy (Horsham TTC)
4) Chris Barnett (Upper Beeding, Steyning TTC)
5) Ben Hainsworth (Horsham TTC)
6) George Hazell (Horsham TTC)
7) Sean Worley (Horsham TTC)
8) Shaquille Sadler (Upper Beeding, Steyning TTC)
9) Aaron Carter (Horsham TTC)
10) Maxim Taite Ellis (Hurstpierpoint, Warden Park TTC)
11) Peter Booth (Lindfield, Warden Park TTC)
Afternoon Band B:
1) Annabel Bridger (Bolney, Warden Park TTC)
2) Anish Padalkar (Horsham TTC)
3) Kate Bridger (Bolney, Warden Park TTC)
4) Lauren Pound (Horsham TTC)
5) Sam Keeble (Billingshurst TTC)
6) Emily Gibbons (Horsham TTC)
7) Nathan Wadey (Horsham TTC)
8) Stuart Cutler (Horsham TTC)
9) Sam Chantrill (Horsham TTC)
10) Matthew Dunningham (Horsham TTC)
11) Louis Sessions (Ashington, Horsham TTC)
12) David Marsh (Horsham TTC)
Report & Results by Rory Scott (Referee & Organiser)
