The over 75s tie against Hampshire at Winchester on 02 July resulted in the narrowest of wins for Devon.
Playing in a high wind, cold conditions and rain as the day wore on, Devon's first pair, Derek Shephard and Arthur Ackerley lost the first set 4-6 before battling to take the second on a tie-break. Heavy rain forced the teams to move indoors at this point to play the match deciding Championship tie-break. The massive change in surface and lighting was hard for the Devon men to adjust to at first and they quickly found themselves 0-6 down. A tremendous fightback saw them close the gap but not quite enough to win and they went down 8-10. Late arrival of the Hampshire #2 pair meant they forfeited that rubber to Colin Holman and Tom Eastop who, having hung around for 3 hours before being able to play, found themselves on the losing end of their rubber against the hampshire #1 pair, 4-6, 2-6. Derek and Arthur beat the #2 pair quite easily. At 2 all in rubbers, Devon took the tie on the set countback, 5-4!
The over 70s travelled to melksham for their tie against Wiltshire. Despite having good grass courts, the weather was such that disappointingly the match was played on the artificial grass courts and in a gusty wind.
Both Devon pairs started with a bang. Les Harries and Mel Kirby initially upset the Wiltshire pair of Alastair Allen and Mike Oliver with their combination of subtlety and heavy shots and won the first eight games. However, they then suffered a meltdown, losing the second set 5-7 and the Championship tie-break 8-10. Doug Cook and David Evans similarly won their first set 6-0 against Mike Powell and Roger Hurley and, after a two game hiccup at the start of the second, ran out clear winners 6-2.
In the reverse singles Harries & Kirby redeemed themselves by beating the Wiltshire first pair 6-3,6-3. Cook & Evans had a more even game against the Wiltshire second pair winning 6-2, 6-3 to take the tie 3-1.
The team now faces a final match at home against Suffolk which hsould decide whether for next season they will be promoted to Division 2.