SESSIONS ace Richard Moss has ended the four-year York Closed Table Tennis Championship reign of Coneysthorpe’s Martin Lowe.

The pair met in the final for the fifth successive year at the York Railway Institute gym in Queen Street.

This time Moss took the title for the fourth time after a thrilling, high-class contest. The Sessions player, who was the youngest-ever winner of the event when he took his first title in 2002, started the first set strongly and stormed into an 8-3 lead, but Lowe came back to win it 13-11. Moss dominated the next two, taking them 11-8 and 11-5, but then Lowe ran away with the fourth 11-4 to take the match into a deciding fifth set. Neither player took a two-point lead until Moss went 8-6 up. Lowe pulled back to 8-8 before Moss took the next two to give himself two match points. Lowe saved the first, but Moss took the next to win 11-9.

Moss beat unseeded Richard Crowther, of York RI, in straight sets in his semi-final, while Lowe had to come back from two sets down to defeat third seed Mick Wilcockson, of Sessions. Crowther had put out sixth seed Joel Wright, of Coneysthorpe, in the quarter-finals and also beat third seed Wilcockson in the group stages.

There is a new name on the ladies’ singles trophy after York RI’s Jane Cohen beat Coneysthorpe’s Rebecca George 3-1 in the final. They shared the first two sets before Cohen took the next two 11-5 and 11-9. George gained some consolation by taking the junior singles title, beating RI’s Luke Blackburn in straight sets in the final.

Cohen, meanwhile, took two further titles. She teamed up with club-mate Anne Barnard to take the ladies’ doubles in straight sets against George and Andrea Potter, of Holgate WMC. Then, with Nathan Horsley, of Sessions, she won the mixed doubles final against BT’s Marian Broadbent and Bootham’s Jon Wooldridge 3-2.

Moss and Sessions team-mate Wilcockson won the men’s doubles for the second year running, defeating Lowe and Ian Stansfield in straight sets.

Lowe won the veterans’ singles, beating Jon Wooldridge in the final after losing the first set. The Holgate WMC pairing of John Farmery and Graham Hatfield beat Jo Suchecki, of Bootham, and Wilcockson to take the veterans’ doubles title.

Lewis McCarthy, of York RI, beat younger brother and team-mate Jake in the cadets’ singles final.

The juniors doubles final saw Blackburn and Ethan Lowe beat Jamie Cameron and Jake McCarthy.