Group 1 Winners
This event was held at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne from Friday 31st July – Sunday 2nd August, and includes 44 counties split into 11 groups of 4. Dorset were defending their title with a team of Matt Coombes, Andy Phillips, Graham Hobbs, Jon Entract and Richard Hayes and were competing against Hants & IOW, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire.
Their first day’s opponents were local rivals Hampshire, whose team included Paul Scullard, Julian Godfrey, Graham Neal and Ian Udal. Captain Matt Coombes got Dorset off to the perfect start with a 7-6, 6-1 victory over Ian Udal and with Andy Phillips losing narrowly to Paul Scullard 7-5, 6-4 the tie was poised at 1-1. Graham Hobbs and Jon Entract then put Dorset back in front with a nail biting third set Champions tie-break win of 10-7 against Julian Godfrey and Graham Neal, this was followed by an excellent performance from Scullard and Udal beating Hobbs and Entract again leveling the tie at 2-2. So the match was to be decided with the final doubles match between Dorset’s pairing of Coombes and Phillips up against Hampshire’s pairing of Godfrey and Neal. Coombes and Phillips produced a masterful display crushing the Hampshire pair 6-2, 6-0 taking the tie 3-2.
Saturday was a very frustrating day playing Lincolnshire on Centre Court. Again Matt Coombes got Dorset off to a winning start with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Trevor Kelly , and with Andy Phillips 5-1 up in the second set tie-break having won the first set, the rain came down and halted play. Literally 2 minutes more play would of put Dorset 2-0 up, and with the singles completed the result would have stood as Hampshire were in a similar position against Leicestershire. But with no more play that day all results were void.
So onto the final days play against Leicestershire, who having beaten Lincolnshire on day 1 and with day 2’s results being void this meant it was a straight shoot out for the title with Dorset, but with the loser potentially facing relegation as 2 teams go down from group one. A gutsy captain’s display from Matt Coombes, coming from a set down to win in the third set Champions tie-break 10-1 against Steve Brett nudged Dorset towards the title. This was followed by a similar performances from Andy Phillips beating Ian Hughes 10-6 in the third set champions tie-break and Graham Hobbs and Jon Entract beating Andy Crane and Chris Harwood in straight sets to give Dorset an unassailable 3-0 lead. Coombes and Phillips then made it 4-0 with another doubles win and finally Leicester managed the one rubber they needed to avoid relegation against Hobbs and Hayes which completed a 4-1 win.
This is the first time a county has defended the title since Yorkshire in 1993, and next year Dorset will be bidding to be the first county ever to win the title 3 years in a row.