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Scotland’s number one player, Gavin
Rumgay carved his name into the record books of the Liverpool Open
Butterfly Grand Prix event (formerly the Merseyside Open), with a third
successive title win in the Men’s Open.
In the 80 year long history of this famous tournament, with past winners
including Victor Barna, Richard Bergmann and Dennis Neale, the enormity of
this triple consecutive win (never achieved before) puts Rumgay into
legendary status.
The Butterfly Men’s Open Champion in the last two seasons, Rumgay is in a
class of his own, yet he was made to work for his Liverpool Open Butterfly
Grand Prix title on Sunday 17th August.
Gavin, although never totally extended on his way to the title, was given
a scare by 12 year old Zak Zilesnick, going one set and 9-6 down, Rumgay
then turned on the Scottish wizardry to nose ahead, winning the next three
sets. The reigning Champion was then successful with victories over Darren
Reed and Stewart Crawford before proving too strong for Saturday’s Band
One winner, Raphael Graf, in a four set final.
The tournament had thrown up several earlier shocks with the departure of
Matt Ware to Richard Marshall, Gavin Evans losing to David McBeath in the
second round, and then top seed Darius Knight’s departure to the German
visitor Raphael Graf in the quarter-final.
The Women’s Open went exactly to seeding, with Chinese favourite Lui Na,
now resident in Ireland, not dropping a set on her way to the title. Her
final opponent and second seed, Naomi Owen from Wales, took her close in
two of the three sets played, but was always playing second fiddle. The
hard hitting Lui Na with her dynamic reflexes proved just too quick for
Naomi. Losing semi finalists, Karina Le Fevre and Hannah Hicks took
their seeded positions at three and four; however Le Fevre had no answers
against Na, with Hicks managing to win one set against Owen in the other
semi-final.
The Under 21 Women’s final was a classic encounter of two extremely
talented young ladies in Karina Le Fevre and Alice Loveridge,
fighting tooth and nail with some crowd pleasing long rallies, going point
for point, with the result always in the balance. Karina managed to get
her head in front in a photo finish in a tense and final set, gaining her
revenge over Alice in yesterday’s semi final of Women’s Band One.
The Under 21 Men’s Open proved to be yet again a wonderful tournament full
of superb table tennis. Remi Petrosius gained a well deserved first title
success in this event after several tries, getting the better of Under 21
Men’s reigning champion, Damien Nicholls, in the last match of the day.
Mark Simpson and Darren Reed were the two losing semi finalists. Reed
enjoyed good performances over Ross Wilson and Richard Marshall, whilst
Simpson was simply "on fire", taking the scalps of Alim Hirji and then
Matt Ware in the quarter-final. Reed lost in straight sets to Nicholls,
whilst Simpson lost out in four sets to eventual winner, Petrosius.
The Veteran Men’s title went to Keith Williams, defeating Gerry Campbell
in a close five set final. Williams defeated Chris Tarr in the first semi
final, with Campbell being successful against Julien Gittens in the other
semi.
The restricted Men’s Champion was Simon Noutch, who beat Adam Laws in the
final match.
The two day Liverpool Open was once again a resounding success. Very many
thanks to all the Liverpool heroes who put on another great show,
including tournament organiser Arthur Garnett, referee Dave
Cochrane, plus the ETTA team of officials and umpires for keeping
the show on the road.
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