The weekend of the 9th/10th October proved to be very hectic with 49 players playing 60 matches consisting of a total of 259 games. As the tournament was run using the MONRAD system, a lot of matches were played and something had to give – in this case, it was the Over 45 category.

The final round of matches saw around half of the most courageous and robust players fighting their fourth consecutive battle of the weekend. Overall, the attendance was good with Men’s A, B and C grades being run and good numbers in the Over 35 and 45 events. There was a Ladies event was run for the four entrants and the lack of numbers will be addressed in time for next season.

The Over 45 event had the perfect 16 draw until one person failed to turn up. Even so after 4 hard rounds, Chris Wilson beat Paul Bright to win the event. The Over 35 draw kept changing with work commitments and injuries and the final ended up being contested between Matt Fernandez and Gary Cairns, with Matt coming out on top.

It was great to be able to run 3 events in the Main category, and thanks must go to Martin Philips for involving and driving the IOW players. The C grade was a tighly fought affair with Callum Arnott beating Paul McCathie 3-2. The B event was dominated by Alex Philips and Chris Rand. Chris ran out the winner against a tired Alex.

The Ladies event was not supported well but saw several nice friendly matches. Kate Russell lost out to sister Lorna who lost to Flavia Roberts in the final. Sarah Giles battled hard in both matches but ended up in fourth position.

The main Men’s event was restricted to 8 players and was destined to produce a few upsets. Both Stuart Summers (1) and Gary Hales (3) had to come back from 2 down in the opening round. Stuart went on to beat Gary Harris and set up a final against Matt Holland, who quickly dealt with a tired Gary Hales. In the 5/6 play off position, Chris Thornton had to play brother Ben, but did not have the energy to finish the match when he was 2-0 up and ended up letting it slip in a very long 3-2. Matt Holland took advantage of Stuart ’s hard progress through the tournament and, after letting him back in the second game turned on the pressure and won his first ever County Closed title 3-1.

Thanks need to go out to Winchester Lawn Tennis and Squash Club for letting us host the weekend and disrupt their Junior Session and Senior Mix in; all the players; everyone who refereed; ‘Stitch-a-logo’ for helping with the T-shirts; and everyone who helped encourage others to enter – Martin Philips in particular. With all the help from these people and players, we ended up having a superb tournament… Roll on next year.