ELAINE Varcoe and Neil Gibson were the big winners at the annual East Lancashire Lawn Tennis League knockout finals after they both won two titles.

Varcoe, a member of Burnley Tennis Club, won the ladies and mixed doubles events while Gibson, who plays for Feniscowles, won the singles and men’s doubles.

If they were the big winners of the afternoon then Blackburn Northern pair Michell Watts and John Waddicor were the big losers after they were defeated in the two finals they played in.

Watts lost in the ladies doubles, Waddicor in the men’s before they teamed up to lose in the mixed doubles.

In the first final of the day, held at Burnley Tennis Club, Gibson was up against Andrew Moore from Whalley Tennis Club.

Moore started brightly, hitting a lot of fine passing shots but Gibson took control of the middle of the opening set and, with it, the match as he ran out a convincing 6-2, 6-1 winner.

The ladies doubles was anything but one-sided as Varcoe and Jo Heywood had to come from a set down to beat Northern pair Watts and Sue Liver.

After dropping the first set 4-6, Varcoe and Heywood levelled, taking the second set 6-3 and won the third 6-1 to seal victory.

The men’s doubles also went to the wire and could have gone either way. Once agains the champions had to come from behind to win.

Waddicor and Peter Bradley took the first set 6-3 and pushed Gibson and Feniscowles team-mate Ric-hard Taylor in the second which they eventually lost on a tie break.

And that extra bit of class from Gibson and Taylor showed through in the final set which they won 6-2.

The mixed doubles final proved to be an entertaining affair but unfortunately for Waddicor and Watts, ended in defeat.

The Blackburn Northern pair put up spirited effort before eventually losing 6-4, 6-3 to Burnley’s Iain Taylor and Varcoe.