I’ve been looking forward to this tournament since I walked out the doors of the wolverhampton open this year. Unfortunately this tournament hardly deserved to be in the tournament category. Only 6 people turned up, in total. So we ended up not taking it completely seriously. However I tried to remain as professional as possible throughout, this could prove to be valuable preperation for the Doncaster Open next week. The rules of the Ramsbottom Open are ‘play 3 games’.

I was pretty disappointed with my performance but I did give it my all. My first encounter was against Graham Young, I lead well taking the first game 11-9. He managed to get on top of me for the second two and I lost 2-1. The same happend versus Kamal Hussain (my doubles partner for last years Hyndburn Open). Lead the first 11-2 then lost miserably the final two.

I felt that my backhand let me down a lot and helped toward me loosing the final games of each match. Once pinned in that area I seemed to struggle to punch the ball back with any force. The majority of the time I just let their loops touch my bat, I blocked well, but they were predictable returns.

My third match was against Noel Duffy, this was a reverse scenario. I lost the first but came back strong to defeat him 2-1.

Nice to get some serious competition under my belt before the Doncaster Open next Saturday.