Ottery St Mary town Mayor, Glyn Dobson, welcomed players and visitors to the new terrain on the Strawberry Lane sports field for the annual Charity Shield event at which the local petanque club raises money for Hospicecare, writes Dave West.

On a really bright spring morning everyone was greeted with hot bacon rolls and tea or coffee.

In addition to local entries, teams had come from Cornwall, North Devon and Western Counties. Original Ottery members not now playing had also come along and one had entered the competition, playing with his son.

Games were played in four leagues during the morning to determine who should play in the main Shield and Plate knockouts in the afternoon. During the lunch period £112 was raised from the sale of raffle tickets for the huge array of prizes that had been

generously donated, and fun competitions were run that brought in £26 from shooting and £30 from pointing events. Peter Smith won the shooting and the pointing resulted in a play-off eventually won by David Lobb with Anne Matthews taking second prize.

The host club produced finalists from the afternoon’s knockout play but with different fortunes. Ottery’s John and Rose Thatcher beat local Honiton rivals Chris Bigmore and Jenny Lavender 13-4 to take the Plate.

In a hard fought Shield final Clive De Silva and Chris Spry from Great Western closely beat Otters Peter and Sue Smith 13-10 to win the honours.

Generous donations amounting to £70 had been received which added to entry fees, raffle and fun competitions made a grand total of £388 for Hospicecare. Grateful thanks were given to club chairman John Thatcher for organising and putting so much into making the day such a great success.

More information about this increasingly popular game can be found on the English Petanque website and people in the Ottery St Mary area can contact Dave West on 01404 812292.