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Division 2 & 3 Singles Jenny Dobson ran Sasi Anandraj close, taking him to 5 games after winnning the elimination round (based on
the round-robin format). Sasi will meet Andy Prince in the Final, Andy having beaten Barry Dobson in the other Semi.
You can watch a few points of this match here , courtesy of YouTube.
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Special Thanks As usual, the Tournament Heats didn't "just happen"! All of the players owe a lot of
thanks to Adrian Reeves and his helpers, including Antony Moore and Paul Martin in particular, for the careful planning beforehand,
the flexible and efficient running of the event, and for the pleasant and friendly atmosphere that we enjoyed throughout the day.
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Doubles Both sets of Finalists ( Julian Walton & Nick Webb, and Paul May & Steve Robinson) reached their destinations
without dropping a game. This trend can't continue for both pairs!
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Division 4 Singles Glenn Phur will meet Raja Basak in the Final, two very welcome newcomers to the League and to Finals Night!
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Handicap Singles Chris Prince and Andy met in the Quarters with Dad Mick looking on eagerly from a distance! There shouldn't be
underdogs in the Handicap, but Chris was always struggling to make any impression on Andy's +5 starts. Andy then had another epic
struggle, this time with Jenny Dobson, who was on a daunting-looking +3. Jenny took the first game 28-26(!), and I guess Andy just lost the will to live at
that point. Meanwhile Steve Robinson and Barry Dobson(+8) were
grinding out a 3-setter;
Steve gradually shaved Barry's lead away a point at
a time (the maximum allowed!). Two of the most famous chisellers in
the League were hacking small slices out of each other at great length; it made fascinating viewing. Steve hit some occasional bold backhand winners, but
not quite enough to keep Barry out, so we have a father-daughter
contest in prospect at Finals Night.
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Veterans As a freak consequence of the absence of seeding, and the small number of entries,
your correspondent reached the Semi-Final of this event at the twenty-somethingth time of trying. His luck ran out when he met the
current Holder, Paul May. Andy Prince is the other Finalist, beating Nick Webb, who had earlier beaten Steve Robinson.
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Juniors Only one entrant for this, the promising young Matt Byers. Matt made a good impression in several other events, including taking
games off Paul May and Barry Dobson.
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Open Singles
Hard-hitting Division 2 newcomer Sasi Anandraj caused a shock in the Quarters by knocking out the Number 1 Seed, Paul May, but found Julian Walton a little
too versatile to progress further. Last year's losing finalist, Dave Menzel, fell to Chris Prince, who also beat the dogged Steve Robinson.
Chris Prince, in probably his last Winchester League appearance prior to emigrating to Australia,
would obviously love to win his first-ever Winchester Singles title, but his IBM A team-mate and practice partner, Julian Walton,
may not be eager to offer victory as a parting gift!
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