Baldwin claims double title
The Bath Senior Closed Championships were held over four days last week at St John’s.
In the Open Singles, both semifinals were cracking matches. Phil Marshall defended tenaciously against Gary Baldwin and every game went the distance, but Baldwin’s skills came to the fore and he secured a 3-0 win.
Meanwhile young Will Avery’s fine Championship came to an end against Andy Cox. Cox’s deep defending and counter-hitting matched Avery’s quick attack but, at 2-0 down, Avery threatened a comeback by taking the third game. However, Andy dug deep in a very close fourth game to close out the match 12-10 for a 3-1 win.
The final looked like it might be a runaway win for Baldwin as he took the first game 11-2, but Cox came straight back to take the second. The next two games were very competitive, but Baldwin won them both to successfully defend his title.
In the Veterans Singles, Baldwin and Cox were paired in the first semi-final in a repeat of the Open Singles final.
Cox was unlucky to lose a very tight first game, but thereafter Baldwin proved irresistible and ran out the winner 3-0.
Albert Bolhuis had lost only one game in the competition, but Peter Mott proved too strong. This was a close match with the second game, won by Mott 14-12, proving decisive as he ran out an excellent 3-0 winner.
The final proved a bridge too far for Mott though. Baldwin was in control throughout, winning 3-0 to defend the title he won last year.
In the Restricted Singles, Ricardo Perpetua was an upset winner in the first semi-final defeating favourite Paul Green 3-1. With the match at 1-1, the third game proved critical and winning it 11-9 gave Perpetua the confidence to go on to win the match in the next game.
The other semi-final was a longer and closer match. Justin Johnstone was 2-0 down against Kevin Berryman but clawed his way back by winning games three and four 11-9. Berryman’s resistance was finally broken and Johnstone was a convincing fifth game winner.
The final was a see-saw affair. At 2-1 up Perpetua looked a likely winner but Johnstone dredged up some energy to fight back to win the next two games and become the first winner of this new competition.
A Plate competition was held for non-qualifiers from the group stage and was won comfortably by Mike Newton, beating Paul Crocker in the final.
In the Handicap Singles, Neil Darnley disposed of Ray Bennett in two straightforward games, but the other semi-final was much tighter. Olly Newton had a four-point handicap advantage over Josh Kashdan and it proved decisive in giving him a 2-1 win, 21-17 in the third game.
The final between Darnley (0) and Newton (-2) was a repeat of an earlier group match. That had been won 2-0 by Darnley and the final produced an almost identical scoreline. The first game went all the way, Darnley winning 21-19 and he powered on in the second game to win 21-13 and secure the trophy.