3rd Place for Ryan at Sussex
Ryan Williams surpassed all expectations to achieve 3rd place in Band 2 at the first Sussex Series U18 event held at the impressive K2 centre, Crawley. Over 80 entrants competed for the largest prize money offered for a Junior tournament in the UK. Ryan competed in Band 2 which attracted some of the best players within a 150 point rating range on the ETTA Rating list. 16 players in two groups of 8 battled for the £200 first prize and as a result produced some inspired table tennis.
Ryan got off to his usual slow start and against George Harris struggled to match the speed and tempo of his opponent. George won the match 3-0 however towards the end of the match Ryan was showing some positive signs. His next match was against Omar Khassels, a difficult and tricky opponent, Ryan desperately needed a win to get his campaign back on track. The match was a close encounter with both players producing some great table tennis, however Ryan held his nerve and won the match 3-2. Next up was clubmate Leon Thompson, a formidable player and one of the event favourites. Ryan was now focussed and playing aggressively winning the first set comfortably. Leon fought back and took the second set, in the third set Leon was 9-2 up and seemingly cruising when Ryan pulled out some quite brilliant shots to force the set into a nail-biting finish eventually winning it 13-11, this proved to be turning point for Ryan and he went on to win the match 3-1. Two more wins followed against the No1 seed Liam Grant and Vinal Patel, both 3-1 meant that he secured his route into the second round final top eight. His final game in the group was a bit of a dead rubber however Ryan put up a spirited fight narrowly losing to Daniel Pound 3-2.
The top four players from both groups now competed for the £425.00 total prize money. Ryan had to play the unbeaten Brian Gray from Kent, with 7 wins already to his name Brian (17) was a proving a difficult match for the younger Ryan (13). He couldn’t match the power and spin that Brian possessed and lost the match 3-0. Zack Mandell was up next and having lost previously to Zack he wasn’t about to take this match lightly. Ryan attacked from the start and overwhelmed Zack with his superior speed and power winning the match 3-0. Ryan played Shane Clarke next and found him to be an awkward opponent, Shane won the match 3-1 which meant Ryan had to win his last match to be guaranteed some prize money. Ryan beat Finn Morgan-Bayless in his final match 3-0 completing a wonderful day for the youngster and as a result he picked up 3rd place and £75.00.
With some excellent performances throughout the day the tournament proved to be a resounding success. Well done to Steve Pound and Rory Scott and all the sponsors for an amazing event.
