WITH Wimbledon on the horizon, Wye Valley tennis players got in the swing at their village club’s recent mixed doubles tennis tournament.

The Penallt & District Tennis Club event took place over the weekend in pleasant conditions accompanied by the faint strains of music from the nearby Devauden Festival.

The most competitive tennis of the tournament was played by Dan Cassidy and Rachel Ryder who went the distance in both their matches.

In the quarter-final they unexpectedly dropped a set to Rosie and Chris Adams before winning the third set tie-break.

But in the semi-final against Ginny Higgins and Rob Prewett, after two very close sets, the deciding tie-break was taken by their opponents.

Ginny and Rob then faced another long-standing pairing in Bev Leaf and Peter Dimmock in the final.

After taking the first set comfortably 6-1, Bev and Peter were discomforted by some more consistent tennis from their opponents at the start of the second set, going 1-3 down.

But they responded well, playing some cagey tennis in the blustery conditions, and took the remaining games of the match to take the title in style, conceding just eight games in their three matches.

The Plate competition for first round losers was won by the new pairing of Angela Seymour and Tom Rigby, who beat Corinne and Sean Cassidy in the final.

Founded all the way back in 1889, Penallt & District are a friendly club with three floodlit artificial grass courts set in an attractive rural setting in the Wye Valley National Landscape, some three miles from Monmouth.

The club offers an active range of friendly and competitive team and box leagues social tennis throughout the year, plus coaching for all ages and levels provided by their Level 5 coach Sean Jones .

Anyone interested in joining can direct message them at www.facebook.com/PenalltTennisClub/