Lillington Free Church TTC staged its first graded tournament of the season last weekend at St Nicholas Leisure Centre in Warwick.

The host club provided the winner of the Senior singles in the morning when Josh Yarrow, newly returned from university, beat Craig Allen of Colebridge 3-1 in his semi-final and then took the final against Steve Bertie of Continental Stars in Birmingham 3-1. Bertie had beaten Fai Lau of Coventry in his semi.

Susie Swan of Free Church did well to reach the semi-final of a predominantly male junior event but lost out to Jack Ganderton of Stratford 1-3. In the other semi, Brandon Patterson of Kidlington defeated Alex Lau of Colebridge in straight games. The final was close with Patterson triumphing 11-7 in the 5th.

The cadets numbered 6 entrants and all played each other. Lillington’s Toby Roe emerged as the winner with club-mate Shivam Gupta as runner-up.

Likewise the under 13s was played on a round robin basis. Neel Deshpande of Knighton Park, Leicester, finished top with Tony Hu of Kidlington his nearest rival.

In the afternoon events Craig Allen got his revenge over Josh Yarrow in his semi of the grade A and then had to play a Free Church junior, Dan Stone, who had overcome Steve Bertie in his semi. Allen was made to fight by the youngster, winning 3-1.

In grade B, Mark Van Hoorebeck , unattached, beat Jack Ganderton 3-1 in one semi whilst another unattached player Lewis Singleton, formerly of Free Church, defeated Brandon Patterson. Van Hoorebeck took the trophy 3-1.

Two local players contested the Grade C final. Diosdado Alferez of Radford reached the final by beating Leigh Ganderton of Stratford in the semi. He was to meet Church’s Tobias Eriksson who had overcome Yoto Vassilev of Continental Stars. Eriksson duly took the title 3-1.

Three Continental players contested the semi finals of the Improvers. Simona Vassileva defeated club mate Aleksandar Anchev in one semi but Zdravko Anchev fell to Kidlington’s James Lee. Lee won an exciting final 14-12 in the 5th .

Finally, the contestants in the semis of the Beginners were Peter Vassilev, Continental, who beat Ashton Elsom of Tamworth whilst Dylan Soo of Tamworth defeated Josh Elsom, his club mate. Soo took the trophy in straight games.