Crawley/Horsham League Closed Championships

2011 Championships Report

Amila and Rory Bring Home the Bacon

Hard on the heels of retaining the Crawley/Horsham League Premiership title for the club Horsham TTC players Amila Thilakarathne and Rory Scott have brought home major silverware from the league closed championships, winning the blue riband men's singles and doubles events.

In the singles Amila was in imperious form, although he had to negotiate a tricky five-set hurdle against Crawley combination bat stalwart Andy Meads at the quarter-final stage. in the semis he took on the tournament favourite Mayur Majithia and beat him comprehensively in straight sets. Perhaps a measure of revenge for India beating Sri Lanka in the recent World Cup Cricket Final.

In the final he came up against Crawley Community's backspin maestro Barrie Gilbert. Barrie had beaten Rory Scott in an early round and was the only player to beat Amila's countrymate Helshan Weerasinghe in the season just past so this was no foregone conclusion. However although Barrie was able to take a set Amila had too much firepower and ran out a 3-1 victor.

The 23 year old topspinner paired up with Rory Scott in the doubles and squared up against the Horsham-Crawley combination of Graham Carter and Mayur Majithia in the final. They scored a convincing 3-1 victory.

In the Junior Singles Horsham scored a 1-2-3 with Dan Barna beating Alex Forshaw in the final and Mark Collins taking third place. Collins, recent conquerer of Andy Meads in the Super League, also had a good day in the Division 1 singles just losing out 3-1 to Gary Bristowe.