Penallt Tennis Club held their end of season finals day and barbeque last Sunday, reports CHRIS ADAMS.

Proceedings commenced in the morning with the girls’ event.

This was a round robin contested by Lola Bradbury, Jemima Leaf and Emily Blair.

Emily managed to win her two matches but was well tested, needing to win tie-breaks in both.

Her powerful first serve was the key element of difference giving her a good number of free points when it went in.

The afternoon provided excellent entertainment for an appreciative crowd with the finals of the men’s, ladies’ and ladies’ plate.

The ladies’ plate was the Battle of the Blairs between mother and daughter, Cheryl and Emily.

As is often the case, the experience and consistency of the parent trumped the energy and occasional brilliance of the offspring and Cheryl won in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.

The ladies’ final was between previous winner Bozena Tytko and new member Lizelle de Jager. Both ladies play an attractive attacking style of tennis, so it was an excellent contest to watch.

Both sets were closely contested to start with, but Lizelle made fewer unforced errors when it mattered in the latter stages and took the match 6-4, 6-3.

The men’s final between Ed Hollick and Josh Griffiths was a great contest lasting nearly 2 hours with many long rallies and some tremendous retrieving that had the crowd gasping.

Both sets followed a similar pattern with Ed losing his serve in the early stages but then fighting back to levels terms.

The contrasting styles of the players added to the interest, Ed playing the ball higher over the net with topspin tended to make fewer unforced errors.

But Josh’s dynamic style and use of slice low over the net was sometimes more penetrative. On this occasion the net was his friend with a number of net-chords in his favour and he edged both sets by 6.4.

The match was played in an excellent atmosphere and was a credit to both players and the Club.