Report - Dave Dudeney
Sunday 1st August saw the 2nd England Youth GP of the year held at the Belgrave Sports and Social Club in Tamworth a quality field of 30 players which included an impressive 10 girls.
Once the group stages were complete it threw up a very interesting knock out stage with the bottom half the draw made for a mouth-watering set of games. Derby finalists Eleanor Cairns went out at the last 16 stage along with Hannah Meek, Hannah narrowly missing out 3-2 to Joshua Bean. First of the stand out games in the bottom half saw Sussex pairing of Tavis Dudeney and Reece Pauling which saw Tavis coming out on top to set up the next big game in the quarter finals against Leighton Bennett. After a very tight game Leighton booked his place in the semi-finals.
A very strong semi-final saw Leighton Bennett against Luke Littler and the other semi-final saw two upcoming quality pairing of Sussex’s Archie Self taking on Hertfordshire’s Thomas Banks, with Archie going through 4-2. In the other semi semi-final Luke and Leighton didn’t disappoint with Leighton edging it 4-3.
The final didn’t disappoint and the score line may suggest a one sided affair but it was far from as both players pushed each other to the limit with Leighton winning 5-0 with a 29.13 (87.39) and Archie with a 24.98 (74.94).
In the girls knock out produced some great games which were no surprise with the quality on show. In the quarters Paige Pauling narrowly missed out going down 3-2 to Ella Williams, Lauren Stokoe who thankfully didn’t come off her scooter the day before and made this event which was the reason she missed out at Derby went down 3-2 to Amy Evens. The Battle of the O’Connor’s saw Krystal coming out triumphant against sister Emmie 3-0. The final game saw Hannah Meek defeating Eleanor Cairns 3-2. In the semi-finals saw another close game with Amy Evans booking her place in the final after edging out Ella Williams 3-2. In the other semi-final saw Hannah Meek book her place alongside Amy after a 3-0 win over Krystal. The final was a good close which saw all the legs seeing who could hold their nerve and hit them doubles first which proved to be Amy who came out victorious winning her first ever competition 3-1.
A massive thank you to all who was with us to make it a great day and to the Club for having us, also I must say a big thank you to Cliff O’Connor for his help during the day.
Next up is 15th August at the Coppenhall WMC in Crewe, Cheshire so let’s hope we get another great turn out.
Main GP Result from Knock out,
Eleanor Cairns 0-3 George Ripley
Archie Self 3-1 Jason Meek
Joshua Bean 3-2 Hannah Meek
Cole Davey 1-3 Thomas Banks
Evan Willoughby 3-0 Harvey Stringer
Luke Littler 3-2 Jenson Walker
Leighton Bennett 3-1 Cayden Smith
Tavis Dudeney 3-0 Reece Pauling
Quarter finals
George Ripley 1-3 Archie Self
Joshua Bean 2-3 Thomas Banks
Evan Willoughby 1-3 Luke Littler
Leighton Bennett 3-1 Tavis Dudeney
Semi-finals
Archie Self 4-2 Thomas Banks
Luke Littler 3-4 Leighton Bennett
Final
Archie Self 0-5 Leighton Bennett
Girls knockout,
Rosie O’Connor 1-3 Eleanor Cairns
Ashleigh Turner 1-3 Hannah Meek
Quarter finals
Paige Pauling 2-3 Ella Williams
Lauren Stokoe 2-3 Amy Evans
Emmie O’Connor 0-3 Krystal O’Connor
Eleanor Cairns 2-3 Hannah Meek
Semi-finals
Ella Williams 2-3 Amy Evans
Krystal O’Connor 0-3 Hannah Meek
Final
Amy Evens 3-1 Hannah Meek