The third Sussex Women’s Summer 2* saw another fantastic entry of 50 girls playing across nine events and for the very first time had an all-female Para Competition.

All results can be found online here

The morning kicked off with the U13 event and with four groups scheduled and a waiting list, it is clear to see the work that many clubs around the country are doing to introduce young girls to table tennis is paying off.

Top seed Zoe Gonpot had a fairly unchallenged route through to the final, while unseeded Alena Bondar saw off the second seed Grace Liu in straight sets.
The final was hard fought but Alena was our first champion of the day taking the title in four games (3, -3, 9, 7).

The consolation was won by Evie Turner-Samuels over Greenhouse team-mate Ayah Amin (8, 7, 9).

Next up was the U15s and again the top seed, Bly Twomey, sped through to the final unchallenged.
The other half of the draw, however, provided plenty of drama. Akshita Subramanium first had to see off Nouh Alamine in five long sets before taking out the second seed to take her place in the final.
This was as far as the dream run would go as she lost out in three straight set to Bly (4, 7, 8).

The consolation was won by Emily Ngo over Angelina Harea in three sets (5, 5, 7) after both were made to work out over five sets to overcome Eva Yared and Esther Lewis respectively.

Our third champion of the day was crowned following an all Cippenham final in the U19s. Top seed Mia Lakhani raced through to the final whilst Rachael Iles needed a full five games to get past Luna Archard (-9, 6, -11, 8, 10) but when it came to the final, she kept up the momentum and hit through Mia in four strong games (10, 4, -6, 7).

The U19 Consolation was a three-way round robin won by Chippenham’s Anna Piercey who saw off Jadeine Augustin and Alesha Ellis-Austin.

Up next was the restricted (or as I call it ‘not yet a vett’). The top seeds showed just why they were ranked so and stormed through each side of the draw to reach the finals without dropping sets. But this is where it got interesting with second seed Holly Holder going 2-0 up over Sarah Her-Lee, the top seed. But the game isn’t won in two sets and Sarah battled through winning the final three sets 7, 7, 7 to take the match and the title.

The consolation was won by Kelsey Fordham over Emilie Guilloux (7, 8, 5).

Now for the O40s and none of these games were easy going. Anita Jermyn justified her top seeding by overcoming Suzy Kalman, while Tulay Dunbar required all five games to fight off Sarah Hudson. It was then a long five-setter for Anita and Tulay to settle the score with Anita coming out on top (5, -4, 9, -7, 6).

The consolation was then a local battle between Donna Hammond and Jo Browning, Donna taking the crown (1, 5, 2) but a huge well done to Jo medalling at her first major event.

Last but not least was our superstar event for 2024 – our first Para Competition. Bly Twomey saw off Emily Shone to take our standing class and Amanda Worne overcame Beth Kelf in the Wheelchair class.

The afternoon then gave way for the Open Event – welcoming players of all ages and abilities, with 10 groups of players and a fully loaded line-up.

The battle between youth and experience was the theme of the afternoon. With two prelims to start, Holly Holder steamed through Jadeine Augustin and Suzy Kalman showed Luna Archard who is the boss to reach the last 16.

Despite being 2-0 up and having 11 points in the third, Holly didn’t quite have enough to take out Mia Lakhani. Other last 16 highlights saw Rachael Iles beat Tulay Dundar and Bly Twomey end Kalman’s run to take places in the quarter finals. 

Bly Twomey’s run continued by beating Anna Piercey to set up a semi-final with Rachael Iles, who had beaten Chloe Evans in straight sets. Rachael won the semi to take her place in the final.

The other half of the draw saw Sarah Her-Lee make her way to the final, dropping a set to Kei Yin Ng in the quarters before a 3-0 win over Anita Jermyn in the semis. Anita had previously had the win of the day over Mia Lakhani in their quarter-final clash.

In the final Sarah took a tight 2-0 lead before Rachael took the third to add further tension to the match. The fourth saw Sarah take a lead only for Rachael to fight back to 10-10, before Sarah’s experience shone through to for her to take the fourth game 12-10 and her second title of the day.

The consolation saw Alesha Ellis-Austin take out Grace Liu in the semi-final and Zoe Gonpot end the fantastic run of Sophie Storey. Alesha and Zoe met in the last final of the day and despite a close first two sets where Alesha took the first 11-8 and Zoe the second 12-10 it was Alesha who had the stamina to run away with the last two 11-6 and 11-5 to claim the title.

The next event to be hosted by Worthing TTC is their Summer 1* with dedicated events for male and female players. The entry form can be found here

If you would like to find out more about Worthing Table Tennis Club visit www.worthingttc.com or follow us on Facebook or Instagram @WorthingTTC