Sussex Super League

Crawley Community teams won both divisions of the recently completed Sussex Super League.

In Division 1 Crawley A's squad of Phil Richardson, Mayur Majithia, Paul Carter and Kevin Green demonstrated their collective power to top the table by six clear points. Whilst injuries had adversely affected their local league standing, Super League - with its key phase coming late in the season - proved ideal for them. Their 6-3 win over local rivals Horsham A was particularly sweet. Pavilion were runners-up and will be pleased that they were the only team to inflict team defeat on the champions.

Crawley B (Graham Greem, Bipin Majithia, Fredrick Nilsson, Don North and John Callcutt) dominance of Division 2 was even more emphatic. After their first phase loss to Hollingbury they turned into an unstoppable force in the latter stages, recording a string of big margin wins. Graham Carter's Horsham B team took the runners-up spot.

The first year of the Sussex Super League has been a success, involving 72 players from across the county and beyond, although inevitably in a county that is short and wide in shape representation has been stronger on a North-South axis than an East-West one. Meetings have included players of the calibre of Craig Bryant (the only regular participant to preserve a 100% record), an array of county senior and vets, and, most importantly, a wealth of up-and-coming junior talent. Players such as Da Shuai Zhang, Helshan Weerasinghe and Mark Scutts have revelled in the opportunity to play good opposition in a high quality setting and junior-friendly format.

In the midst of progress some organisartional lessons have been learned and it is hoped next year that an even stronger Super League will emerge building on the first year platform that has been built.

Thanks go to Tees Sport for their sponsorship of the Sussex Super League.

Final Tables

Division 4

Position	Team	Fixtures	Matches Won	Matches Lost	Points
1	Crawley A	5	31	14	31
2	Pavilion	5	25	20	25
3	Horsham A	5	24	21	24
4	Lewes	5	20	25	20
5	Crawley C	5	18	27	18
6	Brighton City A	5	17	28	17

Division 2

Position	Team	Fixtures	Matches Won	Matches Lost	Points
1	Crawley B	5	36	9	36
2	Horsham B	5	25	20	25
	Hollingbury	5	22	23	22
3	Horsham C	5	18	27	18
5	Brighton City B	5	10	35	10
6	Horsham D	5	6	39	6

Final Averages

Player	Team	Sets For	Sets Against	Sets Diff	Wins	Losses	Average
Craig Bryant	Brighton City B	45	4	41	15	0	100%
Helshan	Horsham A	27	6	21	9	0	100%
Nigel Eckersley	Lewes	9	0	9	3	0	100%
Wesley Bush-Harris	Hollingbury A	9	0	9	3	0	100%
Alex Iounou	Brighton City A	9	0	9	3	0	100%
John Robinson	Crawley B	9	2	7	3	0	100%
Fredrick Neilson	Crawley B	41	11	30	13	1	93%
Dash	Pavilion	50	10	40	16	2	88.88%
Mayur Majithia	Crawley A	41	12	29	13	2	86.66%
Adam Todd	Brighton City A	17	6	11	5	1	83.33%
Graham Faulkner	Crawley B	15	5	10	5	1	83.33%
Phil Richardson	Crawley A	45	18	27	14	3	82.35%
Prakash Varsani	Hollingbury A	37	16	21	12	3	80.00%
Peter Bartram	Lewes	22	8	14	7	2	78%
Paul Carter	Crawley A	41	21	20	13	4	76.47%
Steve Barby	Horsham A	61	30	31	18	6	75.00%
Gary Wilson	Lewes	12	9	3	4	2	67%
Ian Ford	Horsham A	46	30	16	14	7	66.66%
Robin Stace	Lewes	16	6	10	4	2	66.66%
Carol Eckersley	Lewes	14	7	7	4	2	66.66%
Ash Saffarizaeh	Crawley C	6	5	1	2	1	66.66%
Alan Shipley	Horsham D	8	7	1	2	1	66.66%
Barrie Gilbert	Crawley C	56	34	22	16	8	66.66%
Marc Burman	Pavilion	52	26	26	14	7	66.66%
Mark Scutts	Hollingbury A	55	36	19	16	8	66.67%
John Callcut	Crawley B	8	6	2	2	1	66.67%
Graham Carter	Horsham C	50	36	14	15	8	65.22%
Tim Holtam	Brighton City A	38	29	9	11	7	61.11%
Steve Pound	Horsham B	17	16	1	5	4	55.55%
Danny Lawrence	Horsham D	31	29	2	8	7	53.33%
Graham Green	Crawley B	22	18	4	6	6	50.00%
Johnny Clarke	Pavilion	8	7	1	2	2	50.00%
Stuart Chambers	Crawley C	9	13	-4	3	3	50.00%
Bipin Majithia	Crawley B	33	31	2	9	9	50.00%
John Hook	Crawley C	41	42	-1	10	11	47.62%
Rory Scott	Horsham B	23	53	-30	11	13	45.83%
Kevin Green	Crawley C	19	22	-3	5	6	45%
Don North	Crawley B	17	30	-13	4	5	44.44%
Wen Wei Xu	Brighton City B	26	25	1	6	8	42.86%
Tony Catt	Lewes	44	50	-6	10	14	41.67%
Stephen Hoad	Horsham D	19	23	-4	5	7	41.67%
David Steel	Pavilion	21	28	-7	5	7	41.67%
Andy Castle	Horsham B	21	25	-4	5	7	41.66%
Alex Morrison	Horsham C	27	40	-13	6	11	35.29%
Gary Bristow	Brighton City B	12	23	-11	3	6	33.33%
Charlie Lance	Lewes	3	8	-5	1	2	33.33%
Raj Waterman	Crawley C	6	8	-2	1	3	33.33%
Ricki Weston	Horsham C	14	20	-6	3	6	33.33%
Emma Torkington	Hollingbury A	3	6	-3	1	2	33.33%
Steve Marley	Lewes	4	8	-4	1	2	33.33%
Colin Jones	Horsham D	34	54	-20	7	14	33.33%
James Meyers	Hollingbury A	4	7	-3	1	2	33.33%
Daniel Barna	Brighton City B	21	52	-31	6	15	28.57%
Steve Chambers	Brighton City B	24	44	-20	5	13	27.77%
Matt Turner	Crawley C	3	11	-8	1	3	25.00%
Leo Assissi	Brighton City A	28	61	-33	6	19	24.00%
Andy Meads	Crawley C	15	40	-25	3	12	20.00%
Mike Robinson	Pavilion	5	17	-12	1	5	16.66%
Carl Haines	Hollingbury A	24	45	-21	3	15	16.67%
Gordon Hall	Horsham D	15	31	-16	2	10	16.67%
Yolanda King	Lewes	5	15	-10	1	5	16.66%
Tejas Padalkar	Horsham C	11	40	-29	2	13	13.33%
Martin Hoad	Horsham D	11	51	-40	1	17	5.55%
Ben Cooper	Pavilion	3	9	-6	0	3	0.00%
Sarah Stedman	Pavilion	0	9	-9	0	3	0.00%
Bhuwan Limbu	Brighton City A	1	9	-8	0	3	0.00%
Alex Forshaw	Brighton City B	4	18	-14	0	6	0.00%
Chris Pullinger	Crawley C	2	9	-7	0	3	0.00%
Shaun Parsley	Crawley A	1	9	-8	0	3	0.00%
Henri Assisi	Brighton City B	0	9	-9	0	3	0.00%
Erik Van Mol	Horsham D	1	18	-17	0	6	0.00%
Daniel Pound	Horsham D	9	36	-25	0	12	0.00%

Download Spreadsheet (zipped .xlsx)

Week 5 of the Sussex Super League threw up some excellent team matches and a number of high quality individual encounters.

The Group B fixture between Pavilion and Horsham B brought Sussex's two top juniors, Da Shuai Zhang (known as 'Dash') and Helshan Weerasinghe, head to head and the clash did not disappoint going to a fifth set in which the latter's control and consistency conclusively prevailed 11-2 over the former's greater shot power.

Despite Weerasinghe's full house added to Rory Scott's surprise win over Marc Burman Pavilion helld out to win the match 5-4 and secure second spot in the group to ensure they go into the second phase of the league, starting next week, in the top group.

Crawley A also had safe passage to the top division courtesy of an 8-1 mauling of their C team colleagues. Captain Phil Richardson was again in resplendent form winning his three with plenty to spare. Mayur Majithia also won three but took five sets to see off Barrie Gilbert. Crawley C's consolations came via John Hook's surprise win over big-hitting Paul Carter and the fact that they still qualify for the second phase top group in third place.

Group B's other match saw Horsham C beat Brighton City B 7-2. Graham Carter led the assault with a maximum although young Dan Barna had a good night with creditable wins over Alex Morrison and Steve Hoad.

Group A also proved interesting. Hollingbury won out 5-4 in their derby match against Brighton City A. City's Tim Holtam was in great form to win three but it was not enough with opponents Prakash Varsani and Mark Scutts also in good form. Scutt's 11-7 in the fifth set win over penholder Wen Wei in the final encounter of the match decided where the bragging rights fell, although City had the last laugh as they still progress to the top group whereas Hollingbury miss out.

Horsham A confirmed their top spot in Group A with a 7-2 demolition of nearest rivals Lewes. Most exciting match of the night came with Steve Barby coming back from two sets down against Tony Catt to win a 13-11 fifth set and thereby preserve his unbeaten status on the night. Ian Ford also won his three, his five set examination being provided by Dave Steel. Lewes will be comforted by the fact that they still go through to the top group.

Horsham D's misery continued at the hands of Crawley B. Only Gordon Hall troubled the scorers for Horsham with a solitary win over Don North. Fredrick Neilson and Bipin Majithia both scored maximums for Crawley.

Thanks go to Tees Sport for the sponsorship of the Sussex Super League.

Week 5 Results

GROUP A	GROUP B
Brighton City A 4 v 5 Holingbury	Crawley A 8 v 1 Crawley C
Crawley B 8 v 1 Horsham	Brighton City B 2 v 7 Horsham C
Horsham A 7 v 2 Lewes	Pavilion 5 v 4 Horsham B

Tables

1st phase Group A	Team	Fixtures	Matches won	Matches Lost	Sets won	Sets lost	Sets difference	Points
1	Horsham A	5	34	11	114	55	59	34
2	Brighton City A	5	29	16	94	70	24	29
3	Lewes	5	24	21	89	76	13	24
4	Hollingbury	4	19	17	70	63	7	19
5	Crawley B	5	16	29	63	98	-35	16
6	Horsham D	4	4	32	31	99	-68	4
1st phase Group A	Team	Fixtures	Matches won	Matches Lost	Sets won	Sets lost	Sets difference	Points
1	Crawley A	5	32	13	102	62	40	32
2	Pavilion	5	28	18	98	67	31	28
3	Crawley C	5	25	20	90	80	10	25
4	Horsham B	5	21	24	81	95	-14	21
5	Horsham C	5	18	27	74	94	-20	18
6	Brighton City B	5	13	32	54	103	-49	13
2nd phase Top Div	Team	Fixtures	Matches won	Matches Lost	Sets won	Sets lost	Sets difference	Points
1	Horsham A	2	12	6				12
2	Crawley A	2	12	6				12
3	Brighton City A	2	9	9				9
4	Pavilion	2	8	10				8
5	Crawley C	2	7	11				7
6	Lewes	2	6	12				6
2nd phase Bottom Div	Team	Fixtures	Matches won	Matches Lost	Sets won	Sets lost	Sets difference	Points
1	Crawley B	2	12	6				12
2	Horsham B	2	11	7				11
3	Horsham C	2	11	7				11
4	Hollingbury	1	5	4				5
5	Brighton City B	2	5	13				5
6	Horsham D	1	1	8				1

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