Report by NICK SMITH

HARTFORD Tennis Club is on the verge of smashing the dominance of one of their fiercest rivals to pieces.

If they don't lose their final game on Sunday they will win the Mid Cheshire league and cup double which Congleton A have monopolised for years.

Their emphatic 7-1 win over Alsager last Sunday completed the first leg of the double, but Hartford must halve their game with Congleton's B team to take the championship.

"They're not going to lie down and die," said Hartford chairman David Glenn. "If they win, their club wins the title, but they can't use players from their A team in the B team.

"If we win the league and cup it will be the first time Congleton haven't won the double for many years, so it's a nice irony to end the season playing one of their teams."

Hartford won the cup for the first time in 10 years when they overcame Alsager, despite dropping the first game to a doubles pair featuring a 14-year-old.

But the quartet of Gareth Eaton, Andrew Moores, James Barlow and Neil Cocker stormed back to take seven sets on the run.

Glenn added: "They had a reasonably easy run to the final, brushing everybody aside, and that carried on in the final."

After years of paying second fiddle to Congleton, Hartford's aces have finally come good thanks to a settled side and the emergence of their juniors.

"In the past it's chopped and changed but this year we've had six players in all the matches and four of them have played in 80 to 90 per cent of those matches," said Glenn.

"The two young lads, Gareth and Andrew, have come right through from the juniors since they were 12 or 13 and each year have got better and better. They're on the edge of becoming the top players in the area."