June 2011 was clearly a month for ‘new kids on the block’. Rory McIlroy won his first golf ‘major’ – the US Open – and Steven Chowning from the Leeds University mahjong group saw off some strong competition to win his first major – the UK Riichi Open.
With one round to go, Steven was tied for the lead with one of the usual suspects – well enough known in the mahjong world to get by on her forename alone – Gemma. Gem won her final round with +10,000 but couldn’t match Steven’s 25,000 win.
In 3rd place was Nicolas Poilleux, recent winner of the French National title. More ‘new kids’ took the next two places Kristiina Kuusela from Finland, and Robert Steele from the emerging Warwick University group.
It was pleasing to welcome such a powerful French contingent to the tournament and to note the emergence of the student groups from Leeds and Warwick as well as an increased representation from Cambridge at this year’s event. Members of the Guildford Golf Club were heard to wonder when last so many Frenchmen came over to England, and concluded that it was probably 1066. (These visitors were more welcome). They further mused whether quite so much hair had ever been seen at the Golf Club, unless it was with many more heads to carry it! (The return of hair would also be most welcome, apparently).
Tournament Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Final Score |
| 1 | Steven Chowney |  | 111,200 |
| 2 | Gemma Collinge | | 96,700 |
| 3 | Nicolas Poilleux |  | 92,900 |
| 4 | Kristiina Kuusela |  | 72,900 |
| 5 | Robert Steel | | 52,000 |
| 6 | Kevin Lincoln | | 51,100 |
| 7 | Alex Horsman | | 50,300 |
| 8 | Valerian Thomas | | 47,900 |
| 9 | Richard Langtry | | 45,600 |
| 10 | Ian Fraser | | 41,900 |
| 11 | Dominic Denham | | 37,100 |
| 12 | Cecille Poilleux-Laudy | | 35,000 |
| 13 | Aidan Robison | | 34,100 |
| 14 | Jean-Marc Dedieu | | 33,900 |
| 15 | Pierre-Cyrille Kutukdjian | | 29,700 |
| 16 | Toshi Kashiwazaki |  | 29,000 |
| 17 | Cor Hoogland |  | 28,400 |
| 18 | Christopher Rowe | | 25,900 |
| 19 | Nicolas Campina | | 25,000 |
| 20 | Edwin Thomson | | 21,400 |
| 21 | Martin Lester | | 20,100 |
| 22 | Ans Hoogland | | 19,800 |
| 23 | Geoff Isenman | | 19,600 |
| 24 | Aziz Azougagh | | 12,800 |
| 25 | Sara Dona | | 11,200 |
| 26 | Paola Bungaro |  | 8,500 |
| 27 | James Neve | | -1,200 |
| 28 | Susan Stewart | | -2,400 |
| 29 | John Duckworth | | -9,000 |
| 30 | David Clarke | | -17,700 |
| 31 | Peter Langford | | -20,600 |
| 32 | Andy Mathew | | -22,700 |
| 33 | Marc Pester | | -28,100 |
| 34 | Joshua Tattersall | | -32,900 |
| 35 | Andrew Smith | | -37,400 |
| 36 | Matthew Johnson | | -39,000 |
| 37 | Quentin Thomas | | -43,500 |
| 38 | Michael Donaghy | | -44,700 |
| 39 | David Morris | | -47,700 |
| 40 | Julie Gacser | | -53,900 |
| 41 | Nick Dyer | | -53,900 |
| 42 | David Stallan | | -61,100 |
| 43 | Teemu Sandblom | | -66,700 |
| 44 | Edward Tebbatt | | -73,700 |
| 45 | Norma Todd | | -76,7000 |
| 46 | Paul Malone | | -80,900 |
| 47 | Wendy Coyne | | -105,000 |
| 48 | Benjamin Wicks | | -132,800 |
Represented Countries
| | | | | |
| 35 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |