Derby 4*

The weekend of 26th and 27th of March saw four Ferndale players travel to Derby along with three other welsh players (Alex Prosser, Jac Jenkins and Callum Evans). The players representing Ferndale were Steven Fawkes, Chris Griffiths, Liam Winder and Ethan Lewis.

Under 15 Boy's Grade 1 Event
Groups
Steven Fawkes (118) lost 3-0 to Ross Jarvis (48), who was the number 3 seed for this event. The other game in this group was against Jacob Barber (88) and lost this in a very close match 3-2.
Ethan Lewis (114) played very well in his group winning both his games 3-0 and qualify as winner of the group. He beat Daniel Pound (62) and Finn Morgan-Bayliss (107).
Liam Winder (134) lost one and won one in his group. Sadly for Liam only one went through the groups and he just missed out. He beat Ollie Griggs (131) 3-1 and lost out to Leon Thomson (71) 3-2.
Chris Griffiths (78) had one player pull out of his group so he only had to win one game to qualify. Chris beat Ryan Williams (96) 3-0.

Knock-Out Stages
In the last 32 Ethan beat Harry Gwilliam (91) 3-0. Chris had a harder match against Kevin Vandabona (103). It was a very difficult match that could of gone either way but Chris played very well to win 3-2. The last 16 saw both Ethan and Chris play some fantastic table tennis to win their games 3-0. Ethan beat Marcus Reynolds (55) and Chris beat Leon Thomson (71). Both boys were now in the quarter finals. Ethan played very well but in this match his opponent, Hugo Tupper (72), was a very good player and Ethan struggled to get himself in to this game and lost 3-0. Chris had to play Ronan Kelly (47) and he played very well to win 3-1. This set Chris into the semi-final where Chris had a fantastic 5th set match that could of gone any way but on this occasion Chris just missed out and lost to Stephen Ward (52).

Under 15 Boys's Open
Groups
Steven Fawkes was meant to have the number 1 seed but he was replaced in the group, but I was unable to get his name. The player that replaced the seed won all his games to take the top spot, Steven lost this match 3-1. Steven beat Matthew Fields (65) 3-1 but lost 3-2 in the other match, against Alex Gillen (109), in a match that Steven should of won. Steven went through the group as runner-up due to a count back.
Chris Griffiths went through his group as runner-up. He has the number 3 seed Daryl Gee (13) and Chris played well to get a set but Daryl just had that little bit more and he won 3-1. Chris won his other two matches 3-2 against Matthew Leete and 3-1 against Adam Ross (94).
Liam Winder had one player withdraw from his group but sadly he could not take advantage of this and could not qualify. He had to play the number 9 seed Luke Walsh (33) and found it very difficult, losing out 3-0. Liam lost out on a very close match to get the runner's up spot, by losing 3-2 against Ollie Buddell (77).
Ethan Lewis also had a very tough group where he lost 3-0 to the top two players in his group, Stephen Ward (52) and Hugo Tupper (72).  The other player in his group was Alec Ward (66) who Ethan beat 3-2 in  another close match that Ethan stormed away with in the 5th.

Knock-Out stage
Both Chris and Steven entered the draw in the last 64 stage. Steven lost out in a very close battle against Bradley Wood (56), as he failed to convert his chances and lost 3-1. Chris once again made life difficult and had a very close 5th set match against Tom Jarvis (51) but he won the game and continued on to the last 32. In this stage Chris met Scottish international player Chris Wheeler (19) and Chris found this game very difficult and lost out 3-1 in a match that Chris was always on the back foot.

Under 18 Boy's Open
Groups
Steven had a difficult group as he had to play the number 3 seed Ping Ho (3) and lost this match 3-0 as he was really struggling to return the serves of this penhold player. Steven also lost out 3-0 to Alec Ward (66) in a match he was capable of winning. The other player in the group was Harry Messervy (150) who he beat 3-0.
Liam also had a very difficult group as he had to play Chris Wheeler (19) and Max Tupper (35) who are both international players for Scotland and Jersey. Liam lost both these matches 3-0. The other player in the group was Zak Wilson (153) who Liam found much easier and beat 3-0.
Chris struggled to get himself in to his under 18 group and lost all three matches 3-1 against some very good players. He had to play Alex Wheeler (152), Laurence Sweeney (22) and Kevin Vandabona (103).
Ethan played very well in his group to qualify for the knock-out stages. He lost 3-0 to the top player in the group Vincent Stacey (25) but he played very well to beat Bradley Osbourne (75) 3-0. In his final match of the group he played Ollie Griggs (131) and went in to a storming 2-0 lead and had match points in the third set and then he started to take the match easy and before he knew it he was in the fifth set. he got his head back in to the game and ended up winning the match 3-2.

Knock-out Stage
The last 64 stage saw Ethan play the runner-up in Chris's group. He ended up playing Alex Wheeler (152). Ethan played well and had a chance in every set but was unable to convert these chances he had created for himself and lost out 3-1.

Under 18 Boy's Grade 1
Groups
Chris had a fantastic win in this event by beating the number two seed Joshua Band (28) 3-1. This was a very good result that Chris should of used as confidence to then win his group but he struggled in his next match against Ashley Scott (68)  and ended up losing 3-2. The final match in his group was against Leon Thomson (71) and Chris won this match 3-1. This set up a count back for who qualified from the group and Chris went through as the group winner.
Ethan had one player withdraw from his group so he had to win against the fifth seed, Max Tupper (35),  to progress in to the next round. Sadly Ethan struggled to keep Max from using his very strong forehand and Ethan lost 3-0.
Steven once again struggled in his group stage and lost both his matches 3-0. Against the top player in the group Michael White (45) he struggled but in the match against Matthew Leete (76) he had a great chance of winning but sadly he could not get himself to play his top game.
Liam had two matches in his group but I did not get a result for the match against Charlie Williams (116). Against Michael Lunn (39) Liam found life difficult and could play his game but instead was forced to play his opponents.

Knock-out Stage
Chris had a bye to the last 16 stage due to him being the number two seed. Chris had to play Kevin Vandabona (103) for the third time this weekend. At this point it was 1-1 between the two players. Chris was unable to replicate his victory from the grade 1 cadet's the day before and lost 3-2. He was 2-1 up but unable to finish the match off.


Overall it was a very difficult weekend for the Ferndale players. They found out how difficult it is to compete in England compared to events in Wales. The players all learnt something from the weekend that they now need to work on and hopefully in the future they can all go that step further.