We are very proud to announce that Jamie Thomas won the singles championship this year.  See below the report on all the matches this year, written by Richard Mole:-

BASINGSTOKE AND DISTRICT TENNIS LEAGUE.

The annual Basingstoke Tennis League individual championships took place at Beechdown tennis club recently.

The mens and ladies singles opened proceedings with Jamie Thomas (Old Basing) and Simon Mennear (Waverley) playing in their first mens final and Emma Barnes (Odiham) and Clare Munns (Beechdown) competing in the ladies. In the mens match both players exchanged some exciting and close rallies. Jamie produced some excellent attacking ground strokes with Simon having to make a lot of defensive returns. This made for a very close match. Both sets were eventually decided on one break of serve in each with Jamie coming out on top 6-3, 6-3. In the ladies, defending champion Clare found the going very tough in the opening set with Emma producing some great passing shots and superb volleys. This enabled her to make the first break of serve and open up a lead. Clare’s form slowly started to return and coupled with a couple of errors from Emma, she broke back and took the first set 6-3. The second set contained some good rallies but Clare continued her good form to take the second set and the match 6-0 and retain her title.

The mens doubles final was between Raheem Mirza/Luke Watts (Waverley) and Chris Harrold/Phil Banfield (Beechdown). The first set looked like it was going to go to a tie break as although both teams had opportunities to break service playing some great tennis, the set reached 5-5. Raheem and Luke then managed to eventually break serve and take it 7-5. The second set was equally close with this time the one break of service going to Chris and Phil who went on to take the set 6-4. The final set continued to provide the watching spectators with some excellent tennis from both pairs with it going to Raheem and Luke for their first League doubles title.

The ladies doubles was contested between the 4 time and defending champions Andrea Butcher/Clare Munns (Beechdown) and Zoe Taylor/Nina McCann (Overton). Zoe and Nina started well breaking service early in the first set and forcing errors from the champions with some fine returns. The stiff breeze also caused some unforced errors by both sides. The break Zoe and Nina the first set 6-4. The second and third sets saw Andrea and Clare tighten up their games and produce the steadier returns which forced more errors from their opponents. Andrea and Clare took the final two sets 6-3, 6-2 to win their fifth consecutive title.

The final event of the day saw a repeat of last years mixed doubles final with champions Ben Jubin/Steph Catlin (Totally Tennis) take on Chris Harrold/Clare Munns (Beechdown). As with last year there was some tremendous tennis being played by both pairs with long baseline rallies coupled with great interceptions and volleys at the net. The overall power and consistency of the champions again proved decisive with them taking the first set 6-4 and despite a few games going to deuce they managed to retain their title by taking the second set 6-2.

Thanks go the Beechdown once again for hosting the event.