Brightwell players were defeated finalists in both the men's and ladies' singles at the Aldershot & Farnham Tournament, one of the showpiece events of the local tennis calendar.

Run by the Aldershot & District LTA, the tournament took place at the Aldershot Tennis Centre on Sunday.

Brightwell's David Joyce and Gary Standford (Aldershot TC) met in the men's singles final and were very evenly matched, with the first six games all going with serve. Stanford then broke serve in the seventh game and never looked back, winning 6-3, 6-3

The ladies' singles had been disappointing in the quantity of entrants, but the final more than made up for this in quality. Alex Bliss (Ash) played Judy Sauter (Brightwell). The first set went to Bliss, but Sauter really knuckled down in the second and took a 5-3 lead. Bliss then regained her composure, took the set to a tie-break and won the match 6-2, 7-6

The ladies doubles number 1 seeds, Jackie Williams and Sam Williamson (Brightwell) beat Jane Vincent and Debbie Ryder (Avondale) in straight sets, but the 6-3, 6-3 scoreline belied a keenly contested match.

The mixed doubles found Jackie Williams and Debbie Ryder pitched against each other again, this time with Andy Foster of Manor and David Pharo of Avondale. Some high quality tennis was played, although Pharo may have been a little disappointed with his form. Even so, the penultimate game, with Pharo serving, produced nine deuces, seven of which were potential match points for Foster and Williams . Pharo and Ryder did well to win that particular game, but Foster and Williams were the eventual winners, 6-4, 6-4.

The three-set matches seemed to feature the veterans. Sharon Middlehurst and Liz Jukes ( Brightwell) beat Dawn Vaughan and Joss Cochrane (Bourne) in the ladies' vets. Middlehurst and Jukes took the first set, but the Bourne pair fought back gallantly to win the second. Middlehurst and Jukes broke in the first game of the decider and won the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

The men's vets was another close encounter, with Chris Wheeler and Chris Everitt of Wrecclesham battling it out with Bruce Morley and Frank Clarke (Shalford). Everitt and Wheeler won the first set, but trailed 4-0 in the second. They forced a tie-break before losing the set. But Wheeler and Everitt decided enough was enough and took the title 6-3, 6-7 , 6-1.

In the mixed vets final, Chris Iles and Jill Bowden (Bourne) proved too good for Chris Wheeler and Liz Jukes, winning 6-4, 6-2.

The super mixed vets matched Bruce Morley and Sandra Fairweather (Shalford) with Richard Harrington and Lois McCrum (Elstead). Another three-setter could have gone either way, and lasted almost two hours. Both pairings took a set 7-5, but then Harrington and McCrum, from 2-all in the decider, took the next four games, winning 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.

In the junior section, two of the matches were walk-overs, with Hannah Swinscoe taking the girls' U/14 trophy and Benjamin Plant the boys' U/14s. The other two junior matches made up for the lack of junior players though. In the girls' U/16 match, Natalie Sykes (Brightwell) and Helen Whateley (Bourne) battled it out on the base lines. A very good match and Helen was the winner, 6-2, 6-2.

The boys' U/16 contest was between Kevin Tucker (Aldershot Methodist) and Chris Terry (Brightwell). Tucker's serve was obviously working well and he sent down three aces to come out the winner 6-1, 6-2.

l Entry forms for next year's tournament will be available from April 2003.