Gloucestershire County Closed Table Tennis tournament 2013

The Gloucestershire County Closed Table Tennis

tournament was held at Deer Park School, Cirencester on Sunday 6th

January. There was a good turnout this year and the standard of play was

excellent. The U13s was won by up and

coming youngster Olly Tyndall, with Alex Roberts as runner-up. The Boys

U15 saw some upsets in the semi-finals, leaving Owen Berry and Jamie

Theyer to fight for the top spot. In a tightly fought match Owen Berry

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 Olly 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 girls U18s

was won by Emily Philp with the runner up Rachel Johnson. The U18 Boys

doubles competition resulted in Olly Tyndall and Billy Shilton 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 running

out the winner and Mel Boulton taking the runner up spot. In the

Veteran Ladies the winner was Carol Philp and the runner up Janie Kirby.

The Ladies Doubles was won by Mel Boulton and Ann Barnes 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

Ann Barnes and Bill Dawe who fought off Lesley Slack and Russell

Hayward in 4 sets (12/10, 11/5, 9/11, 11/5) in the final. 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 were worthy

winners over Bill Dawe and Martin Gunn. The Minor Singles (not Division

1 players) was hotly contested and saw Joe Ansley beat Craig Smart in

the final. The semi finals of the Veterans saw the top 4

Gloucestershire men fighting for a place in the Final. Darren Griffin

beat Bill Dawe in 5 sets, and Martin Gunn beat Dave Harvey in 4 sets,

leaving Griffin and Gunn to fight out the top spot. Griffin was the

winner in a hard fought match with some entertaining play from both

players (10/12, 11/9, 11/8, 13/11). In the Masters competition Gordon

Shaw 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).