Playing at Taunton in this year's Aegon Winter Cup, our men's team had to face Northamptonshire, Somerset and Cornwall. With Jack Findel-Hawkins and Howard Scott in America, there were debuts this year for Pete Avis, Marc Sillifant and Emerson Styles. Rhys Dunford made a return to the team while Andy Norton played his first winter event.
Friday LOST v NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 4-5
Neither team was at full strength on day one as Northants took a 4-2 lead after the singles. Rhys and Alfie were the Devon winners, with Emerson losing a deciding set tie-break. Rhys won again in the doubles with Pete while Alfie and Marc leveled the score. Unfortunately, Oskar and Emerson lost a close number one doubles to leave Northants as the narrow winners.
Saturday LOST v SOMERSET 4-5
Dave and Andy arrived to bolster the line-up and see Rhys and Alfie establish a 2-0 lead. Emerson and Oskar both lost, the latter in three sets, but Andy played well to put Devon 3-2 up. Dave had a near impossible task at number one so it was all square once more. Pete and Marc were swiftly dispatched in the doubles but Emerson and Andy formed a winning team. This left Dave and Oskar in the deciding doubles but they were beaten in two close sets.
Sunday WON v CORNWALL 5-4
Cornwall had also lost both matches by the narrowest margin possible so Sunday was a relegation shoot-out. Marc replaced the unavailable Alfie and a short of practice Bruce made the journey from Tiverton for the doubles. Oskar was nursing an injury so Justin waited in reserve, ready to pounce if called upon. Rhys, Marc and Emerson helped Devon to race into a 3-0 lead and all looked well when both Oskar and Andy won the first set of their matches. The tide then turned and the singles ended 3-3 but Dave did well to win the first set of his match as well. Bruce joined up with Rhys to help maintain the Ivybridge coach’s 100% record but Cornwall fancied their chances in the other two doubles rubbers. However, they had not accounted for a very on-form Justin who dominated the top doubles match to send our local rivals down.
Team Manager Dan Jones said, "This was a very close division, one from which Devon could easily have been relegated or promoted so we should feel satisfied with retaining our place, especially as we had to cope without our strongest players. All the newcomers won a match, with Rhys claiming an impressive five out of five, and the players supported each other well."