Andrew Wilkinson regained the Alan Morpeth Memorial Cup when he was triumphant in the Open Singles at the Northumberland Closed Tournament. After beating Ken Lee in the qualifying stages he went on to defeat Gareth Pearson and Paul Baines without dropping a game to reach the semis where he was taken to four by Steve Penman before coming up against his old rival Eddie smith in the final. Smith had put out the strongly fancied student from Hong Kong, Chun Yin Yu in the other semi but Wilkinson dominated proceedings to take the title in straight games. 

Teenager Anna Sowerby shocked her older and more experienced opponents in the Womens Singles where she beat Pauline Long to finish second in her group and go into the semis where she produced a bigger surprise by defeating County Senior player Lynsey Storey. Kit Robinson who had defeated the top seed Lynne Herrington in the other semi, however beat the youngster to win the Philomena Clark Memorial Cup.

There was no surprise in the Veterans Singles where Eddie Smith won the event for the eighth year in succession when he beat Mark Christie in the final.

Steve Penman claimed the Band 1 title, Rod Roberts won Band 2, Robinson had another success by winning Band 3, Mike Jones picked up a couple of trophies winning Band 4 and also the Handicap Singles and young Sree Kanakala triumphed in Band 5. The Fun Doubles went to Chun Yin Yu partnered by  young Elliott Dorrington.

Adam Webster was the star of the Junior Tournament when he claimed both the Norman Moore Memorial Cup in the Juniors and the Harry Dignan Cup in the Cadets. He beat top seed Robert Renton in the Junior semi finals before beating his Cramlington team mate Andrew Matfin in the final who had put out the number two seed Thaaqib Saleem.  Kanakala won the Under 13s and was runner up to Webster in the Cadets while the under 13 runner up Archie Stokes  lost to his twin brother Alfie in the final of the under 12s.

Sowerby was successful in the Junior Girls and Rebecca Harrison came out on top in the Cadet Girls.

Results:

Open Singles: Wilkinson beat Smith 11 – 8  12 – 10 11 – 8

Womens singles: Robinson beat Sowerby 11 – 9 11- 3 11 – 9

Veterans: Smith beat Christie  11 – 6 16 – 14 11 – 8

Handicap: Jones (7) beat Saleem (-) 17 – 21 21 – 16 21 – 19

Doubles: Chun Yin Yu and Dorrington beat Lee and Saleem 12 – 10 9 – 11 11 – 8

Band 1: Penman beat Matthew Stephens 11 – 9 11 – 9 3 – 11 4 – 11 11 – 5

Band 2: Roberts beat Steve Dickinson 11 – 4 11 – 8 11 – 9

Band 3: Robinson beat Lee 11 – 4 10 – 12 11 – 8 15 – 13

Band 4: Jones beat Matfin  10 – 12 16 – 14 11 – 9 12 – 10

Band 5: Kanakala beat Linda Pinkham 11 – 4 11 – 6 12 – 10

Juniors: Webster beat Matfin 11 – 4 11 – 6

Junior Girls round robin: 1st Sowerby  2nd Harrison 

Cadets: Webster beat Kanakala 11 – 5 11 – 4

Cadet Girls round robin: 1st Harrison 2nd Lizzie Scott

Under 13s: Kanakala beat Archie Stokes 11 –2 11 – 3

Under 12s: Alfie Stokes beat Archie Stokes 11 – 8 11 - 9

 

Aubrey Drapkin