Clearview finished their campaign in the National Ladies Club League with a cliffhanger against Edgbaston Priory at the weekend.

Their opponents, who have already qualified for the final, put out an under-strength team which allowed Clearview to mount a serious challenge.

Nicola Woodhouse playing at number one was overwhelmed by Shirley-Anne Siddall and Charlotte Wallace let slip a 4-1 final set against Katie Shaw, losing 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Georgina Dinham ground out a successful match against Harriet Wood, coming from a set down to win 6-2 in the decider.

Pamela Lucey Butler had an easier task, beating Edgbaston number four Miko Thompson 6-0, 6-2.

In the doubles Woodhouse and Wallace met their match in Siddall and Shaw, going down 6-2, 6-1, but Dinham and Butler brought the scores level with an emphatic 6-3, 6-3 win.

With the scores level and sets also level the match went down to sudden death tie-breaks, each player facing their singles opponent again.

Wins for Wallace and Butler cancelled out defeats for the other two, meaning a final tie-break between the top player in each team.

Woodhouse went down again, this time seven points to two.

Clearview finished fourth overall, collecting over £1,000 in prize money and guaranteeing their Premier League status for next season.

Clearview teams were also in action in the Essex Singles league last week.

In Ladies division one the team of Catherine Norman, Kelly Philebrown, Melanie Hall and Laura Bain pulled off a 4-2 victory over Connaught.

The mens team also faced Connaught and achieved the same scoreline, 4-2, the team being Gavin Bradford, Ata Khatib, Jack Stammers and Lee Belchambers.

Bradford and Khatib are likely to figure in Clearview's Essex Senior Cup semi-final coming up this weekend.

Over 200 youngsters are involved in this week's Lionel Bass Brentwood Hard Court Junior Open Tennis Tournament.

Gidea Park's Tom Higgins leads the field in the boys under 18 singles.

He is the top seed and is scheduled to meet Kent's Andrew McLennan in the final.

Billericay's Peter French is through to the last 16 of the event having beaten Nabil Lababedi on Monday.

Clearview's Jack Stammers is out though, after losing to Rob Twyman in straight sets.

Ben Higgins remains in the hunt in the boys 14's while Faris Khatib of Clearview is top seed in the boys 12's and opened up with a 6-1, 6-1 win over James Stiller.

Also in the boys 12's Ben Levi and Ben Pritchard (Gidea Park) both progressed.

Michelle Dixey from Havering won her opener in the girls 14's beating Joanne Chapman.

Katie Howson of Cranston Park was another to record a first round win in the girls 14's, after beating Gemma Chittocks.

Sam Burridge (Clearview) a late entry to the event beat Emma Hill 6-3, 6-3 to progress.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.