Neil Pickard from Liverpool was the winner of the Halton Senior Open 2* tournament held on Sunday 18 January, while Aneta Kula won the women’s competition.

Neil Pickard from Liverpool was the No 2 seed and turned on a blistering performance to become the winner of the tournament, overcoming Cheshire’s Joe Killoran 3-2 (4-11, 14-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4) in the final.

In the semi-finals, Killoran overcame 13-year-old Ronan Lamont-Tierney of Halton TT Club 7, 10, 2 but what a day Ronan had when he overcame former European champion John Hilton in 5 in a group match, winning game 9 in the fifth!  In the second semi-final Pickard overcame Halton TT Clubs Matthew George 3-1 (11-2, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5).

This was one of a number of competitions which took advantage of the second day of the third British Club League weekend, which only had fixtures on the Saturday. The competition was played on in groups of five with the two at the top going into the main knockout and the other players into a consolation event.

There was a round-robin for the women’s event which was won by Aneta Kula of Cheshire, beating Lisa Rinnhofer Halton TT Club 4-3 (11-2, 6-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7), playing the best of seven to give them more game time. Rebecca Bayley of the Isle of Man finished in third place.

The Men’s Consolation event was won by Neil Wright of Crewe, playing as Wales, who overcame 10-year-old Hayfield Lam of Halton 6, 9, 6, who is currently rated England Under-11 No 1. In the semi-finals Neil Wright beat Isle of Man’s Adam Teare 8, 9, 9 While Hayfield beat Neil Fineberg of Stockport Cheshire 10, 8, -5, 4.

The Veterans’ Mixed Event was played in groups of four with two into the main event and two into the consolation event. No 2 seed Pawel Orzechowski, who plays SBCL for Hurricane TTC in the Championship Division, came out the victor over No 1 seed Neil Pickard, who was going for the double, 6, 6, 6.

The semi-finals saw Neil Pickard beat Rob Beatti 6,6,6; while Pawel came out the winner versus Brian Jeanes of Wales 6, 6, -9, 5.

The consolation event was won by Muhammad Saqib Chughtai of Lancashire, beating Halton new member from the Wirral Mehdi Eskoroochi 10, 9, 3. Losing semi-finalists were Steven Clay from Cumbria who lost to Medhi 9, -10, 8, 9; and Rob Midgley who lost to Muhammad 6, -9, 8, 8.

Special thanks must go to Ken Tonge, Tournament Organiser Level 4; Tom Purcell IU for umpiring the finals and controlling the umpires; and to Wasiu Adeshina who live streamed the event and interviewed the winners.

Photos by Ken Tonge