OtterY St Mary Petanque club went to old rivals Isca for their last match of the season, writes Dave West.

A very bright sunny day soon turned into a cold and damp evening but the Exeter triple of Stuart and Yvonne Brown with Joan Dixie warmed things up by beating Rose Thatcher, Peter Smith and Derek Hansen 13-7. The other triples match was a hard fought affair with Isca’s Mac and Ann Paterson with Rob Brealey just managing to edge a win over John Thatcher, Mike and Marie Pegg 13-12.

So after the triples it was 2-0 to Isca and the Otters’ captain, John Thatcher, gathered his team together and said “OK then, we need to win all three pairs games to beat Isca tonight!”

John and Rose won their match against Stuart and Joan 13-7 and after a tough to-and-fro battle Peter and Derek made it through 13-10 against Mac and Ann.

So the result all rested on the last match with Mike and Marie Pegg leaping into a 6-2 lead but then losing momentum only to come good at the end winning 13-11 by overcoming strong resistance from Rob and Yvonne.

So the Otters are on top of the table, leading with six match wins; but close behind Isca and Pig on the Hill each have five wins and both have one more match to play - against Chudleigh!

The league result will be decided by those matches and could depend not just on match wins but total games won.

Dave West