TAVISTOCK Companies League squash team played David May Motor Services for the second in as many months ? this time in the cup competition.
With the previous encounter only decided by an injury to Phil Honey a close battle was expected. David May were obviously troubled at the prospect of loosing to old rivals Tavistock and had brought in reinforcements in the form of Martin Newbury.
At fifth string Pete Walshe met Mike Brightwell. Pete was making a fight of the game until Mike discovered he could run to the ball and return Pete?s best shots. This proved decisive and Pete was unable to offer further resistance, losing 3-0.
In the fourth string match Bob Cowen had a shock in the warm-up against Martin Budden, discovering just how hard Martin can hit the ball. With Bob?s superb reach he was able to push Martin hard and force some errors from him. Although Bob got to eight in two of the games he could not quite open the score for Tavistock.
With injuries still affecting Tavistock players were borrowed from the Devon League and Stuart Cox proved how tough this league is with a straight games loss to Dave Cuthbert.
Pete Middleton faired little better against Martin Newberry, taking the first game to extra time before wilting in the heat and losing the next two.
It was left to Andy Gauler to salvage some credibility from the match and prevent a complete whitewash. Andy took a game from Cliff Drew but again suffered from the extra bouncy ball .
This means Tavistock should be a strong contender in the plate competition while David May go on to meet the might of Devonshire who currently lead the first division.