Bridlington Cadet 4 *
Day 1.
Wales Boys [Lewis Williams & Lee Morgan] were very unfortunate to lose in the groups of the team event against a fired-up Westfield. Lewis won both his singles matches, but Lee lost in his events and they couldn’t combine for the doubles losing 2-3. The overall match score was 2-3 to Westfield and it was the longest match of the morning.
However, Lewis and Lee ‘picked themselves up’ for the match versus Ireland. Lee lost the first match 1-3, but Lewis came back strong with 2 wins and they won the doubles this time, to take the match 3-1 and finish 2nd in the group. Unfortunately there was only one team who progressed in each group.
Charlotte Carey and Nicole Hall fared better in the tournament as they beat Greenhouse Morpeth and Cliffedale both 3-0 which sent them through the group in 1st position and a place in the ‘final group’. They were placed against England and Bournemouth.
Against England, we lost 0-3 with Charlotte losing to Emily Bates 0-3 and Nicole losing against Tin Tin Ho 0-3.
Then we played Bournemouth for 2nd/3rd place. Charlotte beat Tressa Armitage 3-2. Nicole couldn’t pull out a win against Charley Kirby and we were tied at 1-1. We lost the doubles 2-3 and then Nicole lost to Armitage 0-3 to finish in Bronze position.
Day 2 – singles
Lewis and Charlotte take Bronze Home.
Nicole Hall was unlucky to get eliminated from the group stage having lost to Harriet Talyor, who she beat in the team event, and then to number 3 seed Jess Dawson, the eventual singles runner up.
Lewis Williams, number 6 seed, beat all his group opponents to set up a match versus Chris Wheeler, the 10 year old Scottish wonder. Lewis won comfortably 3-1 which set up an all Welsh showdown against team mate Lee Morgan. Lee qualified as group winner also beating Jarvis, Forester and Bennett.
Charlotte, number 4 seed, eased through her group beating Vuong, Slot and Bolton all 3-0. This put her through to the Q-finals. She comfortably won that 3-0 which should have placed her against number 1 seed Emily Bates. It was the underdog who took centre stage as Tressa Armitage beat Emily 2-3 and Charlotte had an opportunity to reach the final having beaten her in the team event. Tressa upped her game though, and Charlotte was just edged out 3-2 in a thrilling match. Tressa went on to win the event.
Lewis was the only player from Team Wales to left to fly the flag and he won a fantastic match against the Greenhouse talent Reece Placid 3-2. The match was the best of the day and saw many loop-to-loop rallies. In the semis, Lewis was unable to get his game to a high enough level and lost out 3-0 to the in-form Igor Morais, the tournament favourite.
Wales left the seaside resort of Bridlington with 3 bronze medals, and some £60 prize money, which is a great result for the 4 players involved.