MINETY Squash Club's annual knockout tournament, played from February to April, culminated in an exciting finals night recently.

In the semi-finals, last year's champion George Arnold just saw off new member Philip Copestake while the previous champion, James Tweedale, narrowly defeated another new member, Ian Shaw.

With both George and James having won the championship on two previous occasions, there was everything to play for.

James started off in fine form. With his style and variety putting his rival under some pressure, he easily took the first game 9-3.

The second game, though, by far the longest of the match, was to prove the turning point.

At 8-4 ahead, James seemed to have it in the bag and, although he served six times for the game, George came back every time and finally levelled the scored with a 10-9 win.

But the third game was short with James taking it 9-4. George, inspired by his success in the second, would not give up and fought back to win the fourth 9-7.

In the final game, George pulled rapidly ahead. Although James rallied, his recent lack of match practice began to show with a series of unforced errors.

In the end, this saw George taking the last game 9-4 and with it the championship.

Earlier in the evening, Oaksey's Mark Nicholls had beaten Mike Jones, from Poole Keynes, to win the plate competition for the first-round losers.

Andrew Barron and Nick Skelton won the Junior table tennis tournament. Prizes were presented by Judith Dipple who also presented Ian Shore with the League Cup for his success throughout the season.

After the squash, 50 members, friends and families enjoyed an excellent supper at the White Horse Inn.

Anyone interested in joining Oaksey Squash Club is asked to contact Tim or Philippa on 01666 860368.