RMT Manchester 13/14 Feb

Another title for Jamie
Malcolm on the EDSA final

The final of the British Deaf Championships featured world number one and world champion Jamie Mathews and world no 4 Matt Hewitt. Matthews won his world title in South Africa in 2007 and will defend it this year in New Zealand. He plays on the world tour and has a ranking of 255.

He began well with his easy movement and relaxed technique and was soon ahead of his twelve year older opponent, who was too keen for his own good. He won the first game 11/5 and went well clear 8/1 in the second before Hewitt seemed more settled.

Hewitt had his best moments in the match and aided by a couple of uncharacteristic Matthews errors he fought back to 10/8 before Matthews won the game 11/8.

Mathews continued to control matters and eased through the third game to win it 11/4, adding the British to his World title. He is a very capable player and certainly easy to watch.