On a beautiful spring-like day, Wickford Lawn Tennis Club held their winter finals day on Sunday.

The first event, the men's singles plate, threatened to last the entire day - a two and a half hour marathon of excellent rallying left both Stewart Clark and Ken Ellis exhausted, with Stewart eventually overcoming his opponent and finding victory in the third set.

The ladies plate final saw Claire Bullman beat Glynnis Exley in a well paced and somewhat shorter match.

The mens singles main event was a hard hitting match of skills but Cliff Warrick's touch play won over his opponent, David Crawford, who he beat in straight sets.

In the ladies singles event, this year it was Karen Poole's turn to take the title from Caron Fuller in what turns out to be the bi-annual battle of the Karens/Carons.

The ladies doubles match provided Claire Bullman with her second win of the day paired with Sandra Ellis, when, consistency of play overcame the strength of their opponents Nicki Thain and Pat Baker.

Cliff Warrick also claimed his second win with Dave Thornhill in the men's doubles, beating Ken Poole and Stewart Clark in a hard and closely fought three set match.

After a long and hard day, for players, umpires and spectators, the final match, the mixed doubles was won by Caron Fuller and Bob Chapman, beating Nicki Thin and Ken Poole in straight sets.

Chairman of the Club, John Kirk presented the trophies to the winners and runners-up at the end of what had been a very successful finals day.

The standard of play was high, and Mr Kirk thanked everybody concerned for their support.

A winning couple . . some of the members who took part in Wickford Tennis Club's winetr inals day on Sunday are flankerd by Karen Poole (left) who won the ladies singles final, and Cliff Warrick (right) who became the new mens singles champion.

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