The 2012 Maidenhead Closed Championships took place over the weekend of 11th / 12th February at the Cippenham Table Tennis Centre. Attendance this year was disappointing, partly due to competing events in the area. Those attending did have a good time, with some close matches.

The Men’s singles event on the Sunday saw Mark Banks regain the title , having come runner-up last year to Ramesh Gehlot, In a clinical performance he defeated Tom Mitchell 11-8, 11-3, 11-7.

The Tweenies singles and the Division One title, saw the same two players fighting out. On both occasions Anthony Gardner came out top, but in the Division One final it took him 5 sets to overcome Andrew Sullivan 11-9, 15-13, 9-11, 10-12, 11-9 in a close fought match. Both players producing some fine shots and exciting rallies.

It was nice to see some new faces this year. Ashley D’Sa won both Division Two and the Tweenies Singles Consolation. The Division Three Title was taken by another newcomer to the completion, Viliam Andrascik, who was also runner up in the Divisional Handicap.

The Ladies events this year were run as round robin events due to the low numbers. However those taking part had a plenty of matches, with Gemma Chapman re-taking the Ladies Singles Trophy after a year’s absence. Jan and Gemma Chapman also took the Ladies Doubles trophy.

The Mixed doubles produced some very tight and exciting semi finals before Tom Mitchell and Gemma Chapman defeated last year’s winners Mark Banks and Elena Cockrell in the final.

As usual the concluding event on the Saturday was the charity drawn Handicap doubles. Each round saw different pairings of players, the winners going forward to the next round. In the final Ashley D’Sa and Andrew Sullivan defeated Laura Betteridge and Fenton Varady. This year’s charity was the Samaritans.

Maidenhead Closed Winners 2012