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The first two rallies of the first game gave an indication of what was to come with all four players involved and hitting the ball cleanly and hard. Tim Cockroft dominated in the first game, playing error free rackets and allowing the other pair no respite. Cockroft and Titchener-Barrett went to 7/0 in their first service run and then 11/0, before, in their third turn in the box Larken and Sawrey-Cookson scored two points. Back in Cockroft took the four points needed to win the game.

He continued in the same vein at the start of the second game serving especially well to the forehand court taking a 4/0 lead in his first hand and then he and Titchener-Barrett went into a 9/1 lead in their second hand. Although at this stage Larken and Sawrey-Cookson had only won 3 points the play from all four protagonists had been top quality, with many rallies of twenty strokes or more. Having come in at 1/9 down Larken and Sawrey-Cookson then took the game in their next two turns in the box, Toby playing up in front of the service box was pretty well unpassable and Jo killed anything loose

The third and fourth games continued at the same furious pace with first one side and then the other taking turns to be on top. There was perhaps too much hitting round the walls for the purist, resulting in balls high off the back wall on which both Titchener-Barrett and Larken were especially severe, but the rallies were both breathtaking and breathless. At two games all it was difficult to pick a winner but the fifth game looked as if it was going to be crucial, when Larken and Sawrey-Cookson, coming in to serve at 1/4 went into a 13/4 lead in one hand, Toby having a run of ten and although Tim and Alex reached 7/13 that was as far as they got the game finishing in the next hand at 15/7.

Cockroft and Titchener-Barrett came back strongly in the sixth, reaching 11/2 in two hands. Once more their opponents had a long run in the box, coming back to 11 all, Sawrey-Cookson again winning nine points on his serve. Over the course of the match he served 15 aces, Larken only eight, Cockroft 20 and Titchener-Barrett 19. This time the eventual champions were not to be denied and winning back serve took the game in their next hand. At three games all the seemed to have transferred to Cockroft and Titchener-Barett. And so it proved, when they won the final game in three hands going from 4 all to game in their third turn in the box, both their opponents, perhaps tiring after their second seven game marathon in as many days, making unnecessary errors at critical points.

The winners had never played as a pair before so this was a particularly good result for them as it was for the losers, who had defeated the holders Harry Foster and Mark Hue Williams in the semi finals in seven games. Toby Sawrey-Cookson now a school master in Somerset and hardly playing, showed once more what a fine doubles player he is. The Open Doubles is in April and the result could very well be reversed, although both pairs will have to be on top form if Doubles World Champions Neil Smith and Mark Hubbard play.

Draw

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