On the 4th May, juniors from five clubs competed in a marathon day of table tennis, contesting nine events at Bexhill Community Centre as the water outage in Hastings & St Leonards made the original venue ARK Alexandra unavailable.

The day began with seeded groups for the Youth Cup from four pots based on ability. The players that progressed per group ended up as expected. Then it was on to the quarter-final knockouts of the Main draw and Consolation.

In the Youth Cup, Bexhillians dominated, with the experienced Senior Division 1 players Oli Matthews and Leon Hyde rocketing to the final winning each match in three straight sets.

Along the way, however, brave performances were witnessed by Killian Mclnerney and George Beardsley, also from Bexhillians, in which notably George beat Hollington TTC’s Owen Graham 3-1 in an edgy quarter-final. Beau Larkin (Simply TT) also competed well against Leon Hyde in a close quarter-final second set 11-9 defeat.

John Quintos (Tackleway) faced Freddy Lawrence (St Michaels) in the only non-Bexhillians represented round, with John progressing to the semi-final 11-7, 13-11, 15-13. Unfortunately for John, Leon Hyde proved too strong as did Oli Matthews for George Beardsley in the other semi-final.

In the Consolation event, many members of the Simply TT Junior club competed against each other to try and gain a trophy. Brother and sister Dylan and Amalina Gorridge squared up first with Amalina’s experience too much running out a 3-0 winner. Vincent Ridley (St Michael’s) also had a fairly comfortable win against Jacob Watters (Simply TT) winning 11-6, 11-6, 11-7. Recent newcomer Liam Higgins (Simply TT) had a fantastic run after beating Amalina in the group and going onto win 3-0 against Rufus Pawson-Davies (Simply TT).

This set up two semi-finals in which Hadrian Pain (Simply TT), having sat out with a bye, struggled to match the pace of Amalina’s backhand drive and in the tie of the round Liam faced Vincent Ridley (St Michael’s). This match had many twists and turns, with Liam victorious 14-12 in the fifth set.

It was then onto the four age specific events via a round robin format as the finals would be played at the end of the day.

In the U11s despite a first match defeat to Leon Rose, Dylan Gorridge went onto to add the Hastings title to his recent Sussex U11s Winners medal. It could be assumed however had Leon not picked up an injury barely finishing his last match in five sets the outcome may have been different. This is also true of Liam Higgins who unknowingly in Game 3 looked to have Dylan beaten whilst 10-6 up and leading two sets to one! Dylan eventually clawed this set back 14-12 to claim the match 11-5 in the fifth set. After winning all his remaining games Liam finished runner up to Dylan on the head-to-head result. A great achievement for a player with less than 6 months play under his belt.

The U13s saw a two-club contest between Simply TT and St Michaels, in which Amalina’s prowess excelled to only drop two sets all group and show her ruthless qualities within the sport against her male opponents. The second place spot was decided between the St Michaels boys with a tremendous win for Vincent Ridley against his Junior league partner and Division 1 average leader Freddy Lawrence.

The U16s again was competed by two clubs, this time Bexhillians and Simply TT. A very evenly matched group saw wins for all players including Killian (Bexhill) beating Beau (Simply TT) in match one which must have ignited a fight or flight reaction after Beau went on to win his remaining two games alongside George Beardsley, only losing to the aforementioned Beau. James Harrison struggled for form but managed a win against Killian in Game 4. The deciding factor was the head-to-head between Beau and George, the only five set match with Beau taking the game 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 12-14, 11-8 to be crowned U16 champion.

The U19s seemed to have two battles going on within the group of four, with games 5 and 6 deciding the places. For the third spot a five setter between Senior Division 3 players John Quintos (Tackleway) and Owen Graham (Hollington) proved a must watch with the first sets playing out 14-12, 6-11, 11-8, 10-12. John Quintos in the final set had luck on his side as two nets in the final two points in sudden death clinched his third place 12-10. With the Youth cup final to come later Oli Matthews and Leon Hyde squared up for round one in the final group game to decide the U19 winner in which Leon just edged the match with slightly more control in tight points whilst Oli pushed the game with his attacking play. Final scores 11-8, 10-12, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8.

In what has been a fantastic revival season for Junior Table Tennis with the introduction of two league divisions, the next events were the two divisional title trophies.

Division 2 had low entries with only three players from eight eligible in which Liam Higgins picked up the winner’s trophy winning both his matches in three sets convincingly. The runners up spot then was always going to be a tight game in which Jacob Watters and Rufus Pawson-Davies (Simply TT) were finely matched albeit each ran away with games to 11. Ultimately Rufus finally won the fifth set to gain second spot. Result 5-11, 11-3, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6.

With more teams in Division 1 the top four teams entered all their players although Leon Rose retired for the day after an injury colliding with the table in the U11s. Two groups were contested with top two through to the semi-finals, and with a straight draw put the elders James, Beau, Amalina and Vincent as group A and Dylan, Hadrian and Freddy group B. 

Despite James Harrison (Simply TT) losing his only match in game six to Amalina, it was his first match against Beau 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9 that ultimately decided the places as he got his revenge for earlier in the U16s losing to Beau. All the other games were won three straight apart from the above 5 setters. Group B saw Freddy Lawrence (St Michaels) show his dominance over the two U11s and it came down to Dylan v Hadrian for the progression to knock outs in which Hadrian was desperately unlucky in the final set losing 11-7 to Dylan.

The semi-finals saw U11 winner Dylan against James hungry for success. This was a valiant performance by Dylan again with James eager to progress. James ran out winner as follows 11-9, 12-14, 13-11, 11-7 and was getting stronger as the day went on.

The second semi-final saw Beau vs Freddy but possibly due to fatigue Freddy could not rekindle his form in other events throughout the day losing 11-1, 11-4, 11-5. This set up the finale and day decider between James and Beau. Again, despite already in the day having a 4 and 5 setter, James continued his assault of short serves, chops and topspins to run away with the game and Division 1 title 11-6, 11-7, 11-9.

In an addition to the published events to get the maximum play time and give all a chance of success, a ranked drawn doubles took place. This actually proved the most popular event across the day and genuinely smiles were seen on all faces around the hall.

The competition was so closely matched that five of the seven matches went to final sets to decide the winners.  The eventual winners all in five sets was Oli Matthews (Bexhillians) and Rufus Pawson-Davies (Simply TT) who started brightly against George Beardsley (Bexhill) and Dylan Gorridge (Simply TT) just edging the quarter-final 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11. Next up was Leon Hyde (Bexhill) and Jacob Watters (Simply TT) and the two Senior Division 1 players battled hard whilst the two Junior Divison 2 novices tried to help their team stay in the match. This time Oli with partner Rufus was victorious 7-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7.

The final pitted them against John Quintos (Tackleway) and Hadrian Pain (Simply TT) and again, despite being behind in the first set, they managed to clinch the title 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 5-11, 11-7.

Main Event Finals 
In the Consolation, both from Simply TT, Amalina Gorridge ran out with the first set 12-10 against Liam Higgins. This then spurred on Amalina to take the trophy 11-9, 11-8 and turn around a loss to Liam earlier in her group only for them to meet again in the final to exact revenge.

The Youth Cup final then saw the two top seeds from Bexhill take to the stage and despite losing the first set 11-9 Leon Hyde battled back to claim the next two 11-8, 11-9. This then must have reminded Leon about his earlier victory over Oli Matthews in the U19s and Leon then took the title 11-5 in the fourth set to record a momentous double singles win from the day.

Thanks should be given to tournament organisers, James Gorridge for reviving the tournament absent for some 10 years and to Kevin Long for his continued help in the area running many Junior events.

Summary-Winners & R/Us
U11s Dylan Gorridge 
           Liam Higgins 
U13s Amalina Gorridge 
           Vincent Ridley
U16s Beau Larkin
           George Beardsley 
U19s Leon Hyde
           Oli Matthews

Ranked Drawn Doubles
Rufus Pawson-Davies/Oli Matthews
Hadrian Pain/John Quintos 

Divisional Jr 1 Singles 
James Harrison
Beau Larkin

Divisional Jr 2 Singles 
Liam Higgins
Rufus Pawson-Davies

Youth Cup Consolation 
Amalina Gorridge
Liam Higgins

Youth Cup
Leon Hyde 
Oli Matthews