Guy Smith-Bingham and Jake Griffiths retained the Men’s Doubles title in an unexpected repeat of last year’s match.
With Pete Walker, who was in both the Men’s Doubles and Handicap Singles, absent due to injuring a foot the day before, Luke Tearall and Dave Smith, the losing semi-finalists took the place of Pete and Ollie Walker to make it a repeat of last year’s final.
In contrast to last year’s match, Dave & Luke had a great start and found themselves with a 5-1 lead with Dave the star of the show, seemingly unable to miss with his rapier-like forehand and sharp volleys at the net. They couldn’t serve it out at that point, however, but did so a couple of games later to take the set 6-3.
In the second set, the level of play continued to be high with some spectacular rallies from both teams and Guy and Jake squeezing through to take the set 6-4.
The third set was a continuation of the first two with both sides playing hard and fast but, as the temperature dropped, the threat of rain was at the back of everyone’s mind. It had actually started raining when Jake held his service at 4-4 but Dave, visibly uncomfortable with his footing, dropped his to make it 6-4 to the holders.
Russell was unable to find a losing semi-finalist available to take Pete Walker’s place in the Handicap Singles to play Andrew Morrison, so that was postponed to a later date. Also, with heavy rain having already started and forecast to continue late into the afternoon, the Ladies’ Doubles final, featuring Maggie Ingham & Penny Hemingway v Tina Stern & Lorraine Fowler, was also postponed.