Welwyn Tennis Club Finals Day is a big success

THE sun was shining as the Welwyn Tennis Club Finals Day dodged the wet weather and players enjoyed a great day of excellent tennis supported by large crowds.

Play started at 10am with the preliminary group matches for the Boys' 18&Under Singles and was continuous until the final nail-biting strokes of Men's Doubles Plate just before 5pm.

The supporters were well catered for by the hard-working team of Paul and Nikki Karras on BBQ, Ian Rosethorn on bar and Marjorie Davidson with cakes in the kitchen.

In the Men's Singles final, Lewis Andrews built upon his success from last year and proved too strong for the tenacious efforts of Martin Hockaday.

In the Ladies' Singles there was some excellent rallies and very close games but ultimately the experience and consistency demonstrated by Louise Grubb proved to be the winning factor, though the final scoreline did not reflect either the closeness of the match or the talent exhibited by Adie Horn.

The losing finalists from last year, Mike Clegg and Neil Roskilly were determined to go one better this year in the Men's Doubles and proved to be too strong for the young pairing of Lewis Andrews and James Doherty. The Ladies' Doubles was an all together different affair which swung one way and then the other.

It looked like the top seeds of Louise Grubb and Anna Davidson had taken control of the match when they won the first set and got to 5-1 up in the second set.

But the pairing of Eilis Kelleher and Caitrin Roskilly suddenly found the extra edge of consistency and mental strength to come from behind and grab the second set 7-5.

The final set then started to go the other way with Eilis and Caitrin forging ahead to 5-2; Louise and Anna then attempted their own comeback, but Eilis and Caitrin finally delivered the winning edge for a thrilling 6-4 final set victory.

In the middle of the afternoon Lewis Andrews was back on court for his third final of the day. Partnered by Adie Horn the young pair, (who also won last year), proved too strong for the mother and son pairing of Linden and Charles Trollope.

Linden and Charles pushed Lewis and Adie hard in a close first set of 7-5 but the champions demonstrated their quality with a clinical exhibition in the second set.

Other finals from the day saw Robbie Starling triumph in a close fought Men's Singles Plate, Kay Roantree and Linden Trollope proved too strong in the Ladies' Doubles Plate and the father and daughter pairing of Richard and Whitney Davies held on to win the Mixed Doubles Plate after a close second set.

The closest final of the day was also the last match on court - with the crowd participating in every point of a very close 8-6 final set, the eventual winners were Steve Evans and Martin Tipper.

The Junior events were contested throughout the day other than the 14&Under Boys and Girls' Singles which are played earlier in the season as part of the Road to Wimbledon national event, where the winners were Tom Boon and Maddy Clegg.

Charles Trollope demonstrated his growing talent by beating Ben Aves in the Boys' 18&Under Singles.

Ben teamed up with his brother Alex Aves to beat Toby Stapleton and Adam Saumtally in the Boys' 18&Under Doubles.

After group round-robin matches Lewis Gunter and Ben Neville and Hannah Priestley and Rachael Robinson ran out winners in the Boys' 14&Under and Girls' 14&Under Doubles respectively.

Picture: Some of Welwyn Tennis Club's finalists stand with their silverware