Sussex Closed U9 and U11 Championships, Great Walstead School, 15th November 2009

Following on from the successful U8 championships last week, many of the same children turned out again, (braving the floods in Haywards Heath!) to compete in a record-beating U9 entry. The tournament was eventually won by Scott Borland - still an U7 - with a straight 6 out of 6.

The U11 section was also very strong featuring several aspiring England players limbering up for Halifax next week. Congratulations to Billy, who seamlessly morphed from U9 champion last year to U11 champion this year!

The school team event was also hotly contested - no less than 8 schools entered the U9 team championship and only half a point separated the U11 teams. Special mention to Ashdown House, who fielded an 11-strong team, many of whom were playing in their first ever tournament, yet retained the U11 title for the second year.

Behaviour was excellent and the standard of play high. The arbiters faced a huge challenge in identifying just 3 prizewinners.......Joe Whitehill-James, Michael Stockham, and Josh Rowe were very near misses - all producing high quality games.

Many thanks to Great Walstead and Colin Harding for providing the spacious venue - the children benefited from access to the challenge course and the all-weather pitch between rounds. Thanks to Giles Critchley and Chris Sutton for their hard work setting up and clearing up.

Finally, thanks to the tournament team - Phil James, Iain Rose, and rookie Will Graham on pairing, plus arbiters Brian Stockham and Dave Graham. Special mention to Derek Ferguson who managed to remain serene on catering despite facing queues for most of the day!

Click HERE for a photo gallery from the day.