Bermuda had its own battle of the ages at the weekend when the BLTA/ Barritts' Over and Under 35s women's doubles tennis event was held at the National Tennis Stadium.

The Under 35s took the lead with a win in their first match for Jacklyn Lambert and Kara Fisher over Julie Lunn and Gerri Swan - 7-5, 6-4 - followed by another victory for Tara Lambert and captain Allison Towlson over Laverne Stowe and captain Wendy Gelhay 6-3, 6-2, giving the Under 35s a 2-0 lead.

It was experienced Mary Giordano and Gill Butterfield who put the Over 35s on the scoreboard by sweeping aside Sarah Cook and Christina Brouilette 6-1, 6-1.

The result of the fourth of the five matches, a two and a half hour marathon levelled the scores for the teams at 2-2, the Over 35s Tracey Berrell and Zina Edwards beating Under 35s Zoe Fisher and Carrol Reid in three sets 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

This left the deciding match for the afternoon to be played between the number one seeds for each team.

A final check on birth dates before the start of the afternoon play put Deborah Cheng in the Under 35s. She was originally selected for the Over 35s so this left them short of a player. As a result Laverne Stowe agreed to play another match for the Over 35s.

Cheng and Sasha Fisher took the first set for the Under 35s, but could not convert a match point in the second set. It went to a tie breaker which Over 35s Barbara Lambert and Stowe, Bermuda's number one doubles players, won.

With the match at one set each, the pressure was on for each pair to decide the fixture for the day.

The third set opened with a break for the Over 35s. They moved to a 3-0 lead but this was brought back to five-all, and then to a thrilling tie breaker, after the Over 35s broke Fisher's serve, and then the Under 35s broke Lambert's.

The tie-breaker went with serve until the Over 35s took a two point lead giving them two match points.

The Under 35s were eventually victorious after another two and half hour match which had the spectators and players gripped to the end. The final score was 6-4, 6-7, 7-6, giving the Under 35s a 3-2 triumph.