OKEHAMPTON Ladies Columbines Hockey Club hosted its first tournament in recent years.

Clubs from Devon and Cornwall, including Kingsbridge and Salcombe, took part. It was a high quality tournament, well organised by Louise Weller and Viv Weatherington with club chairman Carol Chapman, officiating. It was a fun day played with good spirit by all sides.

Okehampton's team was a mixture of first and second team players; younger players rose to the challenge and played really good quality and robust hockey with Katie Adams, Holly Davidson and Molly Petherbridge looking particularly strong and effective.

Okehampton played Tavistock in the first round and were defeated 2-0. Tavistock had top points at the end of the first round while Okehampton were in fourth position.

In the semi final Okehampton again met Tavistock. Oke scored early in the game and maintained their lead despite pressure from the determined Tavistock team.

Tavistock were down to ten players due to injury, but this did not appear to reduce their pace; Okehampton's defence did well to keep them out of the goal. Shannon Osman, Carol Taylor and Sandy Douglas worked extremely hard.

Isca won the other semi-final against Kingsbridge and Salcombe.

In the finals Oke pulled out all the stops. There was excellent team work, with particular star quality from Louise Weller, Jo Moppett and Kim Davey. Okehampton put themselves unassailably ahead winning 4-1 in an exciting final.

This successful tournament could not have been possible without the time and professionalism of the umpires and this was much appreciated. It was also an early use of the new sports pavilion and this bodes well for future events at Okehampton.

Both Okehampton ladies teams have friendly games next week before the league starts in earnest.