30/06/2026
Seventy six players braved the heat on Saturday to play in the Cadet and Junior 2* competition at Ashford, competing in U13, U15, U17 and U19 categories. Despite a warm hall and a long day, players managed to stay hydrated and keep going, aided by copious towel and water breaks during the games. The U13’s saw Ashford’s Ethan King win the main knockout in four sets against Kent’s Oliver Willis, with Middlesex’s Elias Emin defeating Ashford’s Ameerah Ballad in the consolation final. In the U15’s final, Thomas Otterbu (SUR) overcame Ashford’s Jonathan Hartig in four sets, while Josh Herring (SUR), having narrowly defeated his brother Toby in the semis, went on to win the consolation final beating Samuel Morgan of Essex.
The closest contest was in the U17’s where Kai Lun Chow (Cam) defeated Zihan Lin, also of Cambridgeshire in five sets, finally winning out 6,-7,4,-8,10. Five set matches seemed a particular feature across the board, with a significant number of matches through the day going the full distance. In the U19’s Olivier Chu was a clear winner in three, against U17 champion Kai Lun Chow, while in the consolation event, Anhadvir Singh of Ashford was victorious. This was the first two-star cadet and junior event run at Ashford, following on from two successful one-star tournaments hosted in late 2025 and early 2026. Tournament organiser was Simon Grant, with Ken Phillips from Cippenham refereeing, and Simon Grant and Bjoern Hartig as the official umpires. Nimish Agarwal ran the desk, aided by Gary Stevenson. Future events are likely to include a U11/U12/U13 one-star and a Cadet/Junior banded 2* in the new season.
