County Closed

R&HTTC members dominate the Gloucestershire County Closed

By Clare Bell, edited by Ann Barnes

The Gloucestershire County Closed Table Tennis tournament was held at Deer Park School, Cirencester on Sunday 6th January 2013. There was a good turnout this year and the standard of play was excellent.

Rudford and Highleadon Table Tennis Club members featured in 11 of the 14 finals being victorious in them all.

The U13s was won by up and coming youngster Olly Tyndall (R&HTTC) (pictured left with Graham Slack), with Alex Roberts as runner-up.

The Boys U15 saw some upsets in the semi-finals, leaving

Owen Berry (R&HTTC) and Jamie Theyer to fight for the top spot. In a tightly fought match Berry (right) emerged the victor in the 5th set (8/11, 11/4, 11/9, 7/11, 11/2). The Boys U18 had 12 entrants and after some hard fought games the final was between Tyndall and Ben Roberts. At 2 sets a piece it was all down to the last set which Tyndall won (12/14, 11/7, 9/11,11/0,11/7) and retained his position as Gloucestershire’s top junior.

The U18 Boys doubles competition resulted in Tyndall and Billy Shilton (pictured below) beating Ben Glover and Jamie Theyer in a 4 set final.

10 ladies entered for the Ladies Singles; there were some lively matches, with Ann Barnes (R&HTTC) running out the winner and Mel Boulton (R&HTTC) taking the runner up spot. The Ladies Doubles was won by Mel and Ann (right) with Janie Kirby and Lesley Slack taking the runners up spot.

The Mixed Doubles was between 8 pairs and after some challenging games the winners were Barnes and her partner Bill Dawe (pictured below left), who fought off Lesley Slack and Russell Hayward in 4 sets (12/10, 11/5, 9/11, 11/5) in the final.

The semi-finals of the Veterans saw the top 4 Gloucestershire men

fighting for a place in the Final. Darren Griffin (R&HTTC) beat Bill Dawe in 5 sets, and Martin Gunn beat Dave Harvey (R&HTTC) in 4 sets, leaving Griffin and Gunn to fight out the top spot. Griffin (pictured right) was the winner in a hard fought match with some entertaining play from both players (10/12, 11/9, 11/8, 13/11).

The 12 pairs of players in the Men’s Doubles had some cracking games along the way

and resulted in the thrilling final. Dave and Mike Harvey (see left) were worthy winners over Bill Dawe and Martin Gunn. In the Masters competition Gordon Shaw (R&HTTC) was the winner over Tom Watmore.

The Men’s Singles competition was a tightly fought set of matches with father and son Dave and Mike Harvey facing each other in one semi-final – Dave winning in 4 sets; and the other semi was between old rivals Darren Griffin and Bill Dawe. In a tight match, Griffin was the victor in 5 sets and went on to meet Dave Harvey in the final. Harvey won the first set, Griffin the next 2 and Harvey took it to 2 all with everything to play for in the 5th. Griffin was 9 – 4 up and must have had his sights set on another County title - however, Harvey upped his game to beat Griffin 13 – 11 to take the top spot in Gloucestershire at this season’s County Closed tournament (12/10, 3/11, 4/11, 11/7, 13/11).

Full results for the 2012-3 season: