Finals Night

With Kevin Dolder on British League duty where he lost both sets in a 4-4 draw, Stewart Mudie, also a British league player, was installed as top seed and confirmed his position when the next night he beat Kevin in the Readman Cup final. Currently studying history at Lverpool University and the brother of Andrew, who remained unbeaten when representing the League a couple of season's ago. Jonathan Taylor, due to meet Stewart in the final was second seed while Keith Williams and Mal McEvoy completed the line-up at 3 and 4 respectively. One has to go back to 1993 when Peter Flint beat Chris Ford in the final, to find the last time that neither Kevin or Keith appeared in the men's final and to 1989 for the last time neither appeared in the finals, at all. Truly amazing.

Mal McEvoy last appeared in the Closed 16 years ago when he lost here to Kevin Dolder in the final. His first semi-final outing was in 1987,
losing to runner-up and 1993 champion Peter Flint. In 1988 he went out in the last four to eventual champion Stuart Richards and two years later, dismissed 1986 champion Paul Hutchings in the semi's before losing to Keith in the final. Steve Green, who returned this season after a gap of 19 years, beat him in the 91 semi's, but he returned in 92 and saw off Hutchings before being shot down by German Marcus Dick in the final.

It's not been all doom and gloom for Malcolm, though, who has fared well in doubles, winning with Hutchings and Williams and the mixed with
Denise Conroy in 1992 (who added the ladies' title at the same time) which led to the pair marrying. A week ago Mal helped Ford win the Readman Cup beating Crosby High 5-3. His semi-final opponent Jonathan Taylor, has also been in fine form this season, losing only two of his 32 singles trips to the table while becoming the only player to inflict defeat on Mudie.

Partnering Malcolm in the doubles tonight, 36 years after winning his only Closed title in the now defunct Restricted Singles event, is his Ford team-mate, Phil Luxon. Opponents, Jasmin Yang and Miles Fong are newcomers to the League and have achieved the rare distinction of reaching the Closed finals at the first attempt. However, in a strong entry in the Division Two event which contained players with division one experience, the pair met in the final - Jasmin winning 3-0.

Another newcomer to the Closed is Tomasz Rzeszotko who a few years ago had a spell with Manweb before moving with his job to Wrexham. Tomasz notched a fine 3-0 victory over Keith Williams in the quarter's and is the second man from Poland to reach the men's singles semi's - Mikael Rogala going one better when beating Williams in the 2007 final. In August last year he won the Band 2 singles in the City of Liverpool GP at Wavertree and as a foreign player his 2934 points would place him at 53 in the ETTA's Computer Rating List following a number of other
impressive victories around the country. After his men's singles clash with Stewart Mudie he must again meet Keith in the veteran's final in what promises to be a tremendous encounter having dismissed three times champion Dave Roberts and then McEvoy in the semi's.

What can I say about Keith? Apart from being the men's singles champion for a record ten times, the YMCA man also recently won the English Closed veteran's singles event, the first player ever to retain the title although at present, he is listed only at 9 in the country. Other Grand Prix titles have been gathered making him one of the most successful Liverpool players ever.  He has lost three times in the League this season and only Mudie, Taylor and Dolder have suffered fewer defeats. No other player in league history has won Closed titles in five different categories which includes men's doubles with five different partners.

Cherith Graham will be looking to chalk up her fourth women's singles title although when I mentioned it last week, she could remember only two!! Those successes came in 2003 against Gemma Lloyd, Alice Howard in 07 and Clare Peers a year ago in a Round Robin competiton. Her
opponent, 14 year old Janay Gibson has been playing for just three years and is in her first season in the league playing for Ford. She has appeared in a couple of division one matches and is at 12 in the England Cadet list and stands at 137 in the women's. She plays for Halton TTC in both the junior and senior British League and is a member of the England Youth Development Squad and has won the Cheshire Closed women's singles title and the Cheshire Schools' Under 16 title. Before taking on Cherith, she faces another newcomer, Michael Lunn in the Junior final. Coached by Keith, he plays for Crosby High and is listed at 75 Junior in England. He has an impressive record in division one, chalking up 13 wins from 26 sets. He teamed up with Keith in the open doubles but they went out to Fong and Yang in the semi's.

The over 55's final brings together two players making their first appearance in the Closed finals. Ray Jackson has, over the years played very few matches due to work committments and has made only six outings to date this term, winning 13 from 18 sets for Marconi and stands at 297 in England. In the semi-finals he beat John Hope - the vets' runner-up last year to Keith Williams - from 2-1 down   In contrast, Dave Harse registered a fine win over holder Dave Roberts, edging home 12-10 in the fifth and has been a regular in division two for Manweb racking up 30 wins from 51 sets this term. Originally, from Oxfordshire, the county to whom he is affiliated in the England veteran's ratings where he is listed at 345.