Ottery St Mary travelled to Plymouth for their final Devon League match of the season, writes Dave West.

In the opening triples game Peter Smith, Peter Marles and Paul Puddicombe beat their Brickfield hosts Brenda and Stuart Rae and Mike Newberry 13-9 in a hard fought battle; but Plymouth struck back when Dave Hoffmeyer, John Tindell and Mike Carroll narrowly squeezed past Sue Smith, Barrie Hall and Derek Hansen by a 13-10 scoreline to make it one game each.

Then Peter Smith and Peter Marles took the Otters into a 2-1 match lead when they convincingly beat Mike Newberry and Irene Hoffmeyer by 13-2, but Plymouth rallied in the remaining doubles. Mike Carroll and Stuart Rae had a lucky break in a

crucial end when the Ottery St Mary pair of Barrie Hall and Paul Pudducombe were holding two points and a single shot from the home side changed it into a 5 point advantage for them; the end result was a 13-9 win for the Plymouth two. Then Dave

Hoffmeyer and John Tendell overcame Sue Smith and Derek Hansen 13-4 to make the match result 3-2 in favour of the home side.

Meanwhile, up in North Devon, Ottery St Mary’s rivals for the league title, Torridge U3A, went down 4-1 to The Pig on the Hill; this meant that U3A and Ottery St Mary each finished the league with seven match wins apiece and first and second places had to be decided by the number of games won in all the league matches.

U3A pipped the Otters at the post with 29 games won against 28. Interestingly, third and fourth places had to be decided the same way with Plymouth and Isca recording six match wins each, and the difference was decided by just one game (27-26) in favour of Plymouth. Pig on the Hill and Honiton took fifth and sixth places respectively.

Clubs will continue to play domestic sessions and this weekend (September 10 and 11), sees the staging of the national English Petanque Association competition at Mill Rythe in which Devon will have a team.