MARK ROYAL won the annual Westlecot Indoor Open Singles tournament for a second time at the Old Town club last weekend.

The world No 13 and England international, who first won the title back in March 2012, beat Egham’s Steve Tuohy two sets to one (8-3, 6-8, 2-1) in a cracking final to again lift the title and become the only player so far to achieve the feat of a winning double.

Royal collected the top prize of £1,000 for his superb victory, while Tuohy, the top-ranked player last season on the Open Singles circuit, had the consolation in defeat of claiming the £500 runners-up prize for his efforts.

Westlecot’s annual Open Singles event, their sixth, was again sponsored by local firms Only Bungalows, Hillier Funeral Services, and Wootton Bassett butcher K&EJ Crump. It was event number nine of 30 this season on the Drakes Pride-supported nationwide Open Singles circuit and carried a prize fund of £2,400.

Royal had a tough match in his opener, only overcoming Wiltshire player Nick Revell, a former open singles cir-cuit winner, on the last end of a tie-breaker 11-5, 5-6, 2-1 but then won his next four games in only two sets each, in-cluding beating the 2012 winner Brian Lees (Welford-on-Avon) 9-2, 7-3 in the semi-final.

Tuohy’s passage to the final was equally impressive, winning his first three games 2-0, although he was taken to a tie-breaker in the quarter-finals by Chipping Norton’s Martin Shepherd.

Defending champion Trowbridge’s Andy Colebrooke, who plays indoors out of Clarrie Dunbar (Frome), went out in his fourth match (last 16), losing on a tie-break to Ian Jenkins (Egham) 2-5, 6-1, 1-2.

Other Wiltshire last 16 casualties included Christie Miller’s Andy Moore, inaugural Open runner-up, who went out to 2012 winner Brian Lees and Wootton Bassett’s Dave Snell (Westlecot), who was winner Royal’s third victim.

Best of the local players was Westlecot’s Neil Smith who reached the quarter-finals before going out to Brian Lees 2-0 (4-11, 6-8).

The highest world ranked player in the tournament, Taunton’s Robert Paxton (No 4), crashed out in round one, los-ing 2-0 (6-3, 7-3) to Five Rivers, Salisbury’s Wiltshire county player Tom Warner.

However, Warner went out in the next round in a tight game, losing the first set 6-5 and drawing the second set 5-5 against Chipping Norton’s Martin Shepherd.

Westlecot tournament director and the OSC administrator Neil Smith was extremely pleased with the weekend’s events.

He said: “A fantastic weekend capped off with an amazing final between Mark Royal and Steve Tuohy. It was probably the best game I have ever seen at Westlecot.

“The tournament was well supported with all the spectators seeming to enjoy the more spectator friendly sur-roundings.

“There were lots of positive comments from the players about the playing surface and the club.”

Jeff Nichols, the Westlecot indoor chairman, said: “The weekend was hugely successful and everything ran like clockwork.

“We would obviously like to thank our sponsors Hillier Funeral Services, Only Bungalows and K&EJ Crump for their support or else we could not have staged such a prestigious tournament and attracted a top class field.

“Thanks is due as well to the organising committee for all their hard work and of course the umpires and markers.

“There were no delays, it was well organised and kept to time - the efforts from everyone involved paid great divi-dends.”

Nichols continued: “We had the carpet stretched last week and players commented on it being a good tournament and ‘what a good surface it was’ to play on.

“The sixth Westlecot Open Singles was an unqualified success again, and we will certainly be holding the annual tournament again next year.”