Tambourelli came home to Newton Stewart this year with the 2018 World Tambourelli Championships beinRepresentatives from Newton Stewart and the surrounding area faced fierce competition from players based in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Yorkshire and Devon as well as Sweden, Japan and the usual strong contingent from Germany.g hosted at the Merrick Leisure Centre on the 28th and 29th of July.
In the Men’s Singles
event, defending champion and Newton Stewart native Bazil Hughes was
unable to earn his 5th title as he came up against the
unstoppable force of Sebastian Rose in the final. Sebastian, 4-time
German champion and now 2-time World champion, went through the
tournament in dominant fashion, not dropping a single game and
winning the final 21-15, 21-12.
Bazil, 26, said
“Sebastian was too good this year - I gave it everything I had but
he was on another level. When I played him in 2013 and 2016 I found a
way to win but this time he had an answer for everything I threw at
him.”
“I’ll have to go
back to the drawing board and come up with something new because
Sebastian has raised the bar. It felt like I was playing against two
of him - nobody has beaten me by that wide a margin since I was 15
years old.”
In the Women’s
Singles, Jasemine Bosenick from Oxford claimed her 3rd
title, defeating last year’s champion Katrin Ueberfuhr of Dresden
by 2 games to 0. Katrin defeated the 10-time champion and all-time
great Indy Lennartsson in a gruelling three-game semi-final matchup
but was unable to overcome Jasemine in the final.
In the Doubles Graham
Moffat and Jason Littlefield took home the title, beating Indy
Lennartsson and Lutz Reifer by 2 games to 1. Graham’s victory
ensured that, for the 19th consecutive year, Scotland had
an adult tambourelli world champion.
Under 16s doubles was a
tight game with high skills from the youngsters employing a lot of
the tactics available including fake shots as well as alternating
long and short shots. Vanessa and Willie got ahead to create a
Scottish and German victory.
In the newly-added
Singles category for 16-21 year-olds, Fraser Dawson faced Tal
Appleton-Wickens in a repeat of the 2013 under-16s final. Last time
around Tal, 21, from London was the victor, but this time Fraser, 18,
overcame his rival to claim another title for Scotland on home turf.
Next
year the tournament will take place in Sweden for the first time.
Chloe Bruce, a former world champion, hopes the tournament will bring
more players to the weekly club in Newton Stewart: “We need all the
help we can get for next year if we’re going to keep the streak
alive and bring back a title to Scotland for the 20th
year in a row. We also thank the sponsors
