TOP ranked players from far and wide in Britain, internationals from around the world, past and present football stars and Olympians, and music from four decades, all add up to an exciting extravaganza of on-court and off-court entertainment as the National Premier League grand finals come to Teesside next week

In the doubles only team tennis event, eight of Britain's top ten ranked players have been listed as participants. It is hoped number one Jamie Murray will be available for Stirling University; whilst James Auckland and Jamie Delgado, ranked two and four are assured of competing for Royal Berkshire Bracknell and Next Generation Bristol respectively.

Those two teams along with Pershore and Gosling Welwyn Garden City have the strongest squads. The former will provide some extra interest for local people as its captain is Daniel Kiernan, Durham and Cleveland's most senior player. He has just finished triumphant in the North German Winter League for 'Logopak' Hartenholn undefeated in seven fixtures for the 2006/07 title. Team-mates David Sherwood, Mark Hilton, and Jonny Marray will also be turning out for the small but developing club in Worcestershire. An international flavour is provided by Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi and Stefan Robert of France.

Kiernan said: "We've got a good chance, but there are so many good teams this year. It will be more difficult this time but we are looking forward to it. It all depends how teams perform on the day."

Next Generation York, the North-East Division champions, made the top 12 teams to qualify and their captain Gareth Adams echoed Kiernan's thoughts: "We have always done well, with two semi-final placings in recent years. The standard is undoubtedly the highest ever, but we are quite hopeful."

York are still hopeful of acquiring a special wildcard player but at present their player with the highest pedigree is South African Marius Barnard.

Before the serious tennis starts next Thursday, the likes of Steve Backley and Marc Foster, world stars in athletics and swimming, will join forces with former international footballers Bryan Robson, Gareth Southgate, Gary Pallister, and Peter Reid for the Celebrity Games on Wednesday evening. They, other well known sportsmen, and several tennis stars, will bring a light-hearted opening to the tennis finals, followed by the first of the musical sessions, by a Queen tribute band.

Eight qualifying teams will contest the preliminary round matches on either the afternoon or evening of Thursday, with the four seeded teams sitting out with byes into Friday's quarter-finals. On that day there will also be play in two sessions, with likewise very late evening musical entertainment. One semi-final will start at 1pm on Saturday, with the second at 5pm.

Royal Berkshire have perhaps the strongest line-up, led by Zimbabwe Davis Cup star Wayne Black. There are four of the top ten ranked Britons in the squad in addition. Next Generation Bristol surprisingly only made it to the finals as one of two lucky loser qualifiers, but the squad announced for the finals also has numerous high ranked Britons with Richard Bloomfield currently at four. Gosling have third ranked Alex Bogdanovic and recently retired Davis Cup-per Arvind Parmar amongst their nominations.

Stirling University might turn out to be dark horses for the event, especially if in-form Jamie Murray can turn out, and resume a successful partnership with Colin Fleming. Northumberland's Matthew Lott is in the squad. Esporta Cardiff have kept faith with their own local players, and not introduced a wildcard.