Owen-George Cup

This year’s contest was without reigning champion Tom Bomford who was forced to withdraw shortly before the start of the tournament. This opened the way for a new name on the honours board or for an old champion to make a comeback and the semi-finals lined up two such old v new clashes.

The first saw Vaughan Hamilton taking on 2013 and 2015 champion Tom Lewis in a see-saw match with the initiative sitting firmly with one player before switching wholly to the other. The first set fell to Vaughan 6-1 before Tom took the second 2-6 to set up a deciding third set. The initiative swung again and Vaughan stamped his authority on the match taking the set without dropping a game 6-0.

The second semi-final saw the player with the best record in the tournament with 13 wins between 1993 and 2012, Philip Shaw-Hamilton, take on Patrick Sutton. This was a much more closely fought match with Sutton edging the first set 6-4. Shaw-Hamilton levelled in the second with a 6-4 win of his own before going on to claim the final berth with a 6-4 win in the third.

A packed dedans saw club junior Vaughan Hamilton who just a few years earlier had been ranked under 18 world No.2 take on an experienced player who in the previous summer had earned his first over 65s world title. The first set was a close one eventually going to Vaughan Hamilton 6-4 against Shaw-Hamilton tiring from his exertions in the semi-final the day before. In the second set Philip was not able to find the winning formula  he needed to force the match into a deciding set as he had done the day before and Vaughan was not in the mood to let a winning position slip away again as he had done in his semi-final. The younger player held his nerve to take the second set 6-3 and write a new name on the club’s board of Champions 

The club was again delighted that Blythe Liggins were sponsoring the event and that Tim Lester was on hand to present the Trophy to the new Champion.