Men’s Band 2

Laurence Sweeney overcame a group-stage defeat to win the Men’s Band 2 at the Bribar London Grand Prix.

Despite losing to Alex Forshaw 3-1 in his opening fixture, Sweeney recovered to reach the final with excellent wins over Alan Cherry (3-2), Gabriel Achampong (3-2), Jojo Senorin (3-0) and Adewale Adeoye (3-1).

His final opponent, Marcus Giles, was much more convincing en route to the last stage after comfortable wins over both Jack Bennett and Jon Hall. However, he was pushed right to the wire by Sweeney’s nemesis Forshaw 3-2 (11-13, 13-11, 10-12, 11-7, 12-10).

The final began with a surprising 11-2 romp for Giles but, after a few words of encouragement from Alex Perry, Sweeney pulled himself together to win the final three games 11-8, 11-8, 11-7 and claim the title.