Heaton's Gary Henderson lost a singles match for the first time in 14 years at the Yorkshire Tennis Champion-ships on Saturday.

But the coach, beaten 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 by eventual winner David Sherwood from Sheffield in a morning semi-final, has vowed to return to Chapel Allerton Lawn Tennis and Squash Club next year in search of a tenth county singles title.

"I will be 32 this year, and David is a 21-year-old full-time professional, so he really should win, but I thought I was the better player at the start of the match," admitted the former British No 5.

"Last year I beat Jonathan Marray on the way to the title, and this year I was still hitting my serves and going for my shots."

Added the man who has enjoyed a record number of men's county singles titles: "I cannot be unhappy with my performance because I had a go, and I want to come back next year. I enjoy the competition."

The previous time Hender-son had lost a singles in the Yorkshire Championships was the 1987 final to Simon Ickringill, his mentor at Ilkley. Since then the father-of-one has either been at university in America, playing full-time, or, in most cases, he has won the tournament.

Sherwood's semi-final agai-nst Henderson was played entirely on grass, but his final in the afternoon was switched to an indoor court because of rain when he was trailing Hull's Jason Torpey 7-6 (10-8), 4-5, 0-15.

Probably staying on the baseline too much for his own good on a lush surface, Sherwood rarely looked happy outdoors as he couldn't rely on a perfect bounce for what were near half-volleys from the back of the court. But he was always the favourite when play moved inside, and he won the first seven points with a roof over his head on his way to his first county senior singles crown.

Sherwood - son of former Olympic medal-winning athletes John and Sheila - had a set point at 8-7 in the tie-break only to net a forehand return of serve, and eventually lost the sequence on Torpey's fourth set point, but finished the match with two fine passing shots.

Carina Dalton's victory in the women's singles meant it was the first double for Sheffield in the tournament since 1979 when John Howarth and Lynne Robinson lifted the titles.

In a battle of 16-year-olds, Dalton, whose mother had lost four women's doubles finals in the 1970s as Christine Cary, defeated host club member Nicola Mooney 6-2, 6-4.

Dalton, who also played three finals at the Sellers Internat-ional Open at Huddersfield on Saturday afternoon - the women's singles, women's doubles and under-21 women's singles - trailed the Selby girl 4-1 in the second set.

German-based coach Ste-phen Heron and 2000 Wimble-don boys' doubles finalist Ben Riby from Scarborough won the Yorkshire men's doubles title, defeating Halifax and Texas Tec duo Richard Crabtree - the singles winner at Huddersfield - and Ben Gudzelak 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

The standard of play throughout the tournament was high, but only eight entries in the women's singles, two of which withdrew anyway, and no women's doubles for the first time since the inaugural event in 1911 did mar things somewhat.

The clash with Huddersfield, apparently told to move their tournament back a week by the North East Region, was highly unfortunate.