2009-10 Season
Craig Bryant (Crawley) retained the Sussex Men's singles title he won last year, by beating 2nd seed Ritchie Venner (Hastings) 3-1 in the final. However he almost failed to make it to the final, having trailed 0-2 in the semi-final vs Chinese whizz kid Da Shuai Zhang (Worthing). However, winning the 3rd set proved to be the turning point & Bryant cruised through games 4 & 5. The Junior Boys Singles was won by 'Dash', but he was also made to work for his title, beating Mark Scutts (Brighton) 3-2 in a tense final. The cadet boys was won by last year's runner-up Jack Bennett (Hastings), who turned the tables on last year's winner, Daniel Barna (Horsham) in the semi-final & then overturned the top seed Tejas Padalkar (Horsham) in the final. Peter Bartram (Lancing) & Paul Barry (Hastings) won the men's doubles title at the expense of finalists Phil Richardson (Crawley) & Ritchie Venner. The Ladies singles title was taken by German student Inken Dieterrich, who beat England no. 26 lady Rose Rainton in straight sets in an impressive final, having earlier defeated England no. 29 Sarah Stedman in the group stage. Paul Barry beat Dave Butler (Hastings) in the final of the Men's Vets & Teresa Bennett (Eastbourne) won the Ladies Vets, beating Sheila King (Hastings).
Yolanda King (Hastings) excelled by winning the Junior Girls National Singles Championship this year, defeating top seed Karina LeFevre (Ormesby TTC). This is a great achievement as Yolanda has two more years in the juniors, not including this season.
In the County Championships Sussex 1st Cadet team of Tejas Padalkar, Daniel Barna, Jack Bennett, Lois Peake (Chichester) & Holly Holder (Horsham) fared really well to finish 3rd in the Premier Division of the Cadet County Championships in the absence of top Sussex cadet boy Helshan Weerasinghe & top Sussex cadet girl Emma Torkington (Lindfield). The Sussex 1st Junior team matched the cadets finishing position, finishing again in 3rd place in the Premier Division. This team comprised Dash Zhang, Helshan Weerasinghe, Mark Scutts, Yolanda King, Helen Rutherford (Henfield) & Chelsea Furnival (Hastings). Sussex 2nd Junior team went into the 2nd day's play with 4 wins from 4, but as it turned out none of the players who had played for the 2nd team in the 1st day's play were available on the 2nd day, which clashed with cadet premier among other things, so the 3rd team effectively became the 2nd team. However despite this hiccup the team fared very well, finishing 2nd on a points count-back with Kent 2 & Essex 2. A total of 18 players represented Sussex 2nd & 3rd teams over the course of the 2 day's play. The 3rd team finished 7th out of the 9 teams. In the Senior Co. Champs believe it or not Sussex had the same result again, with the 1st team ending up 3rd in the Premier Division. The team comprised Venner, Nigel Eckersley (Uckfield), Bartram & Zhang with ladies Rainton & Stedman (replaced by juniors Rutherford & Furnival after an injury). Sussex 2nd senior team struggled with a weak team in div 1B & finished 2nd last only beating bottom team Devonshire 2. This team was represented by Gary Wilson (Lancing), Rory Scott (Horsham), Mark Scutts, Nathan Darby (Hastings), Matt Porter (Hastings), Yolanda King & Lisa Standen (Hastings). Sussex Vets 1st team was the odd one out, being the only 1st team not to finish 3rd in the Premier Division. They finished 5th in the Premier instead. Sussex 2 Vets finished bottom of Division 1B, Sussex 3 Vets were bottom of Div 2B, Sussex 4 Vets were 4th in Div 3D & last but not least Sussex Over 60s team finished 4th in Div 1B.
Pavilion Brighton 1 fared the best of the Sussex British League teams this season, as they won division 1 South on points count back from Fusion 1. They go forward to the British League Premier Play-offs. The only Sussex player on this team was Dash, who notched up an impressive 83.35 average, having played all the matches bar one. Pavilion Brighton 2 finished 5th in Division 2 South, one place above Horsham 2. Pavilion Brighton 3 were 7th in Division 4 South. Horsham 1 finished 3rd in division 2 South. Going into the last day's play they knew that if they won both of their matches, they would win the league. Unfortunately both matches were lost 5-3 with at least two 5-setters in each match & they finished in 3rd place. Horsham 3 finished 7th in Division 3 South. Brighton City 1 did very well to finish 4th in Division 1 South & Midlands, solely with Sussex players & most living in Brighton or nearby & all players being involved with the club. Their 2nd team finished a creditable 3rd in Div 3 South & Midlands, again using all Brighton City club players. Inspire Bognor Regis finished bottom of division 3 South & thus will be relegated. Hastings finished 2nd in div 4 South & were perhaps unlucky to be in the same division as such a strong div 4 team from Bournemouth Sports, who dominated the division. Their only losses came against that team. In all there are now 10 Sussex teams in the British League, which is far more than there were say 10 years ago, when it was just Horsham & Hastings teams from Sussex. However, next season Horsham is going to drop one of their British League teams & will be represented solely by Sussex players.
By Rory Scott
