Andover Closed 2009

    Dave Dobson is the new Andover Champion. He came from behind to defeat Brian Rayment in an exciting five set final on Sunday. Rayment’s route to the final was via John Shepherd, Josh White and Brian Cook in the semis, while Dobson arrived after wins over Stephen Biles, Peter Henderson and Steve Harris. Rayment began well taking the first two sets 11-5, 14-12 and was ahead in the crucial third, before Dobson began to show his dominance by taking it 11-9. From this moment on, the new champion slowly but surely began to wear down his opponent, completing the match 11-3 & 11-6. The Open Doubles went to Peter Henderson & Dan Geary for the third year in succession, beating the Brian Rayment/Lionel Coles combination in straight sets. Dave Dobson was again in action together with partner John Shepherd as they took the Handicap Doubles title with a 21-9, 21-16 win over Ray Carver & Josh White and in the Handicap Singles it was Reuben Grimshaw who found his eleven points start more than enough to overcome Dan Geary, winning the match 21-13, 21-14. Reuben had a great day, making it to three finals, losing to team mate James Gardiner 4-11, 7-11, 11-5, 10-12 in the Division Three singles event, but winning the Division Two trophy in a straight sets win over Mike Shepherd. Brian Rayment & Lionel Coles will contest the Veteran’s final at a later date.

 The new Andover Junior Table Tennis champion is Edwin Slot, from the South Wonston club and the Cadet champion is Edwin’s sister, Chrissie. On Thursday night at the John Hanson School they swept all opposition aside to complete a unique family double. Chrissie got through to the final by beating both Morgan Smith & Ray Lockington in straight sets. The final seemed to be a formality as she once again took little time in defeating Reuben Grimshaw 11-7, 11-5, 11-5 to secure the title.

            Edwin saw off Grimshaw, 5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 14-12 in the quarter-finals followed by Morgan Smith in the Semi’s to set up a final against Pierce Stretch. Slot began well taking the first set 11-4 with some powerful hitting, but Stretch came back strongly to win the second 11-7. The two players have similar styles of play and entertained the spectators with an awesome display of attacking shots, before Slot just emerged 11-9 winner to go two sets to one up. Stretch got off to a bad start in the forth and was quickly four points adrift, but fought back well to 8-8. At 9-10 down, Slot had to pull out his best shots to level once again and from there went on to take the championship 13-11.  

Helen Frost has competed a unique ‘triple’.. She won the Mixed Doubles title with Josh White. The Ladies Doubles with Loyi Leung and capped it all by taking the Ladies Singles title to round off her best season for several years. Frost & Leung’s opponents in the Ladies Doubles were last season’s winners … Nicky Downs & Emma Boswell. These two are team mates who play together many times throughout the year and are a very good ‘doubles’ pair. Helen & Loyi, on the other hand had never partnered each other prior to this event, so the outcome was difficult to predict. In the first set it was the title holders who forged ahead and were 9-6 up at one stage. Nerves seemed to be playing a big part in this game as none of the players had the confidence to play their natural attacking game, resorting to almost totally defensive rallies. After some nail biting points, the challengers finally won the set 16-14, after which they were the more dominant pair and took the title comfortably in three straight sets.

            In the Ladies Singles, Helen had beaten Emma Boswell 11-5, 11-2, 11-7 in the semi’s, while Loyi had a tougher match against Nicky Downs, finally emerging the winner, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6. In the final the more experienced Frost, playing a mainly defensive game, slowly but surely induced her opponent to make mistakes. Whenever the younger player attacked, Helen would counter it with a clever ‘block’ shot and although Loyi was successful in passing her opponent on a few occasions, she made to many errors in between, losing the first set 11-5. This pattern of play was repeated for the remainder of the match which saw Helen Frost emerge as a worthy champion.

            In the ‘mixed’ event. Josh White & Helen Frost did well to beat the Edwin Slot/Loyi Leung pairing in an exciting final, which ended 11-7, 12-14, 11-8, 11-7.