THE Teignbridge under-14 tennis team surpassed all expectactions to take gold at this year's DML Devon Youth Games held at Plymouth's Devonshire Health & Racquet Club last weekend, achieving and amazing hat-trick of gold medal placings for the district over the last three years.

The games, opened by British Olympic gold medallist Sharron Davies, at Plymouth Argyle Football Club's Home Park Stadium, involved more than 1,500 youngsters between the age of 10 and 16, competing in football, cricket, tennis, hockey, athletics, swimming, basketball, netball and tag rugby.

Teignbridge's tennis team, managed by Dawlish Lawn Tennis Club coaches Robert and Peter Elver, faced stiff opposition from nine districts in Devon. In the group stages the ocal side had to play Torridge, West Devon, and last year's semi-finalists East Devon and Torbay, so with only two teams going through to the semi-finals they knew qualification was going to be tough.

The format of each match was five rubbers, consisting of two boys' singles, two girls' singles, and a mixed doubles, with each rubber being a 13-minute continuous tie-break, with the winners being the players leading at the end of the time limit.

In their opening match, against Torridge, Teignbridge's team of Matthew West, Daniel Histed, Rebecca Partridge, Rosie Jago, Tom Osborne and Charlotte Jago recorded an excellent 5-0 victory, with R Jago (12-11) and the mixed pairing of Osborne and C Jago (13-12) surviving two nerve-wracking matches. Against West Devon it was West (13-9) and histed (10-7) who had to endure the toughest test, but their victories helped the side to their second 5-0 victory.

Next up for Teignbridge was tougher opposition in the form of East Devon, and what a match it was, as four of the five rubbers were split by less than three points. West (13-120, Partridge (14-11), R Jago (14-11) and Osborne and Jago (13-11), recording the vital wins that gave their side a remarkable 4-1 victory. With confidence now high Teignbridge knew that even a 3-2 defeat against one of the pre-tournament favourites, Torbay, would ensure qualification to the semi-finals. It proved to be one of the closest matches of the day.

With the match tied at 2-2 after West (6-14), Histed (14-13), Partridge (14-11) and Osborne and C Jago (11-19) had completed their rubbers, it was left to Rosie Jago, who had tied her match 12-12, to play a sudden death point to decide the result of not only the rubber, but also of the whole match. If Jago could win it, Torbay were out. A very nervous serve was followed by a loose forehand that flew high over the baseline giving Torbay the vital victory they needed to stay in the competition.

It was delight for Teignbridge as the 3-2 defeat was enough to secure top spot in the group that secured a semi-final place against Group Two runners-up Exeter. Teignbridge's determination was simply too much for their opponents as they recorded a superb 5-0 victory with West producing an array of quite amazing shots to record the tensest of 9-8 victories in his rubber. The second semi-final saw Plymouth upset the form book as they defeated Torbay 3-2.

Teignbridge knew that a medal was guaranteed, it was just a case of what colour. With the gold medals within their grasp, the youngsters produced another admirable performance. West, Partridge, R Jago and Osborne and C Jago all took early leads and although their opponents threatened to come back, Teignbridge managed to hold out and West (14-90, Histed (8-13), Partridge (13-9), R Jago (9-7) and Osborne and C Jago (12-7) ensured they made it three gold placings in three years for their district.

Team managers Robert and Peter Elver were clearly overjoyed with their team's performance.

'All six of them played so well today. I don't know how they coped with the nerves because it was so tense. I couldn't single out any one player, they all deserve praise and their attitude was spot on. They supported each other all the way, it was great to see,' commented Robert.