Report on Saturday 22nd April by Linda Powell
Open Singles: Players started in five groups. Top seed, Dylan De Silva, won Group A comfortably. Runner- up Paul Dowson survived a battle with Iain Macleod, which he won 11-6 in the fifth set. The convincing winner of Group B was Jason Fleming, a new member based in Carlisle.
Third seed, Reuben De Silva, fought to defeat Group C’s eventual runner up, Graham Gault, 11-8 in the fifth set. Another notable Group C tie was Craig Wilson’s fifth-set victory over Scott McCombe.
Group D was dominated by the Club’s two top girls, fourth seed Shannon Brown and Maria De Silva. Runner-up Maria lost 1-3 to Shannon in the final tie. Meanwhile, Paul Borrowdale won Group E.
Graham Gault and Maria won their play-off matches to reach the quarter-finals, but both were then defeated. Father and son Dylan and Reuben contested the first semi-final, with victory going to Dylan, 3/1. In the other half Jason defeated Shannon 3/1, before giving a good account of himself in a 1/3 loss to Dylan.
Open Doubles: The most notable preliminary play-off was that between Graham Gault/Brian Kirkpatrick and Andrew Dawson/Richard Ishmael, which the veteran league players won 11-9 in the fifth after trailing 0-2. The only quarter-final to go to a fourth set was Cory Dawson’s and Finley Boyd’s win against Callum Hutchison and Evan Robertson. The boys then lost 0/3 to Jason Fleming and Gordon Duff. In the other half Reuben and Shannon faced Danny Bajwa and Maria. The latter pair won 3/1 and went on to beat Jason and Gordon 3/1 in the final.
Veteran Singles: Dylan won Group A, and Iain MacLeod was second. In Group B Graeme Boyd won the closest match against Bogdan Gofron, 11-7 in the fifth set. The group winner was Gordon Duff, who conceded just one set, to runner-up Brian Kirkpatrick. In Group C Graham Gault ousted third seed Paul Borrowdale 3/1 in the last tie. Dylan maintained his unbeaten status with a semi-final win over Paul. In the other semi-final Graham and Gordon battled over five sets, with Graham triumphant 13-11 in the fifth. The indomitable Dylan then collected his second title.
Handicap Singles: There was a mix of seniors and juniors in this event. The backmarker was Dylan with a handicap of -12, and Jacob McCallie had the highest one, +17. Unfortunately Jacob (+17 start) played the experienced Paul Borrowdale (-1), and was pipped at the post, -19, -18.
In the first semi-final Shannon and Gordon each had a -2 handicap, hence normal rules applied, with no “Sudden Death” rule in force. Shannon won, 19, 17. Dylan started at -5 behind Reuben, and came through to the final, where he beat Shannon (+6 start) 19, 10.
Handicap Doubles: In this fun event there are no handicaps. Top players are paired with the less experienced, so it is often the middle-range pairs who win. Dylan and Craig Wilson moved from the play-off zone to the final, losing only one set, to Maria and Finley Boyd. Shannon Brown and Graeme Boyd also started in the play-offs. They played one of the best matches in the event, but lost to Jason Fleming and Andrew Dawson, who recovered from 1-2 down to win the semi-final 3/2. Dylan and Craig never lost their grip in the final, netting Dylan his fourth title.
