PENALLT & District Tennis Club held the finals of its annual single’s knockout tournament on last Sunday with a minute’s silence being observed to remember the Queen.

Proceedings commenced with the final of the Men’s Plate competition between Henry Francis and Ben Taylor.

The first set was taken by Henry who was playing some of his best tennis but Ben was always in the game and his excellent mobility around the court began to tell in the second set.

There were some excellent punishing rallies between the players throughout the match but the effects of a recent injury increasingly hampered Henry’s game, particularly his service, and Ben took the match 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10/6).

The Men’s final featured the contrasting playing styles of John Howells and Josh Griffiths the two top seeds in the competition.

John’s route to the final had seen him survive a severe test in the quarter final where he recovered from a set and 2-5 down against Guy Adams to take the match on the tie-break third set.

His resilience was again in evidence in the final where he played pretty much error free tennis against Josh, a much younger and harder hitting opponent, to take the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

For a few years now the Ladies game at Penallt has been dominated by three players: Ginny Higgins, Bozena Tytko and Bev Leaf.

This year the semi-final between Bozena and Ginny went to Bozena in three sets 6-1, 6-7 1-0 (10/5).

The final between Bev and Bozena provided excellent entertainment to the knowledgeable crowd. Both ladies played excellent and stylish tennis and there was little between them throughout.

Bev hits a flatter and slightly heavier drive but Bozena’s topspin tends to be a bit safer and in the first set this was decisive as she took the set 6-3.

But Bev fought back in the second and summoning some considerable reserves of energy took it 6-2. She managed to carry the momentum into the champions tie-break which she took by 10 points to 4.