Ali Robinson and Guy Barker beat John Prenn and James Male by four games to one 11/15,15/5,15/12,15/7,15/9 to add the Lacoste Open Doubles Championship to the Amateur Doubles title which they won in February.

In the first semi final James and John had beaten second seeded Tim Cockroft and Guy Smith-Bingham, runners up in the Amateur, 4 games to 2 9/15, 15/5, 2/15, 15/5, 15/7, 15/12.

The match oscillated back and forth for three games with some very good rackets but with no player dominating either on service or in the rallies. Then suddenly, a short time into the fourth game, James came in to serve at 2-3 and played and served superbly to go to 13-3 in one hand. His work rate was tremendous and John backed him up with commendable consistency, and Tim and Guy did not seem able to wrest the initiative back even though they held a 6-0 lead in the sixth game.

Guy and Ali beat Mark Hubbard and Alex Titchener-Barrett 4 games to 2 15/7, 15/9, 3/15, 9/15, 15/10, 15/11.

A run of 12 from 0-3 to 12-3 by Ali in the opening game, including 7 points on serve, assured the holders of the first game. The second followed with some furious rallies but Guy and Ali always in the lead. Then in the third game the frenetic hitting of Mark and Alex unsettled their opponents who began to make unforced errors and this highly rated pair looked rather ragged, Guy making an uncharacteristic number of mistakes and Ali unable to take control at the front as he likes to do.

The final, which lasted just short of two hours, produced some sparkling rallies, but Barker and Robinson,the holders, who were rather slow to hit their stride, were never headed after losing the first game 11/15. In this game Robinson was over hitting and, in trying to concentrate his fire on Prenn, who was solid in defence, made too many unforced errors. Prenn and Male took a 12/3 lead and looked as if they were going to take the game comfortably but the No 1 seeds played teir way back into the game and reached 7/12 and then 11/13 before Prenn finished the game with an ace and a clean cross court kill. This was one of the few aces that John served, as his service was less effective than usual, he served only five aces in the course of the match.

This revival at the end of the first game set the tone of the rest of the match and having taken a 5/3 lead in the second game the holders never again lost the advantage, hard though the third seeds fought. Guy and Ali complemented each other well with Guy solidity personified in the left hand court making very few unforced errors, his racket seemingly always in the right place,making effective use of the short angles, time and again leaving the opposiotion stranded too far back. Ali supplied most of the fireworks and as the match progressed killed the ball with greater and greater precision .