Lionel Coles had a great Andover Closed Tournament getting through to five finals but his luck ran out as he lost them all.

In the Open Singles he stood a very good chance against Andy Barnes, whom he had beaten on three previous occasions and while it was a very close encounter he eventually lost 11-8, 10-12, 9-11, 11-5, 9-11.

In the Veteran’s final against defending champion Richard Fettes Lionel lost 15-17, 7-11, 8-11 and had a mountain to climb in the Handicap Singles, coming up against a very good young player in Adam Lockington, who started each game on +16, so only had to get five points to win.

While Lionel had the experience to grind out a result, his opponent played very steadily and did not throw away points easily. Adam learnt from the first game, going down 19-21, but recovered to take the next two 21-14, 21-16.

Having previously been defeated in the Open Doubles, Lionel then had to contest the Mixed Doubles with Jill Cook against last season’s champions Zac Hine and Jessie Yi.

This was a thoroughly entertaining game which was unfortunately marred by service faults, players playing out of order and some umpiring mistakes.

Zac and Jessie just held on to their title when winning 14-12, 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-2.

In the Division 2 Singles last season’s runner-up Andy Farmer, went one better when he defeated Karl Jones 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8. The Ladies Singles was hotly disputed between team mates, with last season’s champion Marie Dyke up against Nicky Downs.

The experienced Marie held off a spirited effort from Nicky to hold on to her title, winning in five games 11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 12-10.

In Division 1 Hanson A played two matches on one night, being defeated by two man Tigers 4-6 and recording a good 9-1 win over Hanson Lions.

Tigers won thanks to three from Andy Snellgrove and two from Malcolm Cummins but the shock in this match occurred when Peter Henderson beat Cummins (undefeated for several seasons) in five games 12-10, 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11.

In the Lions match both Peter Henderson and Josh White recorded three wins apiece, while Dan Geary won two.

For Lions Zac Hine was the only winner when he defeated Geary 11-4, 12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9.