TAVISTOCK Squash Club has entered a team this season in the Plymouth Company Leagues — Plymouth companies in the second division have agreed to play their away games at Tavistock.

The team's first match was against David May Motor Services, away at West Country Squash Club. The David May team appeared to be made up of the remnants of Dinaton Squash Club as the team consisted of some familiar faces. The only person missing from their former Dinaton team was Fiona Spreadbury.

Playing at Number 5, Pete Walshe came up against old opponent Mike Hawkins, a canny player with a range of accurate shots. He put Peter under pressure, winning the first game 9-2. But Peter upped the pace to win the next three games 9-2, 9-6 and 9-2.

Playing at Number 4 position, Bob Cowen has been training hard this season and was anticipating an easy match against Mike Brightwell, a player who has played both league and company squash for many years.

Bob's superior fitness and training paid off in the final game and he won the match by three games to two.

Tavistock looked to be on course for their first company league's win. John Jameson, in the Number 3 position, was leading Martin Buddon two games to nil. John's superior fitness was not enough to overcome Martin's powerful shots and although he battled to the end, John lost his match by two games to three.

Next up for Tavistock was team captain Peter Middleton.

He came up against an old adversary, Dave Cuthbert and the encounter promised to be interesting. Pete lost the first game, but began to overcome Dave with an array of shots that had him floundering. It was a tough game and Dave began to play line and length.

Pete found he was on the back foot and playing at the back of the court, while Dave was able to play tight shots and plenty of reverse angled shots. Pete continued to work hard, but Dave was the winner by three games to two.

The match was finely balanced with two wins each. The decider was between the Number 1 seeds, Phil Honey for Tavistock against Cliff Drew. Cliff is an excellent player, but has been out of condition recently and Phil set to work, playing plenty of tight shots.

Phil's superior fitness made a difference and the match was at two each and five points each when Phil damaged a calf muscle, attempting to retrieve a low and difficult shot. He retired injured and the match was awarded to Cliff Drew.

So the result was a win for David May Motor Services by three games to two.

For their second match in the Plymouth Companies League Tavistock had a home fixture against SSI Windows.

Bob Cowen was first up against Paul Dolton and was too classy in all respects for Paul. He swept to victory 9-3, 9-4, 9-0 to maintain his unbeaten record.

John Jameson came up against Mark Horwell who proved deceptively good at reading John's game. Mark edged a finely balanced first game 9-7 before John stormed back to take the second 9-0 . In the third John slowed and lost some of his accuracy to lose 9-5. He struggled on with a damaged knee but only managed to take a point in the fourth game. John is now likely to miss the nest two games while he rests his knee.

Stuart Cox met Mark Turnbull who plays for Fort Stamford in the higher divisions. Stuart opened well. He had some chances to take the first game but Mark was too wily. Stuart continued to rally hard but was unable to press home his advantages and lost 9-8, 9-4, 9-3.

Peter Middleton started well against Paul Lee with the first game starting to take on epic proportion before Paul dominated the later stages to open a lead at 9-4.

In the second Paul swept to a 2-0 lead . Peter changed his game plan and started to redress the balance with a fight back to 2-2 . In a see-saw fifth game Paul took the early advantage to lead 7-3 before Peter made a run of points to take the decider 9-7.

Steve Tripp had just returned from a holiday and was not quite match fit enough to face James O'Neil who also plays in division 2 of the Devon League. The games were always close with the exception of the third which Steve won 9-1. James was good enough to hold a slender lead all through but Steve was never far from contention and is looking forward to the return fixture. James won 9-7 9-5 1-9 9-7.

Tavistock are still looking for their first win in the league but have scored well in the first two games.