IF THE Hampshire & Isle of Wight men's tennis team keep up their winning run at Eastbourne today, team manager Martin James will be delighted for one player in particular.

"Paul Scullard has been absolutely brilliant," said James. " He has not been rated by some counties in the same class as the top players but he and Nick Weal have been playing some high-class stuff."

Three wins by the Scullard/Weal double yesterday helped the Hampshire team to a 6-3 win over Devon in the LTA Inter-County Cup Group 1, the county's third win in four matches of a week in which only red-hot title favourites Yorkshire have beaten them.

Now the pairing have won all 12 of their doubles and will be trying for a maximum 15 out of 15 wins against Surrey today.

With Hampshire unlikely to challenge Yorkshire for the championship and also pretty safe from being one of the two teams relegated from the top group, James was set to give an outing to reserve Elliott Wood, from Winchester against Surrey today.

Results: Iain Bates and Ben Haran beat Gary Drake and Danny Ahl 6-4 6-4, beat Tom Hand and M Kirkness 6-4 6-4, beat Steve Wood and Jamie Bartlett 6-4 5-7 6-2. Weal and Scullard beat Drake/Ahl 7-5 2-6 7-6, beat Hand/Kirkness 6-4 6-2, beat Wood/Bartlett 6-1 6-2. Daniel Lobb and Julian Godfrey lost 7-5 3-6 2-6 to Drake/Ahl, lost 2-6 6-3 3-6 to Hand/Kirkness, lost 3-6 6-4 2-6 to Wood/Bartlett.

The injury woe that has dogged their week continued for the Hampshire & IW ladies team in their Group 5 match at Cheltenham.

Nicola McCormick was unable to play in yesterday's 6-3 defeat by Somerset because of a torn muscle in her back and will take no further part in the week's play.

The crucial defeat was when Debbie Hale and Gemma Vaughan lost the first set on a tie break having had set points against Jo Le Neve Foster and Vicki Short, won the second set 6-2 but just missed out in the third.

Cath Gunn and Harriet Piercy won their first two matches and Wendy Burnston and Fiona Nicholson came from 4-1 down in the first set to win 11 of the next 12 games.

It means Hampshire are already relegated and were set to rest Gunn for today's final match against Devon to help her regain full fitness before leaving for a tennis scholarship in America.

Results: Cath Gunn and Harriet Piercy beat Natalie Ayton and Sophie Smith 6-4 6-3, lost to Aby Joy and Ellie Pedrick 5-7 4-6, beat Jo Le Neve Foster and Vicki Short 6-0 6-2. Wendy Burnston and Fiona Nicholson lost 3-6 1-6 to Ayton/Smith, lost 4-6 3-6 to Joy/Pedrick, beat Foster/Short 6-4 6-2. Debbie Hale and Gemma Vaughan lost 3-6 2-6 to Ayton/Smith, lost 3-6 5-7 to Joy/Pedrick, lost 6-7 6-2 3-6 to Foster/Short.