CLARE Munns enjoyed a winning double at the annual Basingstoke Tennis League Championships at Beechdown Tennis Club.

The men’s and ladies singles opened proceedings with Jamie Thomas (Old Basing) and Simon Mennear (Waverley) playing in their first men’s final and Emma Barnes (Odiham) and Munns (Beechdown) competing in the ladies.

In the men’s match both players exchanged some exciting and close rallies. Thomas produced some excellent attacking ground strokes with Mennear 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 Thomas coming out on top 6-3, 6-3.

In the ladies, defending champion Munns found the going very tough in the opening set with Barnes producing some great passing shots and superb volleys.

This enabled her to make the first break of serve and open up a lead.

Munns’ form slowly started to return and coupled with a couple of errors from Barnes, she broke back and took the first set 6-3.

The second set contained some good rallies but Munns continued her good form to take the second set and the match 6-0 and retain her title.

The men’s 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.

The Waverley pair 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 the Beechdown duo 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 Mirza and Watts for their first league doubles title.

The ladies doubles was contested between the four time and defending champions Andrea Butcher/Munns (Beechdown) and Zoe Taylor/Nina McCann (Overton).

The Overton pair 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, as Taylor and McCann took the first set 6-4.

The second and third sets saw the Beechdown team tighten up their games and produce the steadier returns which forced more errors from their opponents as they won 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 year’s mixed doubles final with champions Ben Jubin/Steph Catlin (Totally Tennis) taking on Harrold/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 must go the Beechdown once again for hosting the event.