Philadelphia was the home to the first Pennsylvanian Gold of the 2023/23 season with the running of the catchily titled “Hunter Lott Junior Gold”. Conducted at the Merion Cricket Club and Cynwyd Club in the heart of Philly suburbia our members engaged their GPS, dusted off (or purchased) their “all white” attire and went into competitive mode!
Overall the program enjoyed tremendous success up and down the age groups - headlined by Lily and Arman who both made finals of the girls and boys U/17 respectively! Lily had a great warm - up before the West Coast JCT and Arman enjoyed a fantastic event, punctuated by defeating a player rated 0.2 ahead of him in the semis! Just too good! A little luck and Arman might just join us in San Francisco, as he’s currently the #1 reserve, so let’s hope he can continue his good form there!
Well done also to Evan (BU11), Chloe (GU13) and Frances (GU17) who all achieved a 3rd place finish in what were all tough draws. All three will also be making the trek west to JCT, so looking forward to seeing their good form continue at the highest levels!
Notable finishers included Katherine, who was 4th in the GU11, and Madeleine (GU15), Tony (BU11) and Ronnie (BU11) who all made the quarter finals of their respective events and made us all proud in their endeavors!
Outside the quarters, but still with distinction, congratulations to Anika (GU19) who proved her competitive toughness in a string of big matches to finish 10th, Angela (GU17) who achieved similarly in a high level draw and Leo (BU13) and Tyler (BU13) who both fought their way to a 13-16 finish in tough draws.
Next on the competitive agenda is the West Coast JCT where we have 16 Tigers who have qualified across the draws, then back for a Rehearsal Tournament on the 25th! The next Gold we’ll have “in person” coaching support will be the NJ Gold next month, so stay tuned for the details.
Bigger things ahead! See everyone at training!
