IT was a busy week for Abergavenny tennis club's men's and mixed teams in the midweek Cymru Kitchens Leagues.

Following a successful season to date, both teams had reached the finals of the cup which were played on Monday and Friday night respectively.

In the Men's Final, Abergavenny faced Caerphilly 'A', who had taken Abergavenny to a draw in their previous league-match meeting.

First pair Darryl Walters and Lloyd Barcenilla used their established partnership to get off to a good start against a hard-hitting Caerphilly pairing.

The combination of Walters' consistent baseline game and precision passing shots, complemented by a strong volleying and quality serving performance from Barcenilla took Abergavenny to a 6-3, 6-4 win, and an early lead in the tie.

Abergavenny's second pairing of experienced Mark Johnson and upcoming junior 12-year-old Tom Davies, also played a quality match to take Abergavenny two matches up at the half-way point.

The Barcenilla/Walters partnership then beat Caerphilly's second pair with a convincing win to the loss of just one game to secure Abergavenny's cup victory, whilst Johnson/Davies managed to claim a set and an early lead in the second before the Caerphilly pair, now with the knowledge the rubber was dead, began to loosen upon their ground strokes and finally took the match in a deciding championship tie-break.

The final result was a 3-1 victory to Abergavenny. Having used the midweek league as a platform to introduce the clubs most promising juniors to competitive senior league tennis, team-captain Andy Clement, who thanked all squad members, was particularly happy with juniors Tom Davies and Fraser Wallace (both aged 12), who made considerable contributions to the club's results and no doubt gained some invaluable match-play experience from their more experienced partners.

The mixed doubles cup final was played away at Allt-Yr-Yn, Newport and proved to be a closely fought contest which could have gone either way.

Playing their opponents' first pair, Abergavenny's top seeds of Darryl Walters and Helen Parker battled in a close match eventually losing in three sets on a close championship tie-break. Second seeds, the mother and son partnership of Lloyd and Ashley Barcenilla, also won a tough match over three sets to level the match at one rubber each at the half-way stage. Tiring in their second match, Walters and Parker went down in straight sets to an Allt-Yr-Yn second pair, whilst a confident Barcenilla pairing battled to grind out another three set win against the first seeds.

After all four matches were played the score was level at two rubbers each, with Allt-Yr-Yn clinching the cup with six sets to Abergavenny's five.

Andy Clement, captain of the midweek mixed team as well as the men's, said that whilst it was always disappointing to lose a cup-final, he was glad that the match result was so close and that it was an exciting climax deserving of a closely-fought league.