Last week, many of our club members (while munching on Mince Pies and sipping Mulled Wine) witnessed two really good competitive finals in our Mens and Ladies Singles Championships.
Last years winner Rebecca Thomas and Rachael Baker fought out the final of the Pam Bond Trophy for the second year running. However, this year Rachael managed to win a marathon first service game to level the early score at 1 game all. This appeared to relax Rachael who went on to take a great first set of tennis by 6 games to 3. Rebecca fought back strongly in the second set with all guns blazing. She was hitting big winners from all over the court to level the tie with a comprehensive 6-1 score. It was at this stage that Rachael took some deep breaths and summoned up the extra energy required to renew her challenge. Rachael's strong serve and improved consistency in her backhand took her to a well deserved 6-3 win and her first Ladies Singles title.
In the Mens event (The Graeme Baker Cup,) Marcus Powell and Chris Hinds locked horns for the third year running. As in previous years, there was very little between them with it going to the full 3 sets. Marcus looked very strong taking the first set 6-4. However, Chris hung in there with some great returning and finally broke Marcus's resistence to take a tight second set 7-5. In the final set, Chris always seemed to look the more relaxed of the two which helped him to secure a 6-2 victory.
Many thanks to Pam Bond and Graeme Baker for their continued sponsorship of these events and to Amanda Trodd for putting on the festive goodies.