Fourth seed Adeoye Adewale took full advantage of top seed Tom Maynard’s withdrawal to triumph in the Cippenham Super 6 Senior 2-Star Open Championship.
The pair were due to meet in the semi-final but Maynard withdrew after defeating Paul Baker in the last 16 to grant Natalia Ianau a walk-over in the quarter-final.
Earlier, Adewale had won his preliminary round group and then eliminated David Ramsey and Valerio Bucci before benefiting from an easy win in the semi-final over Ianau, who had previously enjoyed a great win over Phil Snelson.
However, it was in the bottom half of the draw that most of the more interesting matches took place. Luke Moffat, of Worcestershire, retrieved a 2-0 deficit before recovering to beat Reading’s Hari Gehlot over five games but then was defeated 3-0 by third seed Stephen Beerling in the quarter-final.
Local player Hari Prasad Vennapusa went out in the first round of the knockout stage to Akash Shah who, in turn, succumbed to second seed Mitchell Jones. Jones then required four games to see off the challenge of Patricia Ianau and set up the match of the day between himself and Beerling in the semi-final. The match swung one way then the other before Jones eventually tasted victory 12-10 in the fifth and deciding game.
The final, between Adewale and Jones was won 3-0 by the Nigerian (11,9, 11-7, 11-9).
Cippenham’s Paul Baker enjoyed a good event, finishing second in his preliminary round group, then defeating the higher-ranked Carsten Hovestadt in the first knock-out round before being eliminated by Maynard.
The only other local player in the competition, Bassam Mocharrafie, finished fifth in his group, then had an easy win over Silas Woolway in the first round of the consolation event before being beaten by Yacine Boubekeur.
The consolation event was won by Damien Gray of Surrey, beating Middlesex’s Bharat Malde.
The tournament was organised by Paul Baker, refereed by Sue Hayes and attracted a maximum entry of 48 players.