The IOMSRA Spring Grading tournament was held at the NSC on 3 March.
Grade 1 featured Liam Dixon who is currently starring in the Adult B Team league. Liam duly won the Grade and graduates from the Grading Academy. Congrats, Liam! Scott Jones finished a creditable second.
Grades 2&3 were split into 2 groups for a round robin followed by play-offs between the 2 groups. Group A was fiercely contested by Ben Peach and Macklin Wilson. Wilson won all his games to finish just 2 points ahead of Peach. Group B was very even with Beth Jones springing a surprise by beating Hannah Dixon 15-13. Courtney Gilardoni then beat Jones 15-14 and Matthew Naylor beat Gilardoni 15-10. Dixon beat Naylor and Gilardoni before Naylor surprised Jones winning 15-7. This meant Dixon finished first with Naylor just second. In the play-offs Peach beat Naylor 2-1 to finish 3rd. The final between Wilson and Dixon was a superb match and very sporting. Both players showed an excellent range of shots and court movement. Wilson narrowly won 2-1.
Grades 4&5: 9 players contested these Grades in a grueling round robin. 4 players won 6 of their 8 matches: Oliver Wait, Katherine Picken, Clare Townsend and Walid Anwar. George Dickinson won 5 matches to stay in contention with the top 4. Picken beat Wait 11-8 but then lost 11-4 to Townsend and 11-10 to Anwar. Anwar beat Townsend as well but lost to Wait 11-2. So, Wait finished first ahead of Picken who was just 2 points ahead of Townsend, 3 ahead of Anwar and 5 ahead of Dickinson.
Grade 6 was split into 2 Groups for a round robin followed by play-offs between the 2 groups. Group A was dominated by Isabel Joubert who won all her matches. Emma Leith came second despite losing to Alex le Moal who finished 1 point behind Christian Webster in third. Group B was decided by the last match between Laura Dickinson and Rania Gomaa. Gomaa played very well to win 11-8. Nasir Chohan was third just ahead of Ben Leith. In the play-offs Webster beat Chohan for 5th place. Dickinson beat Leith 11-9 in an excellent match for third and Joubert beat Gomaa 11-5.
Grading graduate and now coach Chris Doherty presented the prizes on behalf of Carl Albrigt who has a poorly hand.
