We’re back again in Kent for one of our main weekends of the playing calendar and the weather looks like it’s going to be kind to us, although not as hot as last year. The Gravesend club has been working hard to prepare the venue, and we’d like to put on record straight away our thanks and appreciation to all involved in the behind the scenes preparations.
So, as a preview, let’s run through what’s in store in the various competitions.
Saturday
Tradition says that Saturday is Singles day and we have our two gender separate competitions. We’re planning on everybody turning up, but of course the format set out below may have to be adjusted depending on what it looks like at close of registrations.
Remember: registration for PE national tournaments is always between 0845 and 0915 – don’t be late!
For our Women, we have 30 entries, so it will be 7 poules in the morning (6 x 4 and 1 x 6). We’ll take through 16 players to the afternoon ‘A’ knockout which will be seeded on overall games won and points (not on finishing position in the poule – this applies to all competitions this weekend). The National Ranking points will be contested in the ‘A’ Competition. The remaining 14 players will be in the ‘B’ Competition.
For our Men, we have 65 entries, so it will be 16 poules (15 x 4 + 1 x 6 with a randomly placed bye). The top 32 will go through to the ‘A’ Competition and battle it out for Rankings points. There will be 16 teams in both the ‘B’ and ‘C’ Competitions (with a play off to eliminate player 65).
Losing players in the first round of the knockout in each competition will play in that competition’s consolage.
Sunday
For our Women, we have 23 teams in the Doubles, and we’ll have 6 poules of 4. The top 16 will qualify for the ‘A’ with the remaining teams in the ‘B’.
For the Men, there are 45 teams, giving 11 poules (10 x 4 + 1 x 6 with a randomly placed bye), again leading to 16 qualifying for the ‘A’, 16 for the ‘B’ and the remaining 13 teams contesting the ‘C’.
Monday
Our third and final day is the Mixed Doubles, where we have 44 teams entered, leading to 11 poules of 4 and an ‘A’/’B’/’C’ split of 16/16/12.
Seeding
We will be seeding all of the competitions and we have used players’ positions in the 2018 Rankings to determine the seeds in the morning poules. There is no order of seeds, the number is linked purely to the number of poules, meaning that seeds will not encounter each other in the morning.
We will post the seeds before each competition and to start things off, the seeds in the Singles are shown below.
Men (17):
- Sam Blakey
- Jack Blows
- Phil Claydon
- Reece Gould
- Jeremy Huntley
- Ross Jones
- Rowland Jones
- Jamie Lewis
- Callum Lombard
- Dave Plumhoff
- Sean Prendergast
- Michael Quaia
- Monty Quaia
- Dean Seville
- Jason White
- Vince Wills
- Barry Wing
Women (8):
- Becky Edwins
- Sarah Huntley
- Emma Longstaff
- Debbie Matthews
- Sabrina Seville
- Kaylee Thatcher
- Sammy Thatcher
- Claire White
Prize Money
Again, we’ll update before each day’s competition, but for Day 1, the prize allocation for both Men’s and Women’s Singles is as follows (except where noted):
‘A’ Winner = £75
‘A’ R/U = £45
‘A’ Losing semi-finalists = £30
‘A’ Consolage Winner = £30
‘A’ Consolage R/U = £20
‘B’ Winner = £20
‘B’ R/U = £15
‘B’ Consolage Winner (Men Only) = £15
‘B’ Consolage R/U (Men Only) = £10
‘C’ Winner (Men Only) = £10
‘C’ R/U (Men Only) = £7.50
‘C’ Consolage Winner (Men Only) = £10
‘C’ Consolage R/U (Men Only) = £5
There’ll be regular updates on the PE website and social media as well as live-streaming of key matches. Keep tuned to follow all the action. Good luck to everyone, our players, umpires and organisers. Have a great weekend!