The second GSS tournament took place on Saturday 19 Feb at Tonypandy Community College. With a new beginner and year 7 tournament taking place at the adjacent main hall there were many young players around the site to hopefully learn and improve to better things.
The day started at 9am with the U14 groups. Stefan Jeczalik, Callum Evans and Jac Jenkins were the top seeds looking to improve on their points tally from last time whilst taking the title on the day. Callum had a thriller with Jac in group B winning 3-1 to finish 1st. Stefan, a Tonypandy Community College, eased past Pontypridd’s Jon Bisp in group A to move towards a clash with Jac in the semi finals.
The first semi final however sawTonyrefail’s Callum go behind 1-2 against Bisp before turning it around to come through 3-2 and move into the final.
Stefan had a mammoth match with Jac, again going behind 1-2 to turn it around and reach the final 3-2. The level of the play in both semi finals was very good and will keep improving.
Callum had the better start in the final and at 10-9 in the 3rd was looking very good for a 3-0 win but Stef dug deep and took that set. That made Callum move into a higher gear where he won the next set 11-7.
U14 - Callum Evans beat Sefan Jeczalik 11-4, 13-11, 10-12, 11-7
Dylan Lewis [Ferndale] beat James Dean Clayton [Tonyrefail] in the U14 consolation final 3-0.
U19
The older players started later in the day and with 4 quality groups things were always going to be close. Players like Carys Webster, Tom Goodall, Sadie Edwards, Laura Price and Liam Winder couldn’t get through to the main knockout and settled for the consolation event. This was won by Cathays star Tom Goodall against Ferndale’s Liam Winder 3-2.
The QF’s of the knockout saw four mouth watering ties. Charlotte Carey vs Steve Fawkes, Luke Groom vs Angharad Phillips, Nicole Hall vs Gwyn Carvill and Megan Phillips vs Sharlene Williams. Charlotte made good starts in all 3 ends to beat Fawksey 3-0. Angharad set up a SF clash with rival Charlotte by beating Luke [Nantymoel] 3-0. The third match saw Nicole beat Gwyn [Nantymoel] 3-0 to meet Megan, who beat he team mate from last night’s match in Okehampton, Sharlene [again Nantymoel] 3-0.
Nicole tried her best to defuse the tricky play of Megan but couldn’t do enough to worry her throughout the 4 sets played, losing 1-3. Meg was looking to the next table where her sister was doing battle with number 1 seed Carey. The match went back and for until Charlotte gained that vital advantage in the 5th set and made it too hard for Angharad to claw it back winning 11-7.
The final , which was a repeat of last time’s SF showdown, saw Charlotte up her attaching power to move into a two set lead against Megan. The Welsh all-rounder tried to change tactics but Carey wasn’t in the mood for a battle and won the 3rd set 11-5.
U19 - Charlotte Carey bt Megan Phillips 11-5, 11-8, 11-5
A thanks goes to Tonypandy Community College for use of the facilities and equipment. The next event will be emailed out soon for the chance to add to the overall points tally by the players.
