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2009 London Open Grand Prix Table Tennis Tournament 19/20th December.

Four Jersey juniors competed against a field of of over 300 at this blue riband senior event and all took some notable scalps.

Leading the way was Josh Band at his imperious best enjoying spectacular and consistent form and living up to his sixth seeding in Band 4. He twice came back from 2—1 down in his group matches to eventually win all three encounters entering the knockout stage as group winner. He then despatched the tricky Bradley King, runner up in Group two, 11/9, 11/6, 14/12 to reach the last sixteen. Matt Lancey the No.4  ranked junior from Wales was a harder nut to crack. Band was pegged back twice with scores of 11/6, 6/11, 11/7, 11/13 and was 4—8 down in the fifth before fighting back to win the last game 11/9 and take the match. Band’s opponent in the quarter finals was the rising star Reece Placid from Surrey who had recently beaten the England No. 5 Daniel Lowe at the Junior Nationals!! Band once again played superbly in a match which attracted an appreciative crowd but was narrowly edged out 8/11, 11/8, 7/11, 8/11 by Placid who went on to win the Band 4 title. Also in Band 4, Luke Walker was enjoying his time at his first tournament at this particular ranked level. He had close matches against higher ranked opponents from Herefordshire and Surrey losing very narrowly to Emre Ibatoglu from the latter 3—1 with the final game 13/11. He did however have an excellent group win against Hiroshi Matsuura from Middlesex coming back from two love down in a pulsating finale 16/18,11/13, 11/9, 11/3, 11/6.

In Band 6 Max Tupper was installed as 7^th seed and finished as runner up in his group with two wins and one loss. Hugo Tupper also proceeded as runner up in his group despite losing 3—1 to Seb Golebiowski from Essex 11/2, 5/11, 8/11, 5/11. In the first knockout round both Tupper siblings put in great performances with Max beating James Glass from Kent 11/4, 6/11, 11/6, 7/11, 11/6 and Hugo beating Haydn Jenkins from Buckinghamshire to both get through to the final sixteen. Max then showed great patience and shot selection against Perry Fung from Essex to claim his quarter final spot 5/11, 11/7, 13/11, 11/13, 11/9. Hugo was due to meet his brother in the quarter final but first had to negotiate the experienced Adam Gigli from Norfolk. However it was a relieved Gigli who went through beating Hugo 3—0 and then Max in the quarter final 9/11, 9/11, 11/6, 6/11 glad that there were “no more Tupper brothers lurking anywhere?!!”

In Band 5 Luke Walker had two accomplished 3—0 wins against Haydn Jenkins from Buckingham and Lobsang Lama from Surrey and despite one close loss won his group on countback. Max Tupper won his three games including an excellent win against higher ranked Antony Constantinou from Middlesex, 11/9, 11/9, 7/11, 11/8. Hugo Tupper also progressed as runner up in his group with two good wins losing only once to the group’s number 2 seed. All three young Jersey players then had to face tricky preliminary knockout matches to reach the final 32 and all narrowly missed out. Hugo lost to Jason Quirk from the Isle of Man 11/13, 10/12, 11/5, 7/11, Max lost to the seasoned Frenchman Jonathan Mathias, 8/11, 5/11, 6/11 and Luke Walker also bowed out narrowly at the hands of runner up from Max’s group, Constantinou 7/11, 10/12,13/15.

Jersey’s sole representative in Band 3 was Josh Band [1666 pts] who once again produced some superlative table tennis to win his group against much higher ranked opponents Pritish Kakad [1990 pts] and the Pole, Lukasz Janisiewicz [2181 pts]. He fought back magnificently from two love down against the talented Sulivan Morais [1997 pts] in the last 32 but was pipped to the post 9/11 in the fifth as his opponent served out the match.

In the Men’s Open Singles Luke Walker lost to the experienced Pole, Jansiewicz,  3—1 and then 3—0 to Anthony Patten from Middlesex but had a good match against the tournament’s No.2 seed Gavin Rumgay from Scotland despite the expected three game loss. Hugo Tupper was meanwhile taking the first game off Ryan Maynard before succumbing to his illustrious adversary 3—1 and also exited at the group stage. Josh Band enjoyed a great encounter against the No.10 seed and the eventual Men’s Open and Under 21 winner Chris Doran losing only 8/11, 8/11, 9/11!! Band also missed out on the knockout stage losing 3—1 to the Welsh Senior No.6 Ceri James and 3—0 to Sherwin Remata [tournament ranked 63] from Middlesex. Max Tupper converted against lower ranked Jack Stapleton from Ireland and then played with great concentration and resolve to beat Alan Cherry from Middlesex   3—1 who boasted 2000 ranking points! Despite the expected loss against No. 34 Jimmy Walsh, Max went through as group runner up to the preliminary knockout. He exited at this stage 3—1 against the tricky Dan Bronziet from Essex.

All four young Jersey players were pretty tired by the time the Under 21 Men’s Singles groups got under way. Band won one match but lost his next two.The same results befell Max and Hugo Tupper with the result that all three did not progress from the group stage.Luke Walker beat James Glass comprehensively 11/6, 11/8, 11/5 in his group of three players. He then had a very creditable loss against the England No.1 Under 15 Cadet Zak Zilesnick 8/11, 8/11, 8/11 but still progressed as runner up in the group. His draw meant that he missed the preliminary matches and thus moved directly to the last 32. Waiting for him was the very talented Jake Collins ranked 47 for the tournament and despite a great attempt the huge experience of the player from Suffolk resulted in a 3—0 exit for Walker.

“ All four of our Juniors had some excellent wins and learnt a great deal at this hugely prestigious event. I am sure that it will not be long before one of them wins one of the Banded events at another Senior Grand Prix later in the season,” said JTTA President Chris Band.