Sporting success for North table-toppers
CRAMLINGTON Sporting Club hosted the Northumberland Junior Tournament and the Northumberland Closed Tournament.
Forty-four players took part over nine different events.
In the Closed Tournament the match of the day was the open singles final between Andrew Wilkinson and Adam Webster, who play for the North East Chinese Association in the Northumbria League.
The match was close with great attacking play but in the end Webster secured victory in the fifth end to receive the Alan Morpeth Memorial Cup for the first time.
The winner of the women’s singles and recipient of the Philomena Clark trophy was Charlotte Weatherby, who plays for the St Chad’s club in Sunderland, who overcame Lynne Herrington.
In the veterans’ competition Wilkinson beat Steve Penman in the final to clinch the inaugural Jim Stamas Memorial Cup.
The over-60s’ singles competition was won by Geoff Salter who beat Brandon team-mate Phil Hansom.
There was a consolation singles competition for those players who were knocked out in the group phase of the open singles.
This year the winner was Leo Conn from the Cramlington club who beat Brandon’s David Brown.
Brown took his good form into the handicap competition, overcoming Cramlington’s Oliver Ho in the final.
This year there were four banded singles events where players face those of a similar grading.
The standard of players in the Band One singles was extremely high and included Webster, Penman - who was a multiple winner of this event in prior years - Keith Weatherby, Neil Herrington, Ben Savage and Jamie Dent who reached the Band One final in, 2019.
The event was won by Webster who beat Dent in the final.
In the Band Two singles Newcastle University club-mates David Byers and Jeremy Hamshaw contested the final, which proved to be the closest game of the day.
Byers took a 2-0 lead but then Hamshaw claimed the next two ends 11-9 to take the match into a fifth end, which Byers won 18-16.
Conn added the Band Three singles crown to his consolation singles when he beat Harry Veitch in the decider. The Band Four singles final was another tight affair between John Henderson and James Moore, going to the fifth end which Henderson won 12-10.
In the Junior Tournament the singles final was contested by Cramlington club mates and Northumbria junior team players Ho and Conn, Ho coming out on top to take the honours for the first time and the Norman Moore Memorial Cup.
There was a very close cadet singles decider between Lanchester club mates Sam Li and Joshua Jackman, Li staging a comeback to take the final two ends to triumph.
The under-13 singles went to Charl Myburgh from the NETT club who saw off Alfie Weallens from Backspin in three ends.