ANDY MOORE, from the Christie Miller indoor club in Melksham, won the annual North Wilts Open Singles tournament on Sunday, writes DAVE EATON.

Despite the bad weather, the tournament at the Westcroft-based club in Chippenham went ahead and proved a great success.

Part of the Open Singles Circuit (OSC) and number 18 out of the 26-event series of similar events, which culminate with the top 32 playing in a grand final later in the year, 72 players entered the knockout event.

Sponsored by the Gazette and Herald as well as Beazer Electrics, Bowlamania, Corsham Print, F. W. Jones & Son (Funeral Directors), Matthew Clarke (Drinks Wholesaler) and McCarthy & Stone (Retirement Homes) a £2,300 prize fund saw £1,000 go to the winner.

Moore is a regular on the OSC but this was his first main success, his previous best showing being runner-up in the first Westlecot Open Singles in Swindon in March 2011.

The Melksham player, a stalwart in Wiltshire indoor and outdoor sides also until recent years, beat Scott Edwards (Oxford City and County), the the runner-up in the recent Clarrie Dunbar Open singles, comfortably in two sets, 9-0, 8-3.

“I'm very pleased to have won the North Wilts Open, it is not for the want of trying,'' said Moore.

“I have reached the quarter-finals eight times before and two semi-finals. This has been a good season for me and I was very pleased with the way I played.

“This season I also reached the quarter-finals at Westlecot just before Christmas and Clarrie recently and have moved up from 21st in the OSC rankings to six.

“One more good tournament before the end of the season next month and I should be certain to make this season’s play-offs at Potters (Great Yarmouth) later in the year.”

Moore won six matches, starting with a tight 1.5-0.5 (6-4, 6-6) win over Egham’s Steve Touhy and was pushed hard in his second game, getting home 2-1 in a tie breaker (5-6, 8-1, 2-1) against Westlecot’s Mike Titcombe, recent winner of the Clarrie Dunbar open.

In round three he beat Sam Watts (Oxford C&C) 1.5-0.5 (11-2, 5-5) and in the quarter-finals defeated West Berks (Newbury) player Barry Williams 2-0 (7-5, 6-4).

Moore followed up with a 2-0 (8-6, 6-2) semi-final win over the host club’s star ladies player Alex Jacobs.

Edwards saw off Carterton’s Paul Sharman 2-1 (10-1, 5-7, 2-0), then accounted for Duncan Rogers (Lodden Vale, Hants) 2-0 (5-3, 5-1) and Jordan Moody (Five Rivers, Salisbury) 2-0 (7-4, 8-5).

He needed a tie breaker in the quarter-finals to defeat Bristol’s Chris Keating 2-1 (10-0, 5-6, 2-1) before edging home 1.5-0.5 against with Mark Atkins (Malvern Hills) in the semi-finals.

Jacobs, a previous national indoor champion in ladies pairs, triples, fours and a skip in top ladies team top event, Yetton Trophy, was the most successful home player in reaching the last four.

Only a reserve originally, she stepped into the tournament to plug a gap caused by a withdrawal because of the bad weather and enjoyed a superb run, beating Chris Moore (Christie Miller) 2-0 (7-5, 9-3) and Egham’s Ian Jenkins, winner of last season’s North Wilts title 2-0 (7-6, 5-4).

Jacobs accounted for Michael Squires (East Dorset) in round three (1.5-0.5), while in the quarter-finals needed a tie-breaker to beat Camberley’s Matt Short 2-1 (2-10, 9-2, 2-0) before losing out to the eventual champion.

Tournament director Dave Williams said: “Over the two days we lost 10 players due to the weather and thanks to the support of a couple of willing reserves and available local players we filled eight of those slots so there were only two byes, which was good under the circumstances.

“Alex Jacobs did extremely well to reach the semi-finals and on her way to the semis took out last year’s winner Ian Jenkins 7-6 5-4 but all other reserves went out in first round.

“Andy Moore was consistent throughout only one of his games went to a tie-break.''

“My thanks must go to all the players that braved the weather to turn up and to all the local players for filling the gaps and the members for volunteering to mark the games.

“Next year’s tournament will be March 16-17, same weekend, but hopefully with better weather.”