Trio clinch hat-trick of table tennis titles

THE Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Closed Table Tennis Championships at Clee Sports Hall was dominated by three players, Sean Ward, John Hancock and Chloe Lingard, who all came away with three titles.

Ward won the Men’s Singles title for the sixth time in a row defeating Hancock in the final 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-6.

Their ASL Premier title winning team-mates Jonathan Corry and Aaron Wakeling were the losing semi-finallists.

Ward and Hancock then teamed together to win the Men’s Doubles title for the seventh time in a row, defeating Jack Blyth and Corry in the final 13-11, 12-10, 15-13, the straight set victory not doing justice to the quality of the opposition.

Hancock confirmed his grip on the Men’s Veterans title, which he has held since the 2012-13 season, when he defeated Tindall in the final comfortably in straight sets.

The losing semi-finallists were Russell Hays and John Aberra.

Hancock then completed a hat-trick of trophies when he teamed up with Lingard to win the Mixed Doubles, defeating Sean Ward and Elliot Ashford in a four set final 11-4, 15-17, 11-6, 11-6.

Ward’s third title was the Inbetweeners, for players too old to compete in the Junior competitions and not yet qualifying for the Veterans. In this he defeated Wakeling in the semi-final and Blyth in the final 7-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-6. Blyth had a terrific battle with Corry in his semi-final winning 1-11, 11-9, 11-2, 9-11, 11-2.

Lingard comfortably won the Ladies Singles, the interest in this competition being the battle for second. This was won by Ashford with victories over Dorothy Fuller and Kay Ward, though Ashford was taken to five sets by Ward. Fuller took third place with a straight set victory over Ward. Lingard then teamed up with Ashford to take the Ladies Doubles defeating Fuller and Ward 11-4, 11-5, 11-8. Fuller retained her Ladies Veterans title with a win over Maureen Lincoln.

The players who were knocked out at the Group stages of the Men’s Singles competed in the Plate competition for the Ken Chesman Memorial Trophy.

This produced a tremendously hard-fought competition with the winner Ryan Mitchell knocking out last year’s winner Chris Bygott in the semi-final 9-11, 18-16, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8. He then defeated the 2023 runner-up Sean Brown in another five set thriller 5-11, 11-3, 6-11, 11-2, 11-5.

Brown had qualified for the final with wins over Dave Mitchell and then Chris’s father Bill Bygott in his semi-final.

The Veterans Handicap, competing for the Jack Bond Shield, was another very tightly contested event.

Chris Bygott (+6) took the title for the second time in three years.

He defeated Sean Brown (+6) in the semi-final 21-15, 21-18, then won the final against Russell Hays (+4) 21-14, 13-21, 21-9.

Hays qualified for the final with victories over Dorothy Fuller (+10) in the quarter final and Bill Bygott (+11) in the semi-final.