TENNIS: A hard-fought route to the Sanderstead Lawn Tennis Club Winter Finals, with delays of rain, snow, frost and all manner of bad weather, saw the sun shone in Penwortham Road when the final matches were played out.
The 12 players who made it through were cheered on by an enthusiastic audience. They lived up to their finalist status with some great tennis and entertaining play throughout.
The day began with powerhouse performances in the women's and men's doubles, followed by a brief lunch break before the ladies singles Superset (one set) saw first time finalist Dee Easter put up a great fight, but was overpowered by the club's captain, Carrie Askew 6-0.
The men's superset saw some of the best, and hardest hitting tennis of the day in a close match which eventually saw Andy Easter narrowly beaten 6-4 by Matt Duncan.
The last game of the day, the mixed doubles was unfortunately affected by a sudden downpour.
But Debbie Butler and Ian Stinton, against Carrie Askew and Chris Hicks battled on completing the day's tournament, with a 6-2, 6-2 win for Debbie and Ian.