Tavistock Men’s First Xl were back to competitive hockey after a three-week break.

A derby against local rivals Okehampton was greeted with a 4.30pm pushback at Mount Kelly.

With a number of key players missing including goalkeeper Matt Grahame, a debut was given to Harry Prettejohn in goal who had earlier in the week celebrated his 14th birthday.

Right from the start Tavvy played with a high tempo and created numerous chances but could not find the opener until midway through the first half.

A trademark short corner was expertly drag-flicked in by Mark Forshaw.

Several more chances came and went before Forshaw doubled his tally with a thunderbolt and Tavvy’s second goal. Okehampton then came into the game more and forced several short corners themselves but found an in-form defence and great keeping from Prettejohn.

Tom Honey then pounced on a loose ball before driving at the heart of the Okehampton defence and passing it past the advancing ‘keeper. At half-time, Tavvy were 3-0 to the good.

With the top two in the league currently separated by goal difference and Tavistock leading Falmouth by 12 goals they knew that the main aim of the second half was to score more and keep a clean sheet at the other end.

In true second-half fashion, Tavistock totally dominated Okehampton and soon scored their fourth when Forshaw duly completed his hat-trick with another well taken short corner.

A fifth was scored by Nick Andrews soon after after good build-up play from Jimmy Berry and Josh Walker.

The rare times that Okehampton had a shot were thrawted by excellent saves from Prettejohn. Tom Honey then hit a first-time shot that nearly burst through the net to make it 6-0 and gave the ‘keeper no chance.

Jimmy Berry then picked the ball up outside the 23 and advanced into the D before firing a well-hit shot into the bottom corner for Tavvy’s seventh goal.

A well-worked short corner routine was finished off by Andy Berry to make the final score Tavistock 8 Okehampton 0.

This game was played in an excellent manner and Tavistock will look to secure promotion into Piran 1 if they can gain two more wins from the next five league games left.

Next week they travel away to Plymouth University.

Donkey of the day went to Nick Andrews as someone must have given him a shorter stick and man of the match was Harry Prettejohn who on his first ever senior game played excellenty in goal and will be a great asset to the squad over the coming seasons.

A big thank you to Jo Gaspar and Mark Gott for umpiring and for TJ’s and LJ’s of Tavistock for sponsoring the post match teas.