IT took the might of the Murray brothers to relegate Dorset’s men from Group One of the Aegon County Cup in Eastbourne.
The Dorset squad of Matt Coombes, Andy Phillips, Jon Austin, Rhys Hanger, Alastair Barnes, David Sanger, Tim Hewitt, Jack Hartman and Chris Hellier were pitting their wits against the cream of the county set-up for the very first time at Devonshire Park.
And despite a valiant effort from Coombes’s men, the top flight proved to be a test too far with defeats against Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Lancashire, before former Wimbledon mixed doubles champion Jamie Murray and partner Michael Fleming sealed Dorset’s fate with a tight victory for North of Scotland.
World number three Andy Murray, meanwhile, teamed up with Owen Hadden to rack up three rubbers against eventual winners Hertfordshire, but it was not enough as North of Scotland lost out 5-4 to the champions.
Barnes and Hewitt notched Dorset’s only rubber against Yorkshire on the opening day, before Austin and Hanger claimed two rubbers against Hertfordshire’s George Coupland and David Rice, and Neil Bamford and Hamid Hejazi, in a 7-2 reverse on day two.
Barnes and Hewitt added two more rubbers to their tally against Lancashire on day three, while Austin and Hanger also impressed in their victory over Andy Davies and Simon Roberts. The defending champions, however, held on elsewhere to grind out a 6-3 win.
That defeat left Coombes’s men needing to defeat North of Scotland in order to avoid the drop into Group Two and despite rubber wins from Austin and Hanger and Coombes and Sanger over Murray and Fleming, Dorset eventually went down 7-2.
Captain Coombes said: “I’m extremely proud to have been in charge of such a fantastic bunch of guys and playing in Eastbourne has been a fantastic experience. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we are back in this division and competing hard once again.”