Held at Taunton Tennis Centre over three days at the beginning of March the Devon boys team faced Cambridgeshire, Somerset and Nottinghamshire in the 2013 Aegon County Cup.
Day One saw Devon make a slow start against Cambridge, losing three of the first four matches. There was a debut win for Peter Avis, who defeated Joseph Matta 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-1. However, Erik Wilson, Lewie Parker, Marc Sillifant and Emerson Styles all suffered defeats, with the latter three players all going down in tight three set matches. Devon No.1 Jack Findel-Hawkins, who has gained a world ranking within the last few weeks, crushed William Huyton 6-0, 6-0 for the loss of just nine points to leave Cambridge 4-2 up heading into the doubles. Unfortunately, Devon were only able to win one of the three doubles matches which came courtesy of Findel-Hawkins and Peter Underhill who beat Benjamin Clark and Tom Hands 3-6, 6-1, 10-4. This signalled a 6-3 loss for Devon.
The second day saw Devon recover against a strong Nottinghamshire team to come out on top 5-4 in a tense affair. Devon No.6 Erik Wilson went down 6-3, 6-4 against Jonathan Burke and Peter Underhill lost an enthralling match 6-4, 2-6, 6-7(8) against Jonny Higham. Lewie Parker was then on the end of another three set defeat to leave Devon 3-0 down.
However, Devon No.2 Emerson Styles then produced a fantastic comeback from 0-6, 1-4 down to defeat the higher rated James DeFusto 0-6, 6-4, 6-2. This gave the team the momentum they needed to spark a comeback and wins followed for Marc Sillifant and Findel-Hawkins who were both victorious in straight sets against Benjamin King and Christopher Wood respectively, leaving the tie poised at 3-3.
Peter Avis and brother Buzzy Avis, both on debut, then played some very effective tennis to defeat Jamie Praditngam and Saul Abbiss 6-7(7), 7-6(5), 10-4. The tie was then clinched with Findel-Hawkins and Sillifant winning comfortably against Wood and Jacob Clarke. Styles and Parker were to lose the final match.
Day Three began with Devon needing to beat Somerset to make sure of staying in Division 3 but also with an outside chance of promotion should other results go their way. Buzzy Avis made his debut singles appearance for Devon with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win against Henry Field followed by Wilson gaining his first win of the event, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 against Jordan Clayton. Parker went down 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 against James Mitchell. Findel-Hawkins and Sillifant both completed comfortable wins, but Styles was defeated 6-3, 6-1 by Cameron Lambden. Devon then secured two out of the three doubles matches to win the tie 6-3. Results elsewhere didn’t go Devon’s way, though, and a Cambridgeshire win against Nottinghamshire saw them promoted ahead of Devon.
Devon team captains Will McNally and Simon Huddart commented: “The Boys competed well in a very evenly matched group and can be proud of their efforts. They showed good character to recover from the loss on Day One and in the end weren’t far from promotion, although it wasn’t to be”.