IT was third time lucky for Jamie Hopwood as he finally clinched the York Men's Open Squash Championship on Saturday night.

After losing in the final to Nathan Hill for the last two years, the 25-year-old turned the tables on his old adversary.

Hopwood, who hails from Malton, dethroned the defending champion with a comfortable 9-1 9-3 9-4 victory at York RI.

"I'm really pleased that I have been able to put on a good performance in the final at last. There has been a lot of pressure on me to win this title in the last few years," he said.

Hopwood paid tribute to his father, Keith, who had devoted a lot of time driving him to coaching and matches when he was a youngster.

Yorkshire Premier League player Hopwood was quickly in to his stride, and with Hill making uncharacteristic errors, took the first game in 15 minutes.

Hopwood produced a brilliant disguise shot to win a handout at the start of the second game and rapidly reeled off six points including a pin-point backhand off the wall just above the tin.

Hill, champion for the last four years, rallied briefly but Hopwood closed the game out at 9-2.

The match was punctuated by let calls, referee Jeff Williams having to make 96 decisions, but when it did flow Hopwood accuracy and wider variety of shot paid off.

York player Hill led 3-0 in the third game but Hopwood fought back to 4-4 and was in no mood to surrender any more points on his way to taking the championship.

Thirsk's Trish Kochaniec retained her ladies title with a 9-3 9-6 9-0 victory over Natalie Watson.

It was Kochaniec's third successive win in the final and she was not really threatened by third seed Watson, who had knocked out her twin Katie in the semi-finals.

That sibling battle seemed to have taken some of the zip out of York's Natalie and although she battled hard in a close second game, Kochaniec eased to another crown by winning the final game to love.

The pick of finals night was the Men's Vintage final in which South Milford's Mark Thompson edged out Dave Goddard (Kirkbymoorside) in a 55-minute five-set battle.

The championships signalled the end of tournament organiser Alison Sellars' 25 years service in running the event.

She has organised the men's

competition for 13 years, and the ladies event for the 12 years before that, and she received a bouquet of flowers from new champion Hopwood on behalf of the players.

Her successor will be named at York and District Squash League's annual meeting in June.

Updated: 12:15 Monday, February 11, 2002