Another massive entry for Cippenham Festival

The Cippenham Young Players’ Summer Festival provided another feast of table tennis at this hugely popular event. This summer event and its New Year equivalent have become the jewels in the crown of the open tournament season at Cippenham Table Tennis Club, always attracting in excess of 300 entries. Once again, 17 tables were kept busy for the two days with four age groups each for boys and girls. There were seven different winners of the eight events with only Patrick Thomas, one of a strong Welsh contingent that are always popular visitors to events at Cippenham, doing the double of Under-18 and Under-16 Boys’ Singles.

Thomas has become a real force on the junior scene and has won many previous events at Cippenham. On this occasion, he beat his Welsh compatriot Daniel O’Connell in the higher age group and Cippenham’s own Edward Mitchell in the under-16s. In fact, the two players beaten in Thomas’ two finals met each other in another final, the under-14s. To the delight of the local organizers it was Mitchell that took the honours. To round up the boys’ events, the under-12 final was contested between two boys from Middlesex. Connor Neenan beat Igor Morais.

There was Welsh success also in the girls’ events but it was restricted to the under-14s in which Chloe Thomas prevailed. She beat Bethany March, one of three Essex players to lose in girls’ finals. However, the other two lost to their county team-mates as Essex provided the four players that contested the under-18 and under-16 finals. Charlotte Callcut beat Evangeline Collier but was not so successful in the under-16s in which she lost to Rebekah March. Middlesex made it a double in the under-12 events when Charleigh Kirby beat Tressa Armitage in the final of the youngest age group.

The seeds did not have it all their own way, there were shocks en route. The second and third seeds in the under-16 Girls’ Singles, Megan Sparrey and Chloe Thomas, were both beaten in their preliminary round groups by Stephanie Francis and Grace Collier respectively. Miss Thomas also came a cropper in the under-18s when beaten in the semi-final by Evangeline Collier. Edward Mitchell, seeded second in the under-18 boys’ event, lost his quarter-final to Sullivan Morais who then lost in turn to O’Connell.

Edward Mitchell, with one winner’s medal and one runners-up, was far and away the most successful of the local players. The next best was Peter Gajdus in reaching the quarter-final of the under-16s while Jonathan Evans was eliminated one round earlier in the under-18s. In addition, Alex Polding, Alex Parkinson, Matt Ashfield and Angela Oetiker all qualified for at least one of the main events.

Results of Finals:

U18 Boys’ Singles: Patrick Thomas (Wales) beat Daniel O’Connell (Wales)

U16 Boys’ Singles: Patrick Thomas (Wales) beat Edward Mitchell (Slough)

U14 Boys’ Singles: Edward Mitchell (Slough) beat Daniel O’Connell (Wales)

U12 Boys’ Singles: Connor Neenan (Middx) beat Igor Morais (Middx)

U18 Girls’ Singles: Charlotte Callcut (Essex) beat Evangeline Collier (Essex)

U16 Girls’ Singles: Rebekah March (Essex) beat Charlotte Callcut (Essex)

U14 Girls’ Singles: Chloe Thomas (Wales) beat Bethany March (Essex)

U12 Girls’ Singles: Charleigh Kirby (Middx) beat Tressa Armitage (Hants)