SOMERSET ladies tennis team, are based at the Blackbrook Pavilion, won promotion to Division 3 of the Aegon Winter County Cup in Barnstaple at the weekend.

Each day of competition consisted of nine matches – six singles and three doubles matches.

Somerset beat Devon 7-2 on Friday with singles wins from Natalie Ayton, Zoe Leach, Ellie Lewis and 14-year-olds Nirva Patel, Bethany Lacey.

Doubles wins come from new pairings Natalie Ayton and Zoe Leach, and Rachel Apsey and Ellie Lewis.

On Saturday Somerset beat North Wales 7-2 thanks to singles wins from Ayton, Leach, Lacey and and Lewis. The same doubles line-up also chipped in with a couple of wins.

On Sunday Somerset needed to just win three singles matches out of six to gain promotion but it would be tough against some strong opponents.

But they managed it with wins at No5 from Ellie Lewis (6-4, 6-2), No2 Nirva Patel (6-2, 6-2) and captain Natalie Ayton (7-5, 6-4).

Ayton, who along with Zoe Leach went through the weekend undefeated, said: “It was a great weekend and I’d like to congralate to Nirva, Bethany and 16-year-old Pearllan Cipriano 16 for making their debuts in the senior team.”

Ayton and Leach both coach at Taunton Tennis Centre at Blackbrook were the three juniors Beth, Nirva and Pearllan do the bulk of their training.