Ricky Hardcastle won the Club Championship Open Singles title at Cippenham TTC for the third time in four years, beating last year’s winner Shae Thakker in the final.
Three of the four seeds, Thakker, Hardcastle and Steve Smith, came out top of their preliminary round groups. The only one who failed was fourth seed Bas Mocharrafie, beaten 3-1 by Seb Nimier, winner of the Festive Grand Prix at Christmas.
The group winners all faced runners-up in the quarter-finals and all prevailed. At the top of the draw Thakker eliminated Mocharrafie while Smith eased past Zsolt Varga. Nimier came from 2-1 down to defeat Sue Hayes and Hardcastle beat Wendy Porter.
Onto the semi-finals where Thakker won 3-1 for the fourth consecutive match against Smith and Hardcastle progressed with the same scoreline against Nimier.
In the final itself, Hardcastle opened up a 2-0 lead only for Thakker to counter with a deuce game in the third. Try as he might, Thakker was not quite able to repeat that in the fourth and Hardcastle ran out a worthy winner 11-9.
A total of 12 players contested the event, organised by Elena and Dave Tant.
* Sue Hayes, Robert Hansell and Jemma Walker all became double champions when the Buckinghamshire Closed Championships took place at Cippenham. Hayes and Hansell won their respective singles and gender doubles titles while Walker was successful in two doubles events.
All three capped off the hugely successful seasons they have enjoyed playing in Cippenham teams. Hansell was a member of the Cippenham team that finished in their highest ever position in the Senior British League, Hayes was in the Cippenham team that won Veterans’ British League Women’s Division 2 while Walker’s incredible season included her Cippenham second team finishing runners-up in their first season in the Women’s British League Division 5.
At the Bucks Closed, Hayes defeated Walker in the final of the Women’s Singles and also teamed up with her to win the Women’s Doubles where they beat another Cippenham pair in the final, Shristi Ghosh and Carys Evans.
Hansell beat Danny Baxter in the final of the Men’s Singles and also teamed up with his father Nick Hansell to win the Men’s Singles. With his mother Susana Hansell he was also runner-up in the Mixed Doubles, which gave Walker her second title partnering Danny Baxter. Twelve-year-old Shae Thakker won the Men’s Singles Consolation event.
* Chalfonts TTL 2015/2016 Closed Championships results
Restricted Singles: Winner Ron Bryant; runner-up Steve Dunn
Mixed Doubles: Winners Shae Thakker & Carys Evans; runners-up Mitchell Jones & Hazel Williamson
Women’s Singles: Winner Carys Evans; runner-up Sue Merican
Veteran Singles: Winner Ajay Gohil; runner-up Richard Cottle
Men’s Doubles: Winner Mitchell Jones & Shae Thakker; runners-up Mark Croucher & Dave Croucher
Men’s Singles: Winner Mitchell Jones; runner-up Richard Cottle