Double Trouble at Worthing 2 star
On a day where table tennis players were spoilt for choice with the WTT Star Contender London, The London Academy Junior 4 star and the Worthing 2 star all to choose from the Worthing 2 star still kicked off with a full billing for players along the south coast.
First up were the U11s with the youngest players starting the day and Group 1 straight away with the first shock of the day as unranked Chris Charley (Sy) beat top seed Raphael Church (K). Second seed Yuxuan Wu (Wo) made light work of his group winning without dropping a set to take his place in the knockout. The semi final saw Chris beat Harvey Keelyside (Sx) with a 3-0 scoreline but wasn’t as simple as it sounds with two deuce sets, the other semi saw the top two seeds do battle, Raphael and Wu, in a very impressive match which ended 13-11 in the 4th to Raphael. This set up a repeat of the group stage with Chris vs Raphael, This time saw Raphael come out on top winning 3-1 and taking home the title.
The plate event saw another cracking final with Oscar Liu overcoming Harry Whitmore three games to one.
Naivedya Agarwal (Mi) took full advantage of the draw to reach the final having overcome Worthing’s Vincent Ridley in the Semi finals. His opponent in the final was second seeded Ollie Hensell (Ha) who had beaten 4th seed Elliot Brackbury (E) in his semi final. The final saw Ollie came out as the winner in three straight games
The plate event was an all Kent affair with Aayush Patil beating Harry Speller 3-0 .
The Under 13’s decided to ignore the seedings and plan their own route through the draw. 2nd seed Kayden Gallagher (Sy) was on the wrong end of 5 setter with Raphael Church putting him into the top half of the draw. While 3rd seeded Freddie Unwin was unlucky to find himself in the plate event. The semis saw 1st seed William Grant (Mi) face off against second seed Kayden Gallagher with Grant taking the spoils. The bottom half saw a real Hollywood match with Raphael Church just missing out on a second final to Aayush Patil 12-10 in the 5th. The final saw Will Grant justify his top seed position with a win, but needing all 5 sets to claim the title.
The plate event was won by Ellenbrough’s Elias Amin (Mi), beating double finalist Chris Charley. With Worthings Max Lee (Sx) and Ebatts Freddie Unwin (K) in bronze positions.
Freddie Unwin did win the hearts and minds of the organisers and a special prize to boot with a moment of pure sportsmanship. When in a tight game a shot looped up and bounced and started to come back over the net when Freddie lunged to try and hit it, once the ball had bounced no one was really sure what had happened, Had Freddie hit it or not? Without a moment’s hesitation Freddie said he hadn’t hit it and it was his opponent’s point. 10 out of 10.
Last but not least to the table were the juniors with somewhat of an international feel as Jersey juniors Theo De Porck and Callum Allaway contested a fantastic final. Theo reached the final by defeating Worthing’s James Fryer (Sx) in the quarters and William Eversham (E), who had beaten second seeded James Roberts (Do), in the semi final. Callum defeated Kostiantyn Motovillin (Sy) in his quarter final before beating Cadet champion Ollie Hensell (Ha) in the semis. The final saw Theo take his second Worthing Junior title in a row, having also won back in August, coincidentally also beating a Jersey team mate that time too. This time he saw off Callum in a close 5 set match.
The junior plate saw Naivedya Agarwal reach his second final and this time coming away with the Gold beating Harrison Padley (Sx) in the final who had beaten Worthing Matthew Dyche (Sx) in the semi, while Luke Higginson (Sy) was the other losing semi finalistist.
Off the table the day saw the clubs focus on umpire recruitment come into play with 5 umpires in action, James Pettigrew an experienced umpire having been umpiring up and down the country for many years was joined by newer L1 umpires Marc Ghosh, Holly Holder and Juan Da Silva along with trainee umpire Mark Howell, meaning almost all knockout round matches were supervised by umpires. A big thanks to all of the volunteers on the day.
The full results can be found on the results booklet here
Up next on the Worthing TTC calendar is the Christmas Training Camp on December 27th and a 1* Banded Tournament on 28th of December hosted at sister club Hollingbury Table Tennis Club in Brighton. Both events can be entered online at www.worthingttc.com/events
Or to enter the December 28th 1* via the Table Tennis England website you can find the form here.r 28th 1* via the Table Tennis England website you can find the form here.
