there was a good entry of just under 50 players, with seeds allocated to Stuart Gibbs, Duncan Taylor, John Monk, John Poysden, Hanish Innes and Minda Sinkus.

Taylor moved smoothly to the semi-finals to meet Richard Brown, whose path was rather more difficult. He had deposed the third seed John Monk in four but then struggled to beat Wayne MacAlear, just edging the fifth 11-8. Fifth seed Hamish Innes caused him little trouble, going down in three.

In the lower half of the draw, Glen Johnson had done well to beat Andrew Halling and fourth seed John Poysden in three straight, whilst John Tendler, entering the tournament for the first time, raised a few eyebrows as an almost unheard of expedite was called in his duel with Ian Tuckey. He then defeated the useful Gary Baker, dropping just 11 points in the process. However, after losing the first two games, Stuart Gibbs turned up the heat to beat John in five, earning a semi-final place against Minda Sinkus. Another new entry to the tournament, Minda had a relatively easy journey, overcoming Colin Barham, Ian Rattray and Glen Johnson on ther way.

The Semi-Finals

Duncan Taylor, who had lost his title last year to the now injured Kevin Caldon, showed his fine defensive work against the aggressive Richard Brown, and ran out an easy winner 7,9,3. The other semi was a real spectacle, with ferocious hitting by both players, with the fast improving Minda going two games up and the first seed Stuart fighting hard to stay alive before eventually going down 21-19 in the longest game of the day.

Duncan Taylor (Hullbridge)

Minda Sinkus (Legra)

Eight ties comprised the first round of this event on Sunday. John Tendler progressed smoothly to the final with victories over Max Southby, Geoff Banthorpe and team mate Graham Farmer, who put up stiff resistance before running out of steam 11-7 in the final end.

In the lower half, Bill Smith need to eliminate Peter Pond, Sue Body and Dave Kirston, dropping just two games in the process.

In the final, Bill's aggressive attacking strokes were well handled by John's consistent dead bat defence, and John secured the trophy with a win in four 12-10,9-11,11-8,11-6.

She edged the first 11-9, but Sue settled into a rhythm taking the next two 11-8, 11-7. The fourth tense game saw Sue holding her nerve and taking the match 13-11.

The mixed doubles saw Sue and Linda paired with Chris Aukett and Stuart Gibbs respectively, resulting in a win in three straight for the latter pair 9,7,6.

The Saturday morning warm-up event saw eleven teams of three entered. Finalists were Gary Baker, Dave Calleja and Andrew Halling macthed up against a Hullbridge squad comprising Linda Attridge, Bill Smith and Glen Johnson.

Gary, Dave and Andrew won each of their games to secure the victory.