After a two-year pandemic absence, the Cippenham Super 6 Senior 1-Star Open returned on Saturday. Fifty-three players took to the tables and some fine table tennis was witnessed.

While most of the top-ranked players reached their allotted places in the draw, there were a few upsets along the way.

In each of the nine preliminary-round groups, the top-ranked player managed to finish top of their section. The only one to suffer defeat was Vadym Krevs who lost to Lee McHugh in group eight. However, McHugh, in turn, lost to Radovan Zivkovic who then lost to Krevs. A three-way tie resulted with Krevs positioned first, McHugh second and Zivkovic third on count-back.

It was then on to the knock-out stages and the fun started for the unseeded Yasir Mauthoor. Mauthoor had finished second in his group behind Eric Hammond but then went on a run that would ultimately lead all the way to the final.

Jack Coleman was Mauthoor’s first victim in round one, then second seed Kevin Nicholls felt the full force of his powerful attack in round two. Vadym Krevs was then subjected to his second defeat of the day in the quarter-final and Harry Law was downed in a semi-final that went the full distance of five games. One round earlier, Law had ended the run of Radovan Zivkovic who had added the scalp of fourth seed Andy Frain in round two.

In the top half of the draw, top seed Richard Carden was making his expected progress. After beating Lee McHugh and Zayd Mauthoor, Carden needed all his knowhow to recover from two games down against third seed Jogenes Senorin in the semi-final. Carden also fell behind in the final, but only by one game this time and he eventually wrapped up the title, beating a tiring Yasir Mauthoor over four games.

Cippenham junior William Saint was the only local to feature in the main draw. Saint won four of his five matches in the preliminary group, losing out only to Law, but fell at the first hurdle in the knockout stage to the more experienced Zayd Mauthoor.

The consolation event, for players finishing fourth, fifth and sixth in the preliminary groups, was won by Joe Britnell, who beat Stuart Vincent in the final.

The tournament was organised by Paul Baker and refereed by Graham Trimming.