Honiton Petanque were celebrating last week after finishing runners up in the Devon League, writes Chris Bigmore.

It is a huge achievement for the club as it is only three years since they finished rock bottom of the league in their debut season one that saw them record not a single success!

However, this season saw the team win 11 of their 16 games to secure second place behind champions, neighbours Ottery St Mary.

They went into the final round of two matches already in second spot and were fortunate to be ending with two home matches, as were Plymouth based Mayflower who were on the same number of league points but behind on games won.

The prize was therefore in Honiton's hands, two good wins would keep them in front, and they were facing the bottom two sides in the league. However nothing could be taken for granted and the team duly delivered two victories, even though they later learnt that Mayflower had lost one of their two matches anyway.

First up were last placed Wellington who themselves were in their first year in the league, but Honiton were in no mood to be charitable and they were swiftly dispatched with a 4-1 score line and convincing game scores. Last but one in the league, Isca, were next and though this encounter against the Exeter side was less straightforward a 3-2 result was good enough in a match the hosts were always in firm control of.

Scores: Honiton 4, Wellington 1.

Triples: Cecily Young, Jenny Lavender and Chris Bigmore (136); Ron Hutchinson, Carol and Den Williams (13-2)

Doubles: Young and Bigmore (13-5); C and D Williamd (13-5) and Hutchinson nand Lavender (3-13).

The season has not yet finished for Honiton as they now have a third round tie in the 2019/20 Eurocup to contest in November.

They are still in the main competition amongst the last 28 teams in the country. This comes after a fine campaign in the 2018/19 Eurocup when they reached the last 16 of the National Plate earlier in the year, following their exit from the main competition.

However,they now face a tough match away at the City of Bath club who play at a higher level than the Mountbatten Park based side.