Ottery St Mary hosts a special match tomorrow (Saturday) when the 2018 Ottery Invitational Cup is played between the Otters and Newton Abbot 66.

Ottery St Mary hosts a special match tomorrow (Saturday) when the 2018 Ottery Invitational Cup is played between the Otters and Newton Abbot 66.

The South Devon side have close links to Ottery St Mary, going back to 1966 when Harry Griffiths, who was the one-time Ottery AFC secretary, moved to Newton Abbot and helped start up the team.

The Ottery Invitational Cup was first contested last year when Feniton lifted the trophy, beating the Otters 2-0 at Washbrook Meadow.

Tomorrow’s kick-off is at 2pm and there’s live music in the clubhouse in the evening with the group ‘4 King Dwarphz’ making their last ever public appearance. Doors open for the event at 7pm.

The Otters were in pre-season action last weekend when they entertained Devon and Exeter League Premier Division side Upottery. The class of the top flight side shone through as they won 5-1. The lone Otters goal came from last season’s leading scorer Corey Ringer, who has been in fine goal-scoring form this pre-season so far.

The Ottery ladies had their first pre-season game earlier this week and they were in fine form as they bagged a 6-3 success over Ilminster ladies’ second team thanks to two goals apiece from Georgia Chapman, Georgia Baker and Hazel Tucker.

Completing the on-pitch action, the club’s new Under-18 team took to the pitch for the first time last night for a pre-season meeting with Topsham Town.

The club has also announced that they are hosting a fundraising match on Wednesday, September 5, when the Otters will take on Ottery Carnival XI in a fixture that will raise funds to help keep the Ottery tar barrels rolling. Kick-off for the game is 7.30pm.

Speaking to the Ottery Herald on Thursday morning, Otters’ boss Dave Fairweather said: “We had a terrific workout in the meeting with Upottery and, for me, the big thing we took out of the game was the fact that they [Upottery] were so well drilled and organised and it was a great example to our players of exactly what I have been preaching as being so important to our game - the need for all players to ‘do their job’ within a system of playing.

“That’s what Upottery did, and they scored their goals by exploiting our failings at being organised in similar fashion.”

He continued: “That said, the obvious errors apart, we played well and I’d have to say the final score probably flattered them.”

For tomorrow’s meeting with Newton Abbot 66, Ottery have Matty Daly and Chris Ambrose available after both missed the Upottery game. New signing Tom Badcott will also be involved.

Fairweather says: “We have a few lads back who missed the Upottery game and so will be that much stronger. As for the game itself, I expect it will be another tough one as they are a South Devon League Division One side, but I prefer to see us up against higher ranked quality opposition as it is the best form of pre-season work for us prior to the start of our own league campaign.”

In terms of the pre-season so far, Fairweather says: “It’s going very well on and off the pitch and I could not be happier with where we are as the new league campaign draws ever nearer.”