Some excellent displays of tennis were the reward for the dozens of spectators who watched the Leigh and Westcliff 14th winter annual championships.

The event was held Kent Elms Tennis Club and was given a feeling of tennis tradition with professional umpires and players adhering to the Leigh and Westcliff ruling that they wore white clothes.

The ladies' doubles was the first final and saw Dawn Collins and Mandy White (Kent Elms) beat Linda Vaughan and Sue Levy (Westcliff Hard) 6-2 6-1.

The match was much better than the score suggests and featured many rallies of very good quality.

Sue Blackshaw and Nicky Dickens (Westcliff Hard) took the ladies' doubles plate 7-5 6-4 after a hard-fought game with Jo Baucutt and Sandra White (Leigh).

The game was one of the strongest ladies' plates in LEigh and Westcliff LTA history, with powerful hitting and delicate drop shots prevalent.

The men's doubles was the next match and saw Bernard Horwood and Martin Jeffery (Westcliff Hard) battle to a 7-6 7-6 win over Hockley's Jan Thorpe and Westcliff Hard's David Bishop.

It was a game that had spectators thrilled as the players went neck-and-neck with high quality tennis.

Mark Oswald and Gerry Hamilton (Kent Elms) lost their first set 2-6 to Dennis Donoghue and Norman McCouat (Kent Elms) before they won the next sets 6-4 6-1 in the men's double plate.

Hockley's Trevor Paterson and Steve Baldwin were due to face Dennis and Norman, but were forced to pull out because Steve had a back injury.

Beaten semi-finalists Mark and Gerry stepped in and took full advantage of their unusual route to the final.

The mixed doubles saw husband-and-wife team Nigel and Mandy White (Kent Elms) take the first set 6-3 before Westcliff Hard's Bernard Horwood and Sue Blackshaw win the second 6-2. However, the Whites took the third set 6-3.

Bernard, Sue and Mandy had all been involved in earlier matches, but there was no sign of fatigue as they entertained spectators.

In the final match of the day, the mixed doubles plate, saw Martin Liu and Sue McMahon (Westcliff Lawn) beat new captain Graham Wells and Stephanie Moon (Southend Lawn) 7-5 6-3 in a quality game that had most of the crowd staying on to watch and round off a great afternoon of tennis.

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