TWO neighbouring commercial businesses in Newton Abbot’s Queen Street are in the mix for national honours.

The Pizza Cafe is hoping to win flavour with Italian food maestros while the betting shop Betfred is backing their manager to be the best in Britain.

The eatery is one of just seven pizza joints aiming for honours, while Damien Wills is one of eight hoping to win the day.

Pizza Cafe’s Mark Thuell, is thrilled to have been shortlisted for the Papa prize awarded by the Pizza, Pasta and Italian Food Association – now in its 25th year.

He said: ‘We are delighted because we were up against hundreds of restaurants from across the country.

‘Our small team here works really hard to make sure we serve really great pizzas and a range of Italian food on our menu.’

His is one of four English restaurants going for broke with the others in Wiltshire, Northants and Suffolk.

Three Scottish venues are also in the running, two in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh.

The gold award winner will be announced on Thursday at the Lancaster London Hotel.

Damien Wills hopes he will be first past the post when the final to find the Racing Post Betting Shop Manager of the Year is held in London later this month.

The manager of the Betfred Betting Shop in Queen Street has already been crowned this year’s South West and Channel Islands Champion after three rounds – the latest in front of judges at Doncaster Races.

Now he has reached the last eight who have won through from the major and independent betting shops throughout the country – there were hundreds of entries – and is off to the Jumeirah Carlton Hotel on Monday, November 23, for the final.

Mr Wills’ early employment was spent as a landscape gardener, working in a toy shop and a book shop, before he joined bookmaker Ladbroke’s in Oxford – his mother worked for the firm.

‘I really loved it, enjoying the banter and the relationships,’ said Mr Wills, who was trained to be a manager’s assistant with his base in Cowley and doing relief management in 30 to 40 shops around Oxford and Swindon.

After four years there his life changed dramatically – he was offered a job at Aston Martin, in Gaydon, Warwicks, where his brother worked.

‘I could not turn that down and spent 17 years there, working through the whole production, the last eight years I was lucky enough to be a re-worker making sure the vehicles were perfect before they went out,’ he recalled.

While he thought he had a job there for life, his partner Caitlin lived in Torquay, and after six months commuting he moved to Devon in 2010.

They have five children, Alexa, Tiegan, Connor, Joe and Danielle.

Mr Wills worked in Asda, Newton Abbot, for a year and when he saw a job for a cashier in Torquay’s Betfred, he applied.

But thanks to his previous experience he was given the manager’s post in Betfred, Newton Abbot, two-and-a-half years ago.

Mr Wills said betting shops nowadays were a far cry from the stigma they held in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

‘Here we have a really friendly atmosphere with everyone on both sides of the counter enjoying a laugh and a joke,’ he said.

He is full of praise for his staff – Alan Alderson, Ami Hardy, Francine Sutcliffe and Maxine Osman – without whom he says he would not have been so successful.