ANDOVER Tennis Club celebrated the end of their season, and waved goodbye to their old home, as they hosted their club and youth championships.

The club, who are moving from their Brackenbury home to Balksbury Hill next year, recently hosted their 42nd annual club championship before holding their associated youth tournament the following weekend.

The Floorpol-sponsored event, which was aided by perfect sunshine, was played to an extremely high standard as some of the area’s top players went head-to-head for the coveted trophies.

Anthony Brown and Alex Lee competed in the final of the men’s singles once again, repeating last year’s tense and gripping final.

Lee, who begins university this month, showed exactly how much stronger his game had become since their last meeting, matching Brown during some punishing long rallies.

Despite the evenness of the match, Lee came out on top of the first set by six games to three but Brown came back to take the second on a 7-6 tie break.

That meant it was all to play for in the third set and the match was firmly in the balance.

Brown held serve to keep the game at 5-4 before Lee faltered on his to hand Brown the game, set and the match.

One of the club’s long serving members, Margaret Winnet, described it as “undoubtedly one of the very best men’s singles finals that the club has witnessed” and “a pleasure to watch”.

Meanwhile the ladies singles was won by Claire Reid, whose power of groundstroke was too much for Stephanie Cheng, who fought bravely and chased every ball.

However the score showed the decisiveness of Reid, who won 6-1, 6-0.

The men’s veterans final was contested by club coach Martyn Isherwood and Will Stuart, who was playing his first final at the club.

Stuart’s father, Brian, won this trophy many times and Will was out to prove that he could do it too.

The first set was very close, going to Stuart on a tie break, but Stuart could not maintain the pressure, losing the second set 6-0 and the championship tie-break 12-10, to give Isherwood the title.

The ladies doubles was an excellent, well contested final between Claire Reid and her partner, Fay Fradgley, against Sarah Mitchell and Kate Sloan.

The first set went to Reid and Fradgley, who settled into their game quickly and won the first set 6-3.

However Mitchell and Sloan came back strongly in the second set, with some excellent rallies and strong volleying.

They were unlucky to lose the tie break as the set and the match went to Reid and Fradgley, 6-3 7-6.

The men’s doubles was youth against experience.

Alex Lee partnered Jacob Webb, a young player with great talent, against the very experienced pair of Brown and Isherwood.

The youngsters had played fantastically well to reach the final, but in the end were unable to reproduce this standard in the big game.

They fought hard and there were some great rallies but in the end Brown and Isherwood won comfortably, 6-1 6-4.

The final event of the day was the mixed doubles with Claire Coomer and Andrew Winnett going for their 15th title.

Their opponents were Anthony Brown and young Georgia Moon, who played a superb game throughout, holding her own against Winnett’s accurate volleying and Coomer’s penetrating groundstrokes.

The first set went to Winnett and Coomer on a tie break, 7-6, and they closed out the match 6-2 in the second set.

The trophies were presented to the winners by Brian Stuart, one of the club’s trustees, who thanked the umpires, caterers and supporters.

He congratulated the players on some superb tennis and thanked Floorpol for sponsoring the event.

Following the success of the senior events it was time for the juniors to compete and the matches were well contested from the mini red ball players at under-six and undereight, through to the U18 players.

The under-18 boys singles between Alex Lee and Gregor Corcoran was of a very high standard but Lee triumphed on the day.

The under-14 girls singles, won by Alicia Cole, was also very competitive, with both players demonstrating how well they have progressed this year.

The final match of the day was the mixed doubles final, won by Alex Lee and Georgia Moon, who had an outstanding battle with Jacob Webb and Amy MacDonald to end the tournament on a high note.

Credit must go to the excellent coaching program run by Martyn Isherwood and Bash Kara.