The Brighton League Championships took place on Sunday 27th February at Bevendean School, the home venue of Hollingbury TTC. There was a good entry of 34 players. Not sure what average entry has been in the past, but the 6 tables were in use most of the time from 9am to 9.30pm. A new format of groups was introduced for the singles events, as in the past only the men’s singles had groups.
The Ladies Singles was a round robin of 4 players. 1st place went to Sally Hughes (Pavilion) & Nina Gausmann (also Pavilion) came 2nd. Sally won all of her matches 3-0. The Ladies Doubles was just 1 match between Sally & Nina Vs Christine Wicks & Emma Sheen (both Hollingbury). This was won 3-2 by the Pavilion pair.
The Men’s Singles had 5 groups of 4 & 1 group of 3. There was also a consolation event for those who finished 3rd & 4th in the group & the top 2 from each group went into the main draw. The quarter finals went as follows: Mark Scutts (Hollingbury) beat Tim Pack (Pavilion) 3-1, Rory Scott beat Prakash Varsani 3-1, Wen Wei Xu beat Leo Assisi 3-1 (both Brighton City) & the closest of quarters was Tim Holtam (Brighton City) beating Vlad Petrov 11-8 in the 5th. Vlad seems a lot better than his 25% average in the Premier! Top seed Scutts had too much for Scott in the semis & won 6, 7, 13 & Wen Wei beat club mate Tim 6, -13, 6, 7. Wen Wei got a dream start in the final & steamrollered Mark 11-3 in the 1st game, but Mark recomposed himself & recovered to win 6, 7, 4 to become Brighton Men’s Singles Champion for the 1st time. The consolation was won by junior, Paul Bergin (Brighton City), who had a good win over club mate Kave Rostamzade 3-1 in the final.
The Men’s Doubles had 6 pairings. Top seeds Scutts & Holtam had an easy run to the final, but that was not the case for 2nd seeds Scott & Varsani, who struggled to beat Vlad Petrov & Alex Hill (both Pavilion). They trailed 9-3 in the deciding set only to come back & win 11-9! In the final Varsani & Scott took the first game, but that was as good as it got for the 2nd seeds & they were well beaten 11-1 in the 4th set.
The Mixed Doubles had 4 pairs. Scott & Hughes beat Petrov & Gausmann in a very close match in 1 semi & the other semi was equally close, with Varsani & Wicks scraping through at the expense of Holtam & Samantha Yang (Brighton City). The final went to top seeds Hughes & Scott by 3 sets to 1.
6 players entered the Vets event. Wen Wei beat Bob Hoare (Pavilion) in 1 semi, while Prakash took the other vs Les Hopkins (Lancing). Wen Wei justified his top seeding by winning the final 3-0.
Junior Singles consisted of 2 groups of 4 players. Scutts & Leo Assisi (Brighton City) made it to the final with ease, where Mark won comfortably in straight sets.
The Division 2 Singles crown was claimed by Brighton City player Zihong Zeng, who employs the Penhold grip. He beat Kovacs in the semi & Rostamzade in the final 3-1. Zeng also excelled to reach the Division 1 final, with good wins over Les Hopkins & Majid Jagfagholi on the way to the final. Strangely 3 of the 4 semi-finalists, were runners-up in their groups. On the other side of the draw 2nd seed, Tim Pack (Pavilion), who had suffered a shock loss to Terry Holland (Pavilion) in the group, had to face top seed, Bob Hoare in the 1st round (quarter final). Tim triumphed in 4 ends & then had a good 4 set win over Alex Hill (Pavilion), who has won 11/12 in division 1 in the league. Tim came through 3 sets to 1 in the final.
The Best Performance Award went to Paul Bergin for his 5 wins over higher rated players Kave Rostamzade, George Tester (Brighton City), Matt Shorter, David Pringuer (Brighton City) & Terry Holland.
Report by Rory Scott.
