The England Veterans National Masters took place at Thornbury,
Gloucestershire over the weekend of 14th and 15th May 2005.This is the premier National veterans tournament of the season and included most of the top veterans in the country.
Unfortunately due to illness Fred Dove had to withdraw from the event at the very last minute leaving Ken Lewis as the only local player taking part.
In the 40+ event Ken (national ranking 341) was drawn in a group which included Ramesh Bhalla (national ranking 36) and Alan Philpot (national ranking 40), and with these two top 50 players in the group, both ranked 300+ places higher than him on the national ranking list, it was likely Ken would finish third at best, and so it proved to be. However, Ken went down fighting loosing ‘three straight’ to the number 36 but with all three games going to deuce, and almost causing what would have been a huge upset by taking the number 40 to the final fifth game and having match point at 11-10, only to loose 9-11,11-9,8-11,11-7,12-14.
In the 40+ plate competition, Ken enjoyed good wins in the early rounds including ‘three straight’ wins against two players ranked much higher than himself, and then easily beating the lower ranked John Barnes to reach the quarter finals where he met Vin O’donnell from Cheshire. Although Vin is ranked 40 places higher, Ken was enjoying a reasonable run of form and took the first game comfortably. However, Vin ‘changed up a gear’ taking the second game at deuce and ran away with the third, game 6.The fourth went to Ken game 7, so it was down to the fifth and deciding game. Vin held his nerve and eventually won 11-9 to rob Ken of a place in the semi finals.
The 50+ event again saw Ken (ranked 108) drawn in a group which included two much higher ranked players, Cheshire’s Paul Collins (ranked 26) and Durham’s John Williamson (ranked 69). Consequently it was once more unlikely that Ken would finish better than in third spot, and indeed it again proved to be so. However, as in the 40+ groups, Ken continued to play very well and was a little unfortunate to be consigned to his second plate competition of the weekend, having lost only to the two much higher ranked players, and taking both to the final fifth ends.
The overall playing standard in National competitions such as this is always very high, and of the 64 competitors in the 50+ plate competition, there were a substantial number of players ranked in the top 100 of the 50+ national ranking list.
It was therefore something of a surprise when Ken being ranked outside the top 100 made it through to the quarter finals, having on route achieved a fine win against Berkshire’s Geof Civil (ranked 91), and a superb ‘three straight’ win against Surrey’s John Millward (ranked 67), 11-5, 11-7, 11-5.
The quarter final saw Ken up against Staffordshire’s Sid Hogetts (ranked 106), a player who has never lost to Ken in any of their previous meetings, but Ken wasn’t about to let history repeat itself and demolished Sid 11-2, 11-5, 11-3 to reach the semi’s.
Wale’s Earl Jeffers (ranked 96), another player whom Ken has never previously managed to beat was Ken’s semi final opponent, but an on form Ken had clearly learnt from the pair’s previous encounters and Ken won the match comfortably after suffering the early setback of losing the first game 9-11 having come back from 3-8 down. This was a very satisfying win for Ken 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5, and a place in the final.
Ken’s opponent in the final was the highly experienced and seasoned campaigner, Bill Fletcher (ranked 121) from Warwickshire, who, like Ken, had also achieved some superb wins over much higher ranked opponents on route to the final.
Bill stormed into an early lead in the first game with his strong forehand attack and acutely angled backhand, but from 3-8 down Ken fought back with topspin forehand counter attacking to level the scores at 9 all. Bill then produced two superb unreachable backhand kills to take the game 11-9.
The second game started in much the same way as the first with Bill dominating the early rallies, but Ken spotted the danger of Bill running away with the match and employed a quick change of tactic, coming closer in to the table to reduce the angle Bill was able to use.
This effectively proved to be the decisive factor, as from then on it was Ken who made all the running, forcing Bill onto the defensive. After edging the second game 11-8, Ken went on to also take the next two games 11-6, 11-7, to win his first ever National competition.