New Milton’s Brian Bickell has returned to the Vetts scene with a vengeance after a long lay off with a serious shoulder injury.

He made his comeback at the Crawley Southern Masters back in February where he made it through the the semi-finals of his class, narrowly losing to nationally ranked Number 1 player Ramesh Bhalla. Brian joined with Vetts newcomer Norman Beany in the doubles and they beat the established pairing of former World Gold champion Geoff Bax and Terry Wilson in the final.

In March, Brian entered the annual Bournemouth & District Individual Tournaments for the first time since 2015 and came away with the Vets 60+ and Vets 70+ winners trophies.

More recently, in April Brian entered the VETTS Western Masters at Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, and played superbly to become the National Singles Champion in his age class.

Thanks once again to Brian’s wife Olga for keeping us up to date with Brian’s exploits and for providing the photo of him knocking up at Thornbury. Sorry the photo is a bit blurred but Brian was moving too fast for Olga’s camera.