Ottery St Mary Petanque Club staged its annual Open Pairs competition at the Isca club last Sunday, writes Dave West.

It was certainly a day when the weather could have been imported from the south of France - an element that might have favoured the winners!

Competing for a £50 first prize ten teams entered from Dorset, North Devon, Ottery St Mary and Isca.

Three qualifying rounds were played before lunch to decide which teams moved on the afternoon knock-out stages.

Otters Pete and Sue Smith reached the play-off for third and fourth places and found themselves up against Ged and Ann Barton from Coombe Martin.

The North Devon pair raced into an impressive 12-2 lead, but the Otters pairing staged affine comeback to level things up at 12-all!

Unfortunately, that’s as good as it got for the Smith’s with the Coombe Martin pair bagging the all important winning point.

In the grand finale Isca’s Stuart and Yvonne Brown found themselves up against Franck Depreaux and Thierry Hacq from the Chudleigh club, and with wins of 13-0 and 13-1 in the qualifying rounds the Frenchmen were strongly fancied for the top honours.

The Brown’s played well in a closely contested match, but it was the French dup who prevailed thanks to a 13-9 score line.

Depreaux and Hacq receved their winnings from event manager John Thatcher who was gracious enough to play them in sterling and not euros!