REPORT by Graham Frankel of BATTS: Stormy weather did nothing to prevent another great turnout of enthusiastic young players in our Under 13 tournament yesterday. The hall at BATTS was full by 8.45am eagerly practising.

We were delighted to have players from 29 different clubs covering a wide area of the country. Our format makes it attractive for both experienced competitors and also those who were entering a tournament for the first time.

As usual, there were many close matches during the group play in the morning, and by 1pm we were under way with all three knock out bands.

Special congratulations to our prize winners who took home a share of the £200 prize fund. Prithvi Menon (Grantham), the Band One winner, has appear regularly in our tournaments over the past few years and Prithvi’s progress has been remarkable: he reached his first quarter final in November 2022 and his first semi-final in May this year.

This time, in a very close final, he just got the better of Sinan Surensoy (Woodford Wells) who was the top seed. It was an outstanding performance by Prithvi, who needed to overcome a strong and plucky challenge from Ben Willis (Thanet Vikings) in his semi-final.

The surprise winner of Band 2 was 11-year-old Krit Dahal (Stanmore) entering our tournament for the first time. In the final he beat Grace Wang (Kingfisher) who had previously won our Band 2 event in May.
There was another surprise in Band 3 with another 11-year-old John Fletcher (BATTS) beating 10-year-old Claudio Coutino (Cambridge Parkside). This was only John’s second tournament.

We are very grateful to our helpers who ensured another smooth-running tournament. We had a great team which included qualified officials James Pettigrew, Eamonn Hall, Mario Ioakim, and John Andrews plus welcome support from BATTS members Sam Scott, Derek Balding and John Chamberlain. John, formerly a highly ranked England player who has recently returned to table tennis after a long absence, said he was amazed to see so many youngsters enjoying the competition.

Thanks also to Neil Brierley for his support in so many ways, Sharon and Richard for the brilliant catering, and Elroy Edwards for snapping the prize winners.

Finally, thanks to all the parents who supported us by bringing the players and making nice comments about the day.