PENALLT & District Tennis Club held their singles championship finals in cold and breezy conditions, watched by a good crowd who enjoyed some competitive tennis, reports CHRIS ADAMS.

The summer’s men’s singles preliminary rounds saw several closely-contested matches to whittle down the 14-player field to two.

A lengthy tussle between Guy Adams and Ben Hamilton in the first round saw Guy recover from a set down to sneak the second 7-6 before winning the 10-point tie break.

The closest match was the quarter-final between Jun Chow and Henry Francis, with the first two sets shared 6-3, 3-6 before Jun clinched the tie break 11-9.

However, top seeds Max Swayne and Josh Griffiths won through for a repeat of last year’s final.

Max – now in the country’s top 40 U16 players – has added more power and accuracy to his game, particularly evident on his serve in the wet fast conditions.

Josh struggled to return serve but put up a decent fight, and forced Max to play at the top of his game to win 6-2, 6-4.

The Ladies’ final was finely balanced between Lizelle de Jager and Bev Leaf, who both served well and played stylish, confident ground strokes off both wings.

Lizelle showed her power to take the first set 6-2, but Bev then played the more consistently to serve for the second set at 5-4.

She couldn’t convert then, but two games later was successful, forcing a deciding tie-break.

After an evenly matched opening though, it was Lizelle who forged in front to triumph 10-7.

The Ladies Plate was a round robin won by Katie Adams, who was unbeaten in her three matches against Vicky Tilson, Jemima Leaf and her daughter Megan.

The Men’s Plate final, played later, proved extremely close between Jim McLean and Chris Adams with the latter clinching the contest 14-12 in the tie-break after the first two sets were shared 5-7, 7-6.