THE finals of the Penallt Tennis Club singles proved a smash hit, as the club brought down the curtain on the summer season on Sunday afternoon, reports CHRIS ADAMS.

Fifteen-year-old Max Swayne won through an epic Men’s Singles final against defending champion Josh Griffiths, while Lizelle de Jager proved too strong for Cheryl Blair in the Women’s Singles final to retain her crown.

First round losers played in plate competitions as the Wye Valley club’s competition ran over the whole summer.

And Chris Adams and Nicky Amery proved triumphant in the men’s and women’s plate finals respectively.

The men’s event had a record entry of 22 players, with many tight matches in the earlier rounds being decided by 10-point tie-breaks in lieu of a third set.

Sunday afternoon saw all three courts in use and a congenial crowd of spectators from the start.

Cheryl had done marvellously well in defeating both the second and third seeds in reaching the Women’s Singles final, but was unable to repeat the trick against Lizelle, whose powerful ground strokes and consistency were decisive in securing a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

On the next court the Men’s Plate final between Chris Adams and Paul Roderick saw the first set closely contested with just a few points decisive in the former’s favour.

Thereafter, as so often, the momentum was with the winner of the first set and a few errors crept into Paul’s game.

The Ladies’ Plate final had also been decided earlier with Nicky Amery defeating Jemima Leaf in straight sets.

Max Swayne had come through the earlier Men’s Singles rounds quite comfortably against a couple of the club’s best players in Neil O’Doherty and Ed Hollick.

He then took the first set of the final against Josh Griffiths 6-1 and, although the tennis had been competitive throughout, another comfortable victory seemed on the cards.

However, Josh took an early break of serve which he managed to preserve until the latter stages of the set, when Max played superbly well to break Josh’s serve to level things up at five games all.

Two further breaks of serve followed to take the set into a tie break.

Although Josh was evidently the more fatigued of the two players by this point, he somehow managed to creep ahead when it mattered and level the match at one set all.

The crowd by now was engrossed in the match despite an increasingly heavy drizzle.

Playing excellent tennis with a strong service and powerful forehand, Max then took an early lead in the deciding tie-break helped by some tired looking shots from Josh.

Nevertheless, Josh rallied and Max faltered, to level at 9-9, before Max was able to close out the match and take the title.

Meanwhile, a Monmouth Haberdashers’ Schools team made the finals of the South Wales Year 8 girls competition at Whitchurch Tennis Club in Cardiff last week, finishing runners-up to Radyr.