Lau wins thrilling final to lift the Ulster title at tournament

Seeds made early exits from the Ulster Grade A tournament at Lisburn at the weekend and a number of Alpha players were the benefactors.
Norman Lau recently won the Ulster Grade A title.Norman Lau recently won the Ulster Grade A title.
Norman Lau recently won the Ulster Grade A title.

Neil O’Flaherty must have raised his hopes of lifting the gents singles title when in the second round he knocked out the No2 seed Colin Watterson 21-15 21-18 but this elation was short lived when Alpha’s Jonathan Harran brought his challenge to an abrupt end in the semi-final, having earlier beaten the seeded Brian Dignan 21-13 21-13.

In the other half of the draw top junior Norman Lau had progressed through to the semi-final and a clash with the top seed John Amond but Lau was not to be the next seed dumped out of the competition and progressed through to meet his Alpha clubmate Harran in the final 21-12 21-9.

Noted for being a slow starter Lau found it difficult to make any major breakthrough and there was never more than a couple of points between the finalists in the opening set. Rallies were intense, both players were on the attack and then their defence was tested to the full.

It was Harran who reached eleven first before Lau took a 13-11 lead and as the opening set entered its final stages there was nothing between them with the score 19-19.

With Harran taking the next two points to go one up, it was a totally different Lau that we saw, attacking at every opportunity and he raced into a 8-3 lead categorized by shorter rallies.

Lau led 11-6 and took the game into the decider by allowing his opponent only one point in the next eleven by drawing level 21-7.

The third set reverted to the format of the opening set with both players playing at the top of their game in longer rallies and while Harran was to enjoy a 6-3 advantage this was short lived and nothing separated the pair at the set entered its second half.

Lau raced from 12-all to 18-12 and although Harran countered to 18-17 it was Lau who took the title 21-18.

In the mens doubles Ryan Getty and Norman Lau the No2 seeds exited early on to Paul Ennis and Neil O’Flaherty.

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