Devon Thame-d In London

Devon suffered the narrowest of defeats in their trip to London by 19-17.

Day one started in marvellous fashion for the 'Green Army' with the Ladies B ripping through their Cockney rivals by 5-1.

A win for Nicola Goyne (17.13) started off proceedings before Devon's only defeat of the Ladies event.

Michelle Andrews (19.27) then produced a lady of the match performance in her 3-0 win before Kellie-Marie Gabriel (18.23) stretched the lead further, winning 3-1.

Stalwart Sarah Brown (15.29) showed her battling qualities to take her game by the odd leg in five before Cat Callard (17.89) whitewashed her opponent to give Devon a wonderful platform from which to build.

Darren 'Tex' Pearce (24.41) started the Men's match with a 4-3 victory before youngster Kieran Burns (23.48) showed his undoubted class with a 4-0 triumph.

The 'Silver Fox' Shaun Dring (27.25) produced a second successive 4-3 win on his return from the County wilderness and Mark Vellacott (21.58) stretched the Men's lead to 4-0 with a 4-2 success.

Only a second Devon defeat of the day followed before Steve Colbourne (19.40) notched another point to give the travellers an unassailable 10-2 day one lead.

Despite being littered with some good performances, London rallied in the second half of the Men's match winning five out of the six remaining games, with Neil White (24.41) Devon's only 4-1 winner.

This left the game finely poised on day two with Devon's 11-7 but the rot from the end of day one continued with the Ladies A suffering a surprise 4-2 defeat.

Former England International, Merryl Dennis (18.94) started well for Devon with a 3-2 and one time World Championship Semi Finalist Maria O'Brien (23.42) produced somewhere near her best in the third game of the day for a victory by the same score line.

With the Devon advantage narrowed further, Devon needed a swift response and got that from former PDC Tour Card holder Paul Milford (27.99) who won 4-3 in the first Men's A game; taking the man of the match prize.

Unfortunately, his teammates didn't followed suit as London levelled the match at 14-14 by taking the next three sets.

County veterans John Mann (23.69) and Andy Steed (23.97) sandwiched another Devon defeat with a 4-1 win each to give the away side the most slender of leads at 16-15.

However, day two would end exactly like day one with a disappointing tail; the only highlight from the last five coming from Lewis Dare's (25.69) 4-0 demolition job in 21,17,22,18 leaving Devon defeated by 19-17.