LITTLETONS Tennis Club staged its annual Mixed Doubles Open tournament in glorious conditions last Sunday when 11 pairs from local clubs and one from Nottingham took to the courts for an event kindly sponsored by George Sangha, proprietor of Littleton and Badsey Spar stores.

Following some close matches in the round-robin stages, the top pair of Naomi Shearing and James Smith (Stratford) proved far too strong for host pair Ruth Thompson and Dixie Collins who lost 6-1.

Evesham RC's Ruth Linton had a terrific battle before overcoming Stratford's Tim Page and Amanda Watson 6-5, while clubmates Simon Wall and Cindy Thomas defeated the Nottingham duo by the same score.

In the final quarter-final clash, Mark Denby and Caryl Roberts of Stratford proved too strong for Christine Stratton and John Fielder (Littletons) and won 6-2.

Both Stratford pairs went on to play some excellent tennis in the semi-finals to win through with Roberts and Denby defeating Wall and Thomas 6-0 and Smith and Shearing getting the better of Ruth Linton and John Clarke 6-4.

The one-set final was of a high standard with some outstanding rallies. The first five games went with serve and, at 3-2 down, Roberts and Denby were 40-love up and serving and seemed set to make it 3-3.

However, Shearing and Smith fought back to break the Denby serve to take a 4-2 lead and this proved crucial as the next three games went with serve before Smith held his serve convincingly to register a 6-4 triumph.