Honiton’s third league match of the season ended in a 3-2 defeat at home by local rivals and early Deon Petanque League pacesetters Ottery St Mary.

The meeting of the teams occupying the top two berths in the early season table was well contested.

From Honiton’s point of view the contest followed an identical pattern to the previous loss to Chudleigh - standing all square at 1-1 after the triples round before Ottery took a decisive lead by winning two of the doubles and Honiton winning the final closely fought doubles game.

In the triples; Cecily Young, Tony Prior and Larry Halliwell, were beaten 13-9, but the trio of Jenny Lavender, Chris Bigmore and Charlie O’Reilly recorded a 13-8 success.

In the doubles there was a 13-7 reversal for Young and Halliwell and a 13-10 defeat for Prior and O’Reilly . However, Lavender and Bigmore managed to win their match 13-12.

Honiton captain Chris Bigmore said: “They [Ottery St Mary] are a strong team, but our home advantage was nullified a bit as Ottery fielded a side that had extensive experience of playing on our terrain!

“In 2015 they shared our facilities whilst their new terrain at Ottery was being built. “But we still took two points and are in third place in the league, so we can’t be disappointed with that.”

The club have an early chance of revenge as the next match is away at Ottery’s Strawberry Lane ground.