The team left Exeter to travel to Neath to take on South Wales in their inter county match. It was a long, horrible drive up the M5 then the M4 in atrocious weather with a 2 hour long delay for accidents, but fortunately they arrived safely and were glad to have booked into the Holiday Inn Express for the night to ensure they were rested for their challenging match the next day!
Dilys Bradshaw and Maureen Sowerby played steadily and held the South Wales second pair up to 4-4. It was then their serve so they edged ahead 5-4, but then Dilys lost her serve to give them the set. In the second set weDevon again stayed level up to 2-2, but then the Welsh pair seemed to get themselves organised and romped away for a 6-4, 6-2 win. Devon first pair of Sue Williams and Sue Doncaster played the formidable South Wales captain and her partner and lost 2 and 2. At the changeover, the Welsh first pair were very strong and hardly made a mistake and Dilys and Maureen lost 6-0, 6-2. Not an enjoyable experience! Meanwhile the two Sue's were storming past the S.Wales 2nd pair taking the first set on a tie break. They then went neck and neck for the second set, but after some very long and exciting rallies just missed out taking it by 6-4. With gritted teeth, the two Sues then went ahead in the tie-break by 5-0 before the S.Wales pair came back at them. They played extremely well to hang on and take the tie break 10-6.
Captain Maureen said, "I was very pleased for them as South Wales haven't lost any of their matches yet, so to take a rubber off them was well played."
The team now loks forward to two home matches in July and August