OKEHAMPTON’s squash teams had contrasting fortunes in their respective away fixtures last week.

While the first team continued their strong run by winning 19-9 against Torquay 4, the second team suffered a heavy defeat at Exeter Golf and Country 4.

For the first team, Dan Yeoman at five played a tricky opponent who took advantage of the cold courts to use the lob shot to great effect, scraping a close match 3-2. Simon Ramsay also had a close match, which consisted of some long and good quality rallies and eventually came away with a 3-2 win.

Phil Allin and Phil Kemsley both had relatively comfortable victories, each using accuracy and variation well in their approach play to control the rallies.

Arnie Searle at string one met an evenly matched opponent. A match of high quality squash was won by Arnie, who applied pressure to win 3-2. 

Another 4-1 victory for the second week in a row meant the great start to the second half of the season continued for Okehampton firsts.

In contrast, the second team did not start the second half well by going down to a heavy defeat.

Pete Twort and Stuart Lord playing at strings five and three both failed to convert good positions in their matches, and losing 3-1.

Barrie Sharpe at string four and Shane Vallance at string three both failed to get into any rhythm and put pressure on their opponents and suffered a 3-0 loss.

String one proved to be a more competitive match with Shawn Jones coming back from 2-0 to nearly snatch the match from a tiring but high quality opponent, eventually going down 15-13 in the fourth game to lose 3-1.

The second team will be hoping for a better performance next week but play host to a strong Newton Abbot side who are unbeaten all season. Collectively the team need to convert any winning positions that may present themselves to pick up valuable points.