THE York Open Squash Championships got underway at York SRC with six of the eight men's seeds in action.

Number three seed Anton Green (Milford) won 3-0 against York's Mike Wilkinson, while Matthew Lowery (4) was the victor by the same margin over Roger Burton.

Nick Robinson (7) played a relentless rallying game against Stillington's Rod Taylor to win in straight sets.

Ian Tooms (5) had a walkover when Nigel Richardson failed to show, while Paul Adams (6) was a 3-0 victor although Wigginton's Jonny Duffield had game ball in the third.

The first seed to go out of the championships was RI's Paul Buckland, who went out in five sets to Wigginton's John Riley.

Riley played well in the opening game, dropping just one point, before Buckland came back to level the score taking the second 9-6, then taking a 2-1 lead by winning the third 9-3.

Riley fought back well to level taking the fourth 9-4.

The fifth saw the points see-saw before Riley went ahead to close out the match on his first match ball.

Riley now faces last year's Plate winner Mathew Stephenson, who beat Paul Robson 3-0.

Tonight sees the top two seeds in action. Nathan Hill (1) will play Railway's James Rollinson and Jamie Hopwood (2) will play Chris Plowman.

Mens matches are due to commence at 6.40pm.

The Mens Vintage Championships start tonight with defending champion Bob Robinson unable to play.

The top seeding goes to Milford's Mark Thompson, who got to the Veterans semi-finals this year. In his first round match he will play C Burns (Wigginton).

The Vintage entry sees two previous champions in David Booth and Arthur Williams.

Results

Mens Championships: J Riley bt (8) P Buckland 9-1 6-9 3-9 9-4 9-7; M Stephenson bt P Robson 9-4 9-3 9-2; (3) A Green bt M Wilkinson 9-6 9-3 9-7; J Rollinson bt S Ewing 8-10 10-9 9-4 9-4; P Walkington bt G Woodward 9-2 9-2 2-9 9-1; (4) M Lowery bt R Burton 9-1 9-3 9-2; A Tuck bt N Clifford 10-8 9-3 9-7; (6) P Adams bt J Duffield 9-2 9-3 10-9; (7) N Robinson bt R Taylor 9-2 9-5 9-0; P Turner bt B Riley 9-4 9-2 9-6; I Tooms bt N Richardson w/o; C Plowman bt A Clapham w/o; D Humphries bt J Buckland w/o.

Tonight's order of play

Men's Championship: 6.40 (5) Iam Tooms v P Walkington; 7.00 (1) Nathan Hill v J Rollinson; 7.10 (4) Mathew Lowery v N Chambers; 7.30 (2) Jamie Hopwood v C Plowman; 7.40 (7) Nick Robinson v A Tuck; 8.00 M Stephenson v J Riley; 8.30 (6) Paul Adams v P Turner (now Tuesday 6.20).

Mens Plate: 8.10 M Wilkinson v G Woodward; 8.30 P Buckland v P Robson; 8.30 B Riley v R Taylor; 8.40 A Fotherby v N Clifford, R Burton v bye, O Humphries v bye.

Mens Vintage Championships: 7.10 M Thompson v C Burns; 7.40 A Williams v B Sedgewick.

Updated: 11:56 Monday, February 04, 2002