News Archive - Oct - Dec 2011

Forest Firepower Pays Off

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)

 

Lots of HTTC Success at K2 Circuit

The Sussex Junior Table Tennis Circuit kicked off again after an absence of 18 months with an event at K2, Crawley last Saturday with a new generation of intermediate/beginners which was attended by 38 players. A number that came from Horsham TTC performed well.

The players were split into three ability bands in morning and afternoon events with the objective of the players playing as many matches as possible against similar standard opposition.

The morning event had an entry of 16 players in Band C. William Goodstone from Eastbourne came out clear victor winning all his matches in straight sets for gold and Tom Brook from Horsham came in second place with just the one loss against William.

The A and B standard players had a relatively low entry in the morning so it was decided that the bands would be merged together with 5 players playing each other twice so every player played 8 matches. This brought out some surprising results with Holly Holder (Horsham), Kate Cheer and Bart Rayson all beating A band standard player Matt Van Yperen (Horsham) in their first group of matches.

Holly Holder also had a really good straight sets victory over England U-11 international Kate Cheer. Bart Rayson had a narrow five sets victory over Holly Holder. Kate Cheer then beat Bart Rayson to leave Holly, Kate and Bart all on two victories each after the first round of matches. Clear leader was Horsham Table Tennis Club’s Mark Collins who was undefeated.

Then came the second round of matches where Matt made up for his disappointing first round and beat Kate , Holly and Bart. Kate took revenge for her earlier defeat by Holly to beat her 11-9 in the fifth and Bart continued his good performances with victories over Kate and Holly. Mark Collins remained undefeated to take gold in the A band. Bart Rayson took A band silver with four victories and Matt came out victor over Kate on points count back with both on three victories each.

Morning finishing positions:

Band	Position	Name
A	1	Mark Collins
A	2	Bart Rayson
B	1	Matt Van Yperen
B	2	Kate Cheer
B	3	Holly Holder
C	1	William Goodstone
C	2	Tom Brook
C	3	David Poole
C	4	Jamie Huff
C	5	Peter Lambert
C	6	Emily Gibbons
C	7	Matthew Davies
C	8	Rhys Harmer
C	9	Katie Hood
C	10	Lauren Pound
C	11	German Ocampo
C	12	Zac Riley
C	13	Max Steel
C	14	Hugo Hawes
C	15	William Goodwin
C	16	Gabriel Jones

The afternoon session had a considerably stronger A band with the addition of England schools international Josh Bennett, Michael Bridger and three improving players from Brighton; David Pringuer, George Tester and Paul Burgin. Victory went to Mark Collins after a superb five set victory over Josh Bennett which meant that he was undefeated on the day with 14 victories.

There were five band B players and they all played each other twice to give them eight matches each and again Bart Rayson demonstrated his quality coming out overall winner with six victories. Also with six victories but losing on count back was James Arnold, another Horsham lad, who has recently taken the decision to change his bat to conventional reverse rubbers.

The C band had nine players competing and the gold medal went to Sam Wray who won all his matches and second went to Alex Bryant who had just the one loss in a close fought match against Sam.

Afternoon finishing positions:

Band	Position	Name
A	1	Mark Collins
A	2	Josh Bennett
A	3	Michael Bridger
A	4	David Pringuer
A	5	Matt Van Yperen
A	6	George Tester
A	7	Paul Bergin
B	1	Bart Rayson
B	2	James Arnold
B	3	Emma Sheen
B	4	Sam Dallas
B	5	Christopher Purdy
C	1	Sam Wray
C	2	Alex Bryant
C	3	Peter Lambert
C	4	Lauren pound
C	5	Luke Stewart
C	6	Jean-Philippe Rushton
C	7	Nathan Wadey
C	8	Roddy Mc Gillvray
C	9	Joelle Bennett

The next circuit tournament will be on the 7^th January 2012 at K2 , Crawley and will run in parallel with an ETTA credited 1 star competition which will be suitable for A and B standard players.

Article by Steve Pound

 

Youngsters Excel

Horsham’s young players performed with distinction in Senior British League (SBL) at the first weekend of this season recently.

The first team playing in Division 2 in Ashford, consisted of three juniors and Rory Scott. Scott played poorly only winning two and losing to five players ranked below him but the youngsters had a good weekend. Danny Lawrence in his first SBL outing won five from eight and Daniel Barna and Alex Forshaw also did well with 4/8 and 6/8 respectively.

Lawrence had an impressive win over England no. 115, Billy Pegg (Woodfield) and another over Mossford no. 1, Kamil Hajdrych. Barna beat Fusion no. 1 Adam Gigli and Forshaw’s best win was over the experienced Mike Short of Woolwell.

Overall the team had mixed fortunes though, being on the wrong side of two 5-3 results on the Saturday, losing to both Fusion and Woolwell. Things picked up on the Sunday with a good 6-2 win over Woolwell and a 5-3 win over Mossford. The team is in 4th place, but still needs to play the top two sides.

The second team played in Division 4 at Horsham’s own Greenway venue. Unlike the first team which only used the minimum of four players over the weekend, the second team fielded seven different players. On the Saturday the team was Mayur Majithia (3/4 wins), Alex Morrison (0/4), Erik Van-Mol (2/4) and Mark Collins (2/4).

Mayur is a top player at this level, but he found himself understandably outclassed by England no. 26, Garth Kinlocke (Bristol Civil Service), but having had a very good win over Garth’s team-mate, England no. 108, Daniel Kolesnik.

Alex was unfortunate not to take a win over Graham Outrim (Ashford Brunswick), losing in the fifth. Junior Erik Van-Mol had a successful SBL debut, winning against Garth’s dad Mark and Jack Tubby (Ashford Brunswick). Mark Collins also beat Jack, but lost out in five to Mark Kinlocke.

On the Sunday Collins came alive. He won all four of his matches, including a top quality win over Anthony Kent (Bristol Table Tennis Academy), who is ranked 1500 points above him in the rankings. Kent beat Horsham blocker, Graham Carter 3-0. He also won a marathon against Bristol’s Thomas Jeffcott 8-11, 1-11, 11-9, 16-14, 11-9. Unsurprisingly he was awarded player of the match twice that day. Supporting Mark on the Sunday were team mates Amila Thilakarathna (2/4), Graham Carter (1/4) and Daniel Pound (1/4).

Amila is another player well equipped to excel at this level, but he had the misfortune of coming against a quality side in Bristol Table Tennis Academy. He lost 3-1 to England no.18 Jekwon Choi and also to Christoph Zickert, both of whom went unbeaten over the course of the weekend.

Daniel Pound had a good win over Jonathan Pearson (Waterside) and Carter beat Robin Honey. The team lost 6-2 to both of the Bristol sides, which occupy the two top spots in the league table. They drew with Ashford Brunswick III and beat Waterside 6-2. They are fifth in the league table.

 

Tough Time at Tipton

Horsham TTC teams competed in the first meeting of Junior British League (JBL) last weekend at the Tipton Sports Academy.

Our Division 3 team consisted of Tom Windram, Daniel Pound and Adam Corell. They lost their first two matches 4-2 with Pound and Corell contributing a win each in both. The third match was won 5-1 courtesy of two walkovers due to the other team being a player short and Windram winning two and Pound the other.

On the Sunday they lost their first match 4-2 with a win each for Windram and Corell and in their second match they lost 5-1 with Windram securing their only score. The team sits second from bottom and with two teams to be relegated obviously they will need to do better next time.

The Division 4 team (Ryan Williams, Erik Van-Mol and Matt Van Yperen) fared better. Their first match was a tough one with Williams the only scorer in a 5-1 reverse. However they picked themselves up in the second match with a 4-2 win over the team which on paper had the highest ranking. Williams got both of his and the other players managed a win each. Van Yperen won his 12-10 in the fifth in what turned out to be the only five-setter any of the players on the team had all weekend. In their third match they faced a strong team in Ulster and again went down 5-1, Williams achieving a great win to get the sole point.

Day 2 brought contrasting fortunes with a 6-0 loss to Welsh team Ael Y Brn from Wales and a 6-0 win over Ernest Bevin College 2. Despite the two team wins the team also lies in fifth place in the table in an evenly matched division. They will be fighting for their JBL future in the next outing.

Averages for the JBL players (listed in ranking order):

Tom Windram: 4/10=40%

Dan Pound: 3/9=33.3%

Adam Corell: 3/9=33.3%

Ryan Williams: 6/10=60%

Erik Van-Mol: 3/10=30%

Matt Van Yperen: 3/10=30%

 

Dallas Dazzles

NCL ran at Cippenham Table Tennis Centre and Horsham TTC had a team in each of the four divisions.

The first team had the toughest time of all the Horsham teams losing their matches 3-6, 0-9 and 4-5. James Arnold and Holly Holder both won three matches. Newcomer Vatsal Raina, playing in his first ever competition, struggled but managed to get a win in the third round. All players will need to become more aggressive and consistent in attack next time round.

The Division 2 team fared better and picked up a 5-4 win against a strong team in the first round. Sam Dallas scored an impressive three and new player Vyas Raina got two. Chris Purdy was unlucky to miss out 11-8 in the fifth in one of his matches. In the next match they faced strong opposition and Dallas and Raina picked up a win each as the team lost out 7-2. The third round again produced a 5-4 win with Dallas winning another maximum and Vyas a brace. Purdy lost another five-setter. Dallas in particular was on top form with some powerful attacking shots, but Raina and Purdy also demonstrated improvement.

The third team (George Hazell, Sean Worley and Kyo Kaneko) got off to a flying start with a fine 7-2 win in the opening round. Both Hazell and Worley were undefeated and Kaneko picked up one. Things got better in the next match with a great 8-1 victory, only Kaneko missing out on a maximum. In their third match they faced more awkward players and they lost 5-4 with Hazell suffering his only defeat of the day over five ends. Kaneko’s win was a close final setter in which he held his nerve well. This was an extremely impressive debut for Worley, with a fine 7 wins out of 9. Hazel also shone and will be aiming for promotion to the second team for the next NCL meeting. Kaneko was also playing for the first time, so can be proud of his performance.

The fourth team, full of debutants, had arguably the best results of the day with 11 year olds Ben Worley and David Poole, performing well above expectations to win seven out of nine. Chris Brent was a little disappointed not to match them, scoring five wins, but lost two of these deep in the fifth end. The first match was a close 5-4 loss with Worley winning a double & the others getting singles and then came the only 9-0 win for any of the Horsham teams. The last match of the day ended 6-3 to the Horsham outfit with a maximum for Poole, a pair for Worley one for Chris.

The third and fourth teams are both in contention for promotion and will need good performances on Day 2 to achieve this. The second team is fairly safe from relegation, but the first team will need to pull out the stops to avoid the drop. A number of the club's new players will get on to the national ranking list for the first time as a result of their exploits.

Averages for the NCL players (listed in ranking order; some of the rankings may change for Day 2 based on these results):

Div 1:

James Arnold: 3/9=33.3%

Holly Holder: 3/9=33.3%

Vatsal Raina: 1/9=11.1%

Div 2:

Vyas Raina: 5/9=55.6%

Sam Dallas: 7/9=77.8%

Chris Purdy: 0/9=0%

Div 3:

George Hazell: 8/9=88.9%

Kyo Kaneko: 4/9=44.4%

Sean Worley: 7/9=77.8%

Div 4:

Chris Brent: 5/9=55.6%

David Poole: 7/9=77.7%

Ben Worley: 7/9=77.7%

Tables

Averages

 

Tyler Takes It

Tyler Paul won a superbly contested table tennis competition at the Sussex Reaching Higher Games run for young people with disabilities today at Christ's Hospital School near Horsham. The Games were organised as a collaboration between Horsham District Council and Christ's Hospital School and Horsham Table Tennis Club supported the table tennis event.

A total of nine competitors entered the event and right from the off, as they contested two first round groups, the standard of play was high and there were some great matches.

England team wheelchair player, Tyler Paul, justified his favourite tag by topping his initial group but he did not have it all his own way. Paul Nash from Burgess Hill also qualified for the final top group in style.

Paul and Nash were joined by Horsham Table Tennis Club representatives Cameron Parfitt and Stuart Cutler in the final group shoot out which provided some fantastic encounters. Cutler gave a great account of himself but was just nudged out into third leaving Paul and Nash to contest the key match.

Nash showed that he's made great improvement in the last 18 months to push Paul all the way but Paul's experience just managed to see him through to allow him to add another gold medal to his growing collection of silverware. Well done also to Andrew Prizeman who topped the consolation group.

Event organiser and Horsham TTC Head Coach, Martin Jezisek, was delighted with the success of the competition. 'We only gave out two medals today but in truth every player deserved one. All the players rose to the competitive challenge. Some of these players could go on to great things if they train hard and believe in themselves."

Thanks go to Christ's Hospital students who umpired all the matches in disciplined style.

 

Horsham Happy With 4-Star Progress

Horsham Table Tennis Club star Dan Pound reached the last 16 at the Sussex 4 Star Open at The Triangle, Burgess Hill.

He beat Lancashire's No.14 seed Robert Barker who is ranked 27 places above Pound on the England Under-15s list at No.41 and two other opponents from Essex and Middlesex to win his group before defeating another group winner, Aaron Baksh from Kent 11-5/11-9/11-8.

Sussex county player Pound eventually fell competing for a place in the quarter-finals to No.2 seed and semi-finallist Tyrone Wells of Middlesex who is ranked 8 in England, narrowly losing 11-8/6-11/11-7/11-6.

In a successful weekend, Pound also reached the last 32 of the Under-15s Band 1 Singles having notched up three victories.

Holly Holder was top seed in the Under-15s Band 1 event and after finishing runner-up in her group, progressed to the quarter-final where she lost to Middlesex's Hiba Feredj.

Dan Barna, who also plays for Horsham in the Crawley & Horsham League, reached the last 16 of the Under-18s Boys Band 1 Singles and the last 32 of the main Under-18s event.

His Horsham A team-mate Alex Forshaw was seeded No.11 also got through to the last 16 of the U18s Band 1 Singles, eventually losing 3-1 to No.2 seed Dom Sussex (Devon) who went on to win the final.

Forshaw beat club-mate Dan Pound 3-1 in the main U18s competition before bowing out at the hands of finallist and England No.1 Helshan Weerasinghe 3-1 in the last 32.

Report by Graham Carter