Newport Open

Ferndale had 5 boys enter Newport at the weekend in both the Junior and Cadet events. In both events there was a very bizarre draw with 3 Ferndale players being put in the same group.

Cadets


Group 1 saw Ethan Lewis, Chris Griffiths and Liam Winders all in the same group with Ryan Lo. All of the boys beat Ryan and then the group became interesting as each Ferndale player won one and lost one. Ethan beat Chris 3-2, Liam beat Ethan 3-1 and Chris beat Liam 3-0. Due to these results Liam and Chris went through on a count-back.

Group 2 saw Steven Fawkes play some great table tennis to finish second in his group. Steven got revenge from the Nationals by beating Callum Evans 3-2. He also won his two other games 3-0 against James Clayton and Stefan Jeczalik. Steven finished the group in second place as he lost out 3-1 to Alex Prosser.

Group 3 had  Dylan Lewis fighting it out against to make the main draw. Dylan lost two and won two in his group. Dylan lost 3-0 to Connor Edwards and had a narrow defeat against Jac Jenkins, 3-1. Dylan beat James Clayton 3-0 and had a fantastic win over Jon Bisp 3-2. So Dylan just missed out on the main draw.

The quarter-finals saw Liam and Steven get drawn against each other with Liam winning 3-0. Chris met Jac Jenkins in his quarter-final and also won his 3-0.

The semi-finals saw Ferndale against Tonypandy. On this occasion it ended up 1-1 as Connor Edwards beat Liam 3-0 and Chris beat Alex Prosser 3-2.

This set up a another Ferndale Tonypandy encounter. With Connor beating Chris in the final to take the Cadet Championship.

Juniors
Group 1 once again saw 3 Ferndale players drawn in the same group. This time all three lost 3-0 to Connor Edwards and all beat Myles Battle 3-0. This meant that the runner-up spot was available to one of the three Ferndale players. Like before the group became interesting here with it going to a count back. Steven beat Liam 3-0 (opposite of the Cadet quarter final result), Ethan beat Steven 3-1 and Liam reversed the score from the last group by beating Ethan 3-1. On a count back, this time Ethan went through to the quarter finals.

Group 2 saw Chris Griffiths qualify as winner without dropping a set against some good opponents. Chris beat Jon Bisp, Stefan Jeczalik, Ryan Oyler and Ben Evans.

Group 3 saw Dylan Lewis lose every game yet Dylan was very close in two of the matches. Against Max Clews Dylan lost 3-0 yet every set went to deuce and Dylan had his chances. His other two matches were against Callum Evans (3-1) and Alex Prosser(3-0).

Chris got a bye to the Semi-finals so this meant that Ethan was the only player in the quarters. He had a very tough match against Alex Prosser, which he lost 3-1.

Due to Alex beating Ethan, he set-up a Semi-final match against Chris. Chris could not re-create his efforts from the Cadets semi and lost this time round to Alex.

Overall it was a good day for Ferndale and the players are really showing that they can compete against the best in Wales.