Senior Group Tournament
Post date: Sep 29, 2020 10:15:44 PM
Lawrence Stacey’s strong start to the season continued this week as he picked up his 3rd consecutive title courtesy of a battling 5 set victory over twin Joshua in the final.
This title followed his prior successes in the Division 1 Championship and the St Pauls Open Handicap Singles earlier in the month. The tournament itself was the first official Open scratch tournament of the 2020/21 season and it saw a healthy entry of 28 player all vying for the title.
As is usually the case, the 7 seeded Division 1 players all qualified from their respective groups as winners and the runners-up spots also largely went as expected and in line with expectations. Group D however saw 2nd Division player Martin Sarre battle past Division 1 players Andre De Carteret and Sam Clark to progress alongside Lawrence in what was a very toughly contested group. Sarre overcame De Carteret in 4 sets before edging past Clark in 5 sets in the final match.
The first knockout round saw some intriguing clashes and none more so that Lawrence’s encounter with fellow Division 1 player Ryan Bichard. The eventual champion won the first 2 tight opening ends before Bichard fought back to force the decider. In the end Stacey came through a great match 11-9, 14-12, 8-11, 8-11, 11-5.
Dawn Morgan battled past left hander Ryan Gilson in 4 tight sets, Matt Casey did likewise against Jamie Ferbrache and Paul Hainsworth overcame a slow start to defeat Craig Dunning, also in 4 sets.
The remaining opening round matches saw Ben Foss dispatch Sarre in straight sets and Liam Robilliard overcoming Juliette Yeaman in 4 sets.
This left a strong Quarter final line-up consisting of all seeded players and all well-established top-flight players.
Lawrence was the most comfortable winner at this stage of the competition due to his straight sets win over Robilliard. Foss battled past Casey in 4 sets, whilst Phil Ogier did the same on an adjacent table against team-mate Morgan. The closest match in the round was between top seed Josh Stacey and Hainsworth, with the former holding his nerve well to edge through the 5 setter.
Josh continued his form in the semis with a 4-set win over Foss, whilst Lawrence was in good form during his straight sets win over Ogier.
The final was a high-quality affair between the twins and there was rarely more than a few points in it at any given time. Josh looked to have it under his control whilst leading 2-1, but Lawrence battled back well to force the decider. Lawrence held a rare sizable lead in the deciding set, however Josh battled back and almost turned it around before going down 11-9. The final match score being 9-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9 in favour of Lawrence.