City Championships 2014
The Gloucester Closed Championships were again held at Waterwells Sports Hall with the Junior competition taking place on Saturday 22nd March and the Senior championships on 23rd March 2014.
The Juniors from R&HTTC got the ball rolling for the Club with Ollie Bailey coming Runner-up in the Boys Under 13 Singles, losing to Ben Tyndall.
Owen Berry just missed out on the top spot in the Boys Under 15 Singles coming Runner-up to Olly Tyndall. However, Owen got his revenge in to Boys Under 18 Singles where he managed to beat Olly Tyndall to gain the title.
Margaret Pang took the Girls Under 18 Singles title beating Rachel Johnson in the Final.
In the Senior Competition the Mixed Doubles was played to a result with Christine Williams and Darren Griffin again taking the title over Ann Barnes and her partner Olly Tyndall.
Michael Pang came runner-up in the Division 5 Singles just losing out the Ed Birt. Liam James lost to Malcolm Deering in the Division 4 Singles final.
Rudford teams did exceptionally well during the Season, with 3 teams winning their respective Divisions:
The "A" Team, consisting of Christine Williams (Capt.), Darren Griffin, Gordon Shaw, Matt Kittle and Owen Berry, lived up to their name by winning the Division One title by 10 points over their nearest rivals Frampton Corintians "A".
Rudford "G" (Sten Salisbury capt., Dave Vye, Liam James and Phil Dixon) are Division 4 Champions, a massive 25 points clear at the top.
Division 5 was won by our "H" side of Paul Russon (Capt.), Jon Berry, Max Benson-Bunch, Michael Pang and Ollie Bailey, 3 of which are Juniors so this bodes well for the future.
Rudford "D" just pipped Frampton Corinthians "B" to the second position in Division 2, gaining promotion to Division 1 next season. The team included Trevor Oliver (Capt.), Ken Smith, Graham Chandler and Chris Pearce.
City Finals Night, Wotton Hall Club Friday 28th March
There were 5 finals played with 4 involving Rudford Club Members.
The Evening's events kicked off with the Open Doubles with Darren Griffin partnering team mate Gordon Shaw against Bill Dawe (Frampton Corinthians "A") and Olly Tyndall of GTTC "A". After a strong start, Darren and Gordon lost in 5 sets.
Ann Barnes featured in the Ladies Singles Final against Kim Selfe of Frampton Conrinthians "B". In a close 5 setter, Ann just lost out losing 11-6 in the 5th.
In the Veteran Singles, old rivals Griffin and Dawe battled for the title with Darren winning in 3 straight sets: 12-10, 11-6, 11-5.
In the final event of the evening, Gordon Shaw was up against 13 year old Olly Tyndall in the Open Singles, who had beaten Number 1 seed Darren Griffin to reach the final. Olly became the youngest player to win the Open Singles Title in living memory beating Shaw 11-8, 11-8, 11-8.