DAVID Lloyd (Derby) retained their National Premier Indoor Tennis League crown after beating Wrexham 4-0 in the final.

The pre-finals favourites wasted little time in recapturing the prize at Hull Road with Davis Cup star Martin Lee and Ian Flanagan playing second string to a Nick Fulwood and Dan Kiernan top pairing.

The Derby squad saw off David Lloyd (Cheadle) in the semis to book their place in the final against Wrexham.

Luckless hosts Next Generation (York) did their best with a hastily arranged team against Wrexham in the semi-final but lost in straight matches.

York were forced to call on their sixth and seventh string at the 11th hour after a series of injury and travel blips blighted the team.

Leading doubles player Marius Barnard had to withdraw after fracturing a wrist on Thursday and replacement Gary Henderson, the Yorkshire champion who played in the quarter-final victory on Friday, had to fly out to Egypt before Saturday's semi-final date with Wrexham.

A third player was also unavailable leading to the inclusion of South African ATP player Corn Krogscheepers, who is still not 100 per cent fit after rolling his ankle a month ago.

And Wrexham proved to be too strong with pairings of Oliver Freelove and Krogscheepers, and Jason Torpey and Peter Thomas losing both rubbers.

Barnard said: "The standard of tennis was really good.

"Oliver and Corn won their first set against Simon Morris and Chris Evans but they came back to win 3-1. That's when we knew how difficult it was going to be when our first string couldn't beat their second team.

"We had great support with more than 150 spectators there and I was pleased with how the whole event went.

"If York had made it to the final there would have been more support for the final."

Updated: 10:39 Monday, March 29, 2004