West Sussex Schools Team Events

West Sussex Schools Give a Good Account at Morpeth

Jan 2012

The West Sussex Schools Table Tennis Association sent four teams to the Zone Finals at Morpeth School today and despite only one team progressing to the Regional Stage from it all teams gave a good account of themselves.

Millais School lost their only match but progress as runners-up to the regional round at Cheltenham by virtue of only two counties being represented at zone level.

In the U13 boys Tanbridge School progressed from their group of three as runners-up but then lost at the semi-final stage.

Sackville School, East Grinstead fared similarly, winning through to the semis but losing at that point.

Greenway, Horsham U11 girls will be pleased to have won a match on their way to coming third in a group of four teams and they will take plenty of hope away for next season given that three of their players are only year 5's with a year left to gain more experience for next year's U11 competition.

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Tanbridge and Sackville Progress

7/12/11

Tanbridge House School (Horsham) U13's boys team and Sackville School (East Grinstead) U16's boys will represent West Sussex in the zone stages of the English Schools Team Championships after winning their play-off matches.

Tanbridge's U13 outfit had won through the Crawley/Horsham round and sacrificed home advantage against Sackville opponents who had triumphed in the Mid Sussex local stage. However right from the off it was clear that Sam Dallas, George Hazel, Chris Purdy and Luke Baldwin had too much power and they romped home to an 8-0 win. The only real resistance came from Joe De Souza and Jamie Huff who took Chris Purdy and Luke Baldwin respectively to five sets.

In the U16's category the polarity of the Horsham and East Grinstead balance of power was reversed as Sackville set about Forest School with no mercy. only Forest Matt Van Yperen ever looked like stemming the tide as he won his team's only point in the 7-1 scoreline with a five set win over Max Hill. He also stretched Sackville number one Harry Collins but lost 11-5 in the fifth set. Paul Wrintmore and Brett Dawson were Sackville's other unbeaten players.

Warden Park (Haywards Heath) and Millais (Horsham) U16 girls teams are expected to do battle next week to win the honour of going forward to their zone finals.

Forest Firepower Pays Off

Nov 2011

A powerful Forest School team dominated tonight's Crawley and Horsham Schools U16 team championships held at Holy Trinity School, Crawley. They won the overall team award by a comfortable margin and their best four players will represent the area at the West Sussex finals at which they'll be favourites to progress to the zone stages of the English Schools TT structure.

The 39 players that attended the local event were split into four ability bands to score points for their team according to the placing they achieved.

In Band A Tanbridge's Dan Pound was individually triumphant winning all his matches but opponents Josh Biggs, James Arnold and Holly Holder will all be pleased to have taken a set of the eventual winner. In the end Biggs, Arnold and Holder all tied on two wins each so it took countback rules to adjudicate that Biggs took bronze courtesy of his victory over Arnold and Holder's weaker sets for and against record saw her have to settle for fifth place overall.

Matt van Yperen (Forest) came second and will have been disappointed not to have pushed Pound harder in the crucial match. He may take some consolation from the fact that both he and Pound will be back for their final time in next year's event so he has 12 months to plot his revenge.

Forest's domination of Band B was striking. At the end of the event their six players at that level occupied the six highest placings out of a field of 11. At the top of their pile two Chinese brothers - Xiu Qi Yuan and Xiu Cheng Yuan - battled it out for the winners spot and it was Cheng who won the family bragging rights despite losing the first set against his brother when they met. Chris Brent took third and managed to pose the Yuan brothers a few problems.

Band C provided another opportunity for Forest players to impress with Felix Dibsdall and Jacob Dean topping that chart. Dibsdall just shaded the battle with his teammate for individual glory with a 15-13 fifth set win. Holy Trinity's Jamie Brazier took third and Lukaz Falski was St Wilfrid's' highest placed performer in fourth.

Owen Wales from Holy Trinity exploited home advantage to the full to win Band D, beating teammate Slate Gray 15-13 in the final set of the band final. St Wilfrid's player Dominic Kerr won the third place play-off in a close match against David Cotton, another Holy Trinity player.

Well done to the girls who formed a spirited gender minority in all the bands. Whilst the experienced Holly Holder held the female torch with distinction in the top band Holy Trinity's Lucy Halliday gave a good account of herself in a strong Band B despite ending up in last position and Millais' girls in the lower bands all gained good experience that will place them in good stead next time they compete at a tournament. Millais' top four players win the right to represent the area at the next levels up of the English Schools TT process.

PLACINGS:

OVERALL TEAM STANDINGS

1^st Forest 354pts

2^nd Holy Trinity* 431 x 10/15 = 287pts

3^rd St Wilfrid’s 147pts

4^th Tanbridge 132pts

5^th Millais 106pts

*Holy Trinity’s total reduced proportionately as they had extra players over the maximum of 10

ESTTA REPRESENTATION

ESTTA is the English Schools Table Tennis Association – the organisation which organises the Zone, Regional and National finals events which teams from local qualification events feed into

Scores compiled as best aggregate of each school’s top 4 players’ scores (minimum 4 players to qualify)

BOYS

1^st Forest 174pts

2^nd Holy Trinity 162pts

3^rd St Wilfrid’s 102pts

GIRLS

1^st Millais 95pts

INDIVIDUALS

Band A 1^st Dan Pound (Tan) 2^nd Matt van Yperen (For) 3^rd Josh Biggs (HT)

Band B 1^st Xiu Cheng Yuan (For) 2^nd Xiu Qi Yuan (For) 3^rd Chris Brent (For)

Band C 1^st Felix Dibsdall (For 2^nd Jacob Dean (For) 3^rd Jamie Brazier (HT)

Band D 1^st Owen Wales (HT) 2^nd Slate Gray (HT) 3^rd Dominic Kerr (StW)

Tantastic Four

Tanbridge House School's U13 boys team impressed to win the right to represent the Crawley/Horsham secondary school community in the West Sussex play-offs which will decide who represents West Sussex in the English Schools table tennis team championships. Forest School, traditionally the area's school TT powerhouse, also figured strongly by winning the overall U13 trophy by virtue of their strength in depth.

Tanbridge's dominance from the representative standpoint was illustrated by the fact that their top four players ended up occupying the top four spots in Band A at the business end of the competition. Sam Dallas was the main man in the quartet seeing off teammates Luke Baldwin in four sets in the semi and George Hazell by a similar margin in a good final. Chris Purdy provided evidence of the improvement his determination has brought him by taking third spot.

Five Forest School players figured next in the Band A standings headed up by the promising David Poole and beneath another Tanbridge player two Holy Trinity lads brought up the rear to give a highly stratified look to the placings list.

Band B was an interesting contest in which the only two girls in the event performed with distinction. Lauren Pound's strong drive play on both wings made her the dominant force although Forest's Tom Farr gave her a good game in the group stage and teammate Caroline Wirth took her to a deciding set in their semi-final. Wirth got over her disappointment by winning her third place play-off against Forest left-hander Harvey Hayden whilst Pound confidently beat another Forest leftie, Sam Chantrill, in straight sets in the final.

Forest's team will take some consolation in their overall team win which compared the total score of each team's players (up to a maximum of 10 players; if more players the score adjusted proportionately). Their 242 point score beat Tanbridge's by a margin of 24 and showed the value of maximising player take, Forest bring a total of nine players compared to Tanbridge's seven.

Holy Trinity youngsters again occupied the lower end places in Band B but well done to them all for applying themselves in good spirit despite having less experience in the game than their other school opponents.

CRAWLEY AND HORSHAM SCHOOLS U13 TEAM TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011 - RESULTS

HONOURS BOARD

OVERALL TEAM STANDINGS

1^st Forest 242 pts

2^nd Tanbridge 218 pts

5^th Holy Trinity 188 x 10/11 = 171 pts

ESTTA REPRESENTATION

ESTTA is the English Schools Table Tennis Association – the organisation which organises the Zone, Regional and National finals events which teams from local qualification events feed into

Scores compiled as best aggregate of each school’s top 4 players’ scores (minimum 4 players to qualify)

BOYS

1^st Tanbridge 142 pts

2^nd Forest 126 pts

3^rd Holy Trinity 90 pts

GIRLS

No school had the minimum 4 girls in order to qualify for representation in the ESTTA competition

INDIVIDUAL HONOURS

Band A 1^st Sam Dallas (Tan) 2^nd George Hazell (Tan) 3^rd Chris Purdy (Mill)

Band B 1^st Lauren Pound (Tan) 2^nd Sam Chantrill (For) 3^rd Caroline Wirth (Tan)