An Oxfordshire side finally won a game this season -- at the 12th time of asking.

Oxfordshire 3rd broke the county's duck with a 9-6 defeat of Avon 4th in Division 4C of the Inter-County Championships.

Dave Andrew and Dave Stepney opened the game at Radley College with singles wins.

The two men's doubles pairings of Neil Rowland with Andy Aldington and John Pollard with Graham Speight then took four points.

Two wins in the women's doubles and a mixed win by Stepney and Nicola Casey were enough for victory.

However, the misery continued for Oxfordshire 1st, as they lost 12-3 to Avon 2nd on adjacent courts in Division 1B.

Oxfordshire were badly affected by injury.

Top-ranked Chris Raw missed the game because of an arm injury and stalwart David Buckingham had to retire midway through the match with a hamstring problem. Alison and Ian Ross took six out of six as Wantage beat North Abingdon 5-4 and lost 6-3 to Abingdon A in Mixed Division 1 of the Oxford & District League.

In Division 2, Richard Lewington and Jo Mellor saved the whitewash as Didcot Power were brushed aside 8-1 by Windrush.

The Park B's Tony Flowers and Rob McKinney were unbeaten in the 5-4 win over Oxford Brookes University in Men's Division 4.