OXFORDSHIRE Ladies are celebrating promotion from Division 6 of the Over 35 Inter-County Championship after a fantastic effort at East- bourne.

The team of captain Liz Bamber, Liz Sim, Clare Abbott, and newcomers Esther Symonds, Mandy Claridge and Jess Stacey opened up by annihilating the Isle of Man 5-0 with the loss of only 15 games.

This gave them the confidence to beat the Channel Islands 3-2.

The singles were shared, but Oxon's doubles players came into force and managed to win two of the three rubbers to secure victory.

The final match was against West of Scotland, who had lost to the Channel Islands.

It was nerve-wracking stuff as Sim, at No 2 singles, edged out a third set championship tie-break 12-10 after saving two match points.

Bamber's singles went to a tie-break, but she lost 13-11, having had four match points.

The solid doubles pairing of Symonds and Abbott took their first rubber with relative ease.

They then sneaked their second match in a tie-break second set to bring Oxfordshire a 3-2 victory, which meant they topped the group and move up to Division 5 next year.

Symonds and Abbott won five of their six doubles, while Sim triumphed in all three of her singles.

8:27am Friday 31st August 2007

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