Category D Open Championship (Level Singles for Handicaps 30-39) 2012
Oct 05, 2012 - Oct 07, 2012 Hatfield J Dawes
Report by Jon Dawes
Category D Championships 2012
Once again Hatfield played host to the Category D championships for players between 30-39 handicap. As in previous years the event was well supported with a total of 21 competitors split into 2 categories, 30-34 and 35-39.
Category D 30-34
The 30-34 event this year was contested by only 7 players, with a mix of old and new faces competing for the trophy. The early rounds went according to seeding with one exception when Jonathan Selbie (Lords) beat No. 4 seed Chris Lindsey (Prested Hall) 6/3 6/2 to set up a semi-final with the No.1 seed Paul Miron (Radley). This proved to be a fantastic match and with Jonathan leading 6/2 5/4 it looked like another upset was on the cards. Despite being match points down, Paul managed to recover and eventually took the 2nd set 6/5 and then closed out the final set 6/4 to progress to the final where he met the No. 2 Silas Manhood (Hatfield). Silas had himself overcome 2 very tricky opponents, Richard Ramjane (Prested Hall) 3/6 6/2 6/2 and Richard White (Petworth) 6/4 6/2 on his way to the final and so a close tussle was expected.
Sadly Paul was never really able to get a foothold in the match. Silas served very well and managed to control the service end and except for a 3 game period in the 1st set the result never really looked in doubt. Silas eventually winning 6/3 6/2 to keep the trophy at Hatfield.
Category D 35-39
The 35-39 event had a total of 14 entrants and as has been the case a few times in recent years it was to be another talented youngster who went on to take the event. Robert Shenkman (Manchester) progressed to the final very smoothly, dropping a maximum of 5 games in each of his 3 matches up to that stage. There he would meet Nick Browne (Radley) who by contrast had a very tricky route to the final, beating Vern Cassin (Radley) 6/4 6/4, sandwiched in between 2 very long 3 sets matches against Louise Mercier (Hatfield) 5/6 6/3 6/2 and James Thomas (Cambridge) 2/6 6/3 6/4.
The final was also to prove a very tightly fought affair. Robert won the 1st set 6/3 and it looked as though his passage to the title would be a smooth one. Nick had other ideas though and was serving to a very tough length, preventing Robert from playing his favoured cut returns into the corners. Some very hard hitting from Nick along with a few unforced errors from Robert meant that Nick eventually took the 2nd set 6/5 to set up a decider. Robert, after blowing off a bit of steam at the end of the 2nd set, was able to calm himself down a bit (aided by a few words from the marker) and just managed to reassert his authority on the match and finally ran out a 6/3 winner in the final set.
Thanks to Jon Dawes, Ben Matthews and David Johnson, who filled in for Ben over the weekend, for all their efforts with the marking and organisation and good luck to Robert as he continues his progress in the game under the watchful eye of his father Simon.
