The Pontypridd Summer Table Tennis Festival took place today, and was a great success with good spirited and high standard table tennis played throughout. The tournament attracted a strong entry of 40 competitors, all fighting it out to win their respective events, which included the beginners/improvers band, Band 1, and the Open.
The first event of the day was the beginners and was contested by 9 players including the youngest player of the day, seven year old Louie Evans! The event was eventually won by Ponty’s Callum Griffiths who beat Carmarthen based player Lawrence John in a tightly contested final.
The next event was the Band 1 competition, and was very open with many players capable of taking the top prize. There were some early upsets with the main one being 2nd seeded Sharlene Williams missing out altogether against both Steven Fawkes and Port Talbot based player Kean Pak. In the last 16 there were no major upsets with all top seeds progressing safely through.
It was a similar case in the quarters but with Stefan having to fight back from 2 sets down to beat Liam Winder. Dayna Pearce was also on a strong run getting the better of Steven Fawkes, to book her place in the semi-final. No.1 seed Callum Evans and no.3 Jac both won their semi finals against Stefan and Dayna respectively to set up another encounter in their short but competitive careers!
In the final Callum produced his best table tennis to win a great match 3-1. Jac threw all he had, but on this occasion Callum held out to take the Band 1 title. Sharlene went on to win the consolation event with a comfortable win over Ben Evans in the final.
The main event of the day was the open and with the good prize money on offer it attracted many top senior and junior international players! The top 4 seeds were Michael Marsden, Ryan Owen, Conor Edwards and Cameron Thomas. These along with the likes of Ethan Davies, Alex Prosser, Chris Griffiths, Nicole Hall, Ryan Oyler and Benjy Gregory made the tournament very competitive.
All seeds progressed through their groups but with Cameron having to settle for the runners up position after losing out to Ryan Oyler, likewise Conor after losing out to the inform Callum Evans. Leading up to the semi final stage there were some great battles with Cameron winning against Chris Griffiths, Ethan winning against Ryan Oyler, Marsden winning against Conor, and Callum winning against Benjy.
The four left standing included Marsden, Ethan, Callum, and Ryan Owen. The top seeds didn’t have the semi-finals their own way with Ethan pushing Marsden to 4 sets and young Callum playing very well pushing Ryan Owen in 4 close sets. In the final there were some great moments but Marsden had that extra level in the big points and took the match and the title in 4 close sets.
RESULTS:
Open
M. Marsden beat R. Owen (3-1)
Band 1
C. Evans beat J. Jenkins (3-1)
Band 1 – Consolation
S. Williams beat B. Evans (3-0)
Beginners/Improvers
Final Positions : Callum Griffiths, Lawrence John, Huw Standen, Alasdair Weir, Ayman Alkateeb, Macauley Morgan, Connor Priest, Vaughn Spragg, Louie Evans.
