Devon Petanque leaders Ottery St Mary hosted the league’s two North Devon clubs and the matches produced very different results, writes Dave West.

With several new combinations of players used, the Strawberry Lane club suffered it’s first loss of the season in the morning, but responded with a storming come-back in the afternoon.

In the first match against The Pig on the Hill, the home side unusually lost both the opening triples games. Dave West, Sue Smith and Barrie Hall fought back from an 11-1 deficit before going down 13-7 and the threesome John Thatcher, Peter Smith and Paul Puddicombe lost their match 13-5.

Needing to win al three doubles games, Dave West and Barrie Hall set the boules rolling with a 13-0 whitewash and then John Thatcher and Paul Puddicombe kept the challenge alive with a 13-1 success.

However, in the final game, Ottery’s Peter and Sue Smith were beaten by an in-form pair of visitors who won 13-2 to secure the North Devon side an overall 3-2 victory.

However, this first defeat of the league season drew a terrific response fro the Ottery team as they showed no mercy to afternoon opposition U3A!

Dave West, Sue Smith and Pete Marles began things with a 13-5 win which was followed by a 13-8 victory for John Thatcher, Peter Smith and Paul Puddicombe.

Home successes continued in the doubles as Peter and Sue Smith (13-4) and Dave West and Pete Marles (13-7) both recorded victories before a 5-0 team whitewash was completed as John Thatcher and Paul Puddicombe won their game 13-8.

With the league table being based on the number of individual games won, Ottery St Mary finished the day with an overall plus score of seven, so it was a good day’s work after all.