Club Championships Day 1 - 3 May 2022
After a two-year absence, caused by the pandemic, the Club Championships returned on Tuesday evening. The format remained from that last used in 2019 with events over four evenings commencing with the Veterans' Singles and Tweenies' Singles on the first day.
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The entry for the Veterans' Singles was not huge but what it lacked in quantity it made up for in quality with most of the top veterans from Cippenham's local league teams taking part. Maciej Dlugozima has acquired a useful habit of winning events staged at Cippenham, having won the Open Singles at the Maidenhead Closed Championships back in March, and that was for the third time. Now qualified as a veteran for the first time, having been born with only two days to spare before the cut-off date in 1981, Maciej quickly set about winning his first ever veteran title.
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The ten contestants were arranged into three first round groups with Maciej seeded second behind Paul Baker. Both Maciej, Paul and third seed Alan Moss duly won their groups and therefore qualified for the final phase where they played each other in a round-robin. This group was keenly contested with no match finishing 3-0. Maciej beat Paul 3-1 in the opening encounter and then followed up with a similar scoreline against Alan. Paul against Alan was a right ding-dong with Paul winning the first two games easily only for Alan to equalize with two deuce games. However, it was Paul who secured the runner-up medal 3-2.
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Akeel Mir surpassed himself in finishing fourth, followed by Graham Trimming and Albert Cheung.
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The Tweenies' Singles, an additional event for those "between junior and veteran age groups", has never had a large entry but this year's showing of only two players was nevertheless disappointing. The more experienced Michal Garski duly won the title by beating Qasim Hussain 3-0 in double quick time.
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Next up: Tuesday 10 May for the Open Doubles, followed by the Open Singles a week later and the Junior Singles one day after that.
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Thanks are due to Elena and Dave Tant for running the event.