Delayed write up of the Dudley Closed Championships held at Bromley TTC on March 15th 2020. The Dudley closed has been absent from the leagues agenda for approximately 15 years following a reducing entry over a number of years. The event has always had a long history for players from the club with many of our now veteran players, inscribed on the leagues trophies. Following a productive discussion at the leagues AGM, a decision was made to resurrect the event this year to gauge interest from the leagues increasing membership with the hope to maintain the event on the calendar each year. The event receive an entry of 35 players across cadet, junior, senior, veteran and ladies categories. The event was designed to promote plenty of matches for all entrants and feedback from the events was all very positive.
Results:
Our junior and cadet players were in fine form during the tournament with 2 of the league juniors, perhaps unexpectedly contesting the restricted singles title. Unseeded Alex Hay progressed through a difficult set of knock out fixtures to meet Ignat Vanuhins in the final. Ignat came out 3-0 winner in the final but some great table tennis on offer. Ignat also came out winner in the Cadet event, beating younger brother Alex in the final. Ryan Cox ran out worthy winner in the Junior Event beating cadet champion Ignat Vanuhins.
The ladies title was won by Qian Zhang following a group round robin event, with Hannah Pearce taking running up place. Both ladies were also involved in the mixed doubles final with Qian Zhang and Mark Nicholls overcoming Luke Smith and Hannah Pearce in the Final.
Open Doubles event saw a number of closely contested matches during each knockout stage. Top seeds, Tom Watson and Tom Savary came through a 5 set encouter in the early stages, against veteran pair Martin Clayton and Steve Smith. The top seeds regrouped to progress and won the final against Dan Jones and Luke Smith in 5 sets. Steve Smith and Martin Clayton showed their experience in picking up the restricted doubles title in 4 sets against junior Ignat Valunins and Igor Sipilovs.
Both Veteran titles were won by Alan Warby. Alan progress through back to back knockout events to contest finals against Alexander Iskander (Veterans) and Steve Hammond (Super Veterans).
The Singles Open championship concluded a great day of table tennis with Tom Savary and Tom Watson competing against each other. The duo has previously succeeded in the Open Doubles event but now faced off to complete for the singles title. The fast paced match played out with both players flexing their attacking styles from both wings of the table. The speed of Watson was slightly overpowered by the experience of Savary, who came out overall winner and crowned champion.
Results from the days event can be tracked on the Dudley Table Tennis League website here: https://dudley.ttleagues.com/article/dudleyclosedchampions-results
Thanks to Rod Poole for running the event and all participants who contributed to its success.
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