Eighty-four players competed for twenty trophies at this year's York Closed Table Tennis Championships, sponsored by GMBU, held at the York RI Gymnasium on the 1^st and 2^nd February 2020.

Top seed Martin Lowe (Coneysthorpe) won the Men's Singles title for the eleventh time, defeating Bryan Birkbeck (Shiyi Ling) in the final in straight sets. Birkbeck played some brilliant backhand winners in the first game and went into a 9-5 lead, only for Lowe to come back and eventually win it 15-13. Lowe then ran away with the second game, winning it 11-2. In the third game Lowe raced into a 5-1 lead and never looked back, winning it 11-6. In the semi-finals Lowe defeated team-mate Calum Goodwin 3-1 after losing the first game, while Birkbeck won a very close match against six-times winner Richard Moss (York RI), eventually coming through 11-9 in the deciding game. Lowe was the only seeded player to reach the semi-finals. Birkbeck beat fourth seed Filip Wojtkowiak in the quarter-finals on his way to the final, Moss defeated seventh seed Jon Wooldridge in the eighth-finals and last year’s winner and second seed Jason Tang in the quarter-finals, while Goodwin beat third seed Aidan Ranftler in the eighth-finals.

15-year-old Moke Warburton (Coneysthorpe) won three events. In the Ladies’ Singles final she defeated 11-year-old club-mate Mia Longman 3-0. She teamed up Mia to win the Ladies’ Doubles final in straight sets against Natasha Harker (University) and Rachel Longhorn (Topspin), and with Martin Lowe to win the Mixed Doubles, again in straight sets in the final against Naomi Edwards and Ashley Hodgson (both Coneysthorpe).

The Men’s Doubles final was won comfortably by Calum Goodwin and Martin Lowe against the Topspin pairing of Nathan Taylor and Jon Wooldridge.

Josh Bramley (York RI) won both the Juniors’ (under-18s) Singles and the Cadets (under 15s) Singles events, defeating Arthur Sorley (Shiyi Ling) and Sam Lowe (Coneysthorpe) in the respective finals. Will Whattam (Topspin) and Moke Warburton came back from a game down to beat brothers Jack and Josh Bramley 3-1 in the Junior Doubles final.

Martin Lowe defeated Jon Wooldridge in straight sets in the Veterans’ (over-40s) Singles final. Wooldridge and Richard Crowther (York RI) defeated Ashley Hodgson and Dave Quinlan (York RI) in the Veterans’ Doubles final in straight sets. John Farmery (Clarence) retained the Over-55s’ Singles, beating Andy Fletcher (Shiyi Ling) 3-2 in the final.

The divisional singles titles were won by Jon Wooldridge (Div 1), Josh Bramley (Div 2), Gary Tranter (Shiyi Ling, Div 3) and Tony Fairburn (Wigginton, Div 4).

Filip Wojtkowiak (York RI) retained the Hardbat Singles title, defeating Nathan Taylor (Topspin) in the final. Mikey Arnold (Shiyi Ling) and Ishan Bairoliya (University) won the Hardbat Doubles, defeating Filip and Paul Seekings (Clarence) in the final.

The Mixed Plate was won by John Farmery. Josh Bramley won the Handicap Singles, and Josh teamed up with Dave Quinlan to win the Handicap Doubles.

The main sponsors of the tournament were GMB and we thank them for their continued support of table tennis in York.

Thanks to Richard Crowther (Tournaments Secretary) for running the tournament and to committee members who helped with preparation and organisation before and during the tournament, in which more than 550 matches were played. Thanks also to everyone who helped to set up the lights, tables, barriers and scoring tables at 7am on Saturday morning (and stayed to dismantle them on Sunday evening), and to those who ran the raffle.

Thanks to Chris Sharples for the following photographs.

Preview and seedings

Eighty-four players will be competing for twenty trophies at this year's York & District Table Tennis Closed Championships, to be held at the York RI Gymnasium on the 1^st and 2^nd February 2020. In the Men's Singles Martin Lowe (Coneysthorpe), ten-times champion, is the top seed, with last year’s winner and this season’s York Open champion Jason Tang (University) seeded 2. Aidan Ranftler (Clarence) and Filip Wojtkowiak (York RI) are seeded 3 and 4 respectively. Lowe is also top seed in the Veterans' Singles, with Jon Wooldridge (Topspin) seeded second. Holders James Atkins and Will Whattam (Topspin) are top seeds in the Men’s Doubles. In the Ladies’ Singles the top seed is 15-year-old Moke Warburton (Coneysthorpe), who is looking to repeat her success of last year. Andrea Potter (York RI) seeded 2. Warburton and Lowe are seeded to retain their Mixed doubles title. Last year’s Junior Singles and Cadets’ Singles winners Sammy Kelly (Topspin) and Sam Lowe (Coneysthorpe) are top seed in their respective events.

Note that seed 1 is placed into the top half of the draw, and seed 2 is placed into the bottom half. Then seeds 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8 are drawn into each half of the draw.

Men’s Singles (holder – Jason Tang): 1 Martin Lowe, 2 Jason Tang, 3 Aidan Ranftler, 4 Filip Wojtkowiak, 5 James Atkins, 6 Ashley Hodgson, 7 Jon Wooldridge, 8 Jacob McCarthy

Ladies' Singles (Moke Warburton): 1 Moke Warburton, 2 Andrea Potter

Men's Doubles (James Atkins / Will Whattam): 1 James Atkins / Will Whattam, 2 Calum Goodwin / Martin Lowe, 3 Nathan Taylor / Jon Wooldridge, 4 Nathan Horsley / Richard Moss

Ladies' Doubles (Cathy Garnsworthy / Moke Warburton): 1 Mia Longman / Moke Warburton

Mixed Doubles (Moke Warburton / Martin Lowe): 1 Moke Warburton / Martin Lowe, 2 Naomi Edwards / Ashley Hodgson

Cadet Singles (Sam Lowe): 1 Sam Lowe, 2 Josh Bramley

Junior Singles (Sammy Kelly): 1 Sammy Kelly, 2 Arthur Sorley, 3 Will Whattam

Junior Doubles (Sam Lowe / Arthur Sorely): No seedings.

Veterans' Singles (Martin Lowe): 1 Martin Lowe, 2 Jon Wooldridge, 3 Phil Bell, 4 John Farmery

Veterans' Doubles (Richard Crowther / Jon Wooldridge): 1 Richard Crowther / Jon Wooldridge, 2 John Farmery / Martin Hood

Super-Veterans' Singles (John Farmery): 1 John Farmery, 2 Andy Fletcher, 3 Richard Abrahams, 4 Alfie Potter

Division One Singles (Joe Wright): 1 Jason Tang, 2 Aidan Ranftler, 3 Filip Wojtkowiak, 4 James Atkins

Division Two Singles (Stephen Temple): 1 Alfie Potter, 2 Josh Bramley, 3 Michael Connolly, 4 Jack Bramley

Division Three Singles (Sam Crutchley): 1 Gary Tranter, 2 Lewis Harrison, 3 Patrick Clay, 4 Hugo Spark

Division Four Singles (Ian Oxborough): 1 Tony Fairburn, 2 Russ Broadbent, 3 Leszek Kozak, 4 Clive Pottage

Hard Bat Singles (Filip Wojtkowiak): No seeding.

Hard Bat Doubles (Doug Muirhead / Filip Wojtkowiak): No seeding.

Mixed Plate (Tom Thorp): No seeding.

Handicap Singles (Adam Ridley): No seeding.

Handicap Doubles (Steve Cameron / Mark Hodgson): No seeding.