Crawley's Ritchie Venner and Uckfield's Nigel Eckersley took part in the Southern Open Grand Prix at Bournemouth and both picked up prizes.

Eckersley won his third veterans' singles event in a row and is close to winning the section outright.

He beat his greatest rival, Clive Carthy (Essex), in the final. The long-drawn out dual produced some explosive hitting from the Essex man and skillful counter-hitting and ball control from Eckersley, who triumphed 11-13, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5.

Venner will be proud of taking the men's doubles runner-up cash prize after losing the final against Welsh national squad brothers Ryan and Stephen Jenkins. Venner was paired with the impressive Hungarian player Gergely Urban, a London student.

In the singles, Venner had an unlucky draw. He was placed too close to the top seed, Tommy Danielsson, who stopped the Sussex ace in round three 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9.

The Swedish veteran lost in the final to Ryan Jenkins, who sealed a hat-trick of grand prix victories.

Sussex champion Rose Rainton (Bexhill) was also in impressive form. After losing in the women's doubles finals with Sheila King to Ni Xia and Gemma Yarnley, Rose defeated England No.12 Louise Durrant, a junior England squad player, before losing in the semi-finals to Hungarian Dorka Nagy 11-8 in the fifth game.

Paul Elphick bids for his seventh Brighton championship at the Newman School on Sunday.