NORTH TAWTON 24 - TOTNES 0

FOR the second week running the rain gods struck right on the referee’s first whistle and North Tawton kicked off their match with Totnes in the face of heavy rain.

The Tawts dug out took the shape of a mini grandstand for the not so hardy at least for the first 15 minutes or so.

In the wet and windy conditions it was inevitable that with the ball like a bar of soap you got quite a few handling errors.

Both sides were struggling to keep the ball alive.

It was the home side that got their act together, first with a nice kick over.

The oncoming defence by the scrum-half, a good pick up and dot down by Matt Baker for one of his trademark tries, the kick added by James Bowden and it’s 7-0 with 12 minutes gone.

While the rain had eased a bit, by now the conditions were still making it difficult to play the running type of game the Tawts enjoy but they found the Totnes try line for the second, this time from the efforts of Gary Sizmur.

He took advantage of some strong support play up the middle by Ryan Goss who more than most seemed to be enjoying the conditions.

Another not easy kick was added by James Bowden and we got to half-time, 14-0.

North Tawton started the second half with the wind behind them and full of confidence, the target now the bonus point four tries.

No disrespect to Totnes but at this point in the match they had not really threatened the Tawts try line with any great purpose.

They would get as far as the 22 and then it would break down for them.

It has to be said that if the ref had not called back three if not four "forward" passes by the very quick Tawton backs the game would have been well out of reach for the away side.

It was proving more difficult in the wet and cold.

The touch line would have been thinking to get the try tally moving towards that important bonus point, but a good run and slipping tackles for fun from Si Cox got a third try for the Tawts.

The kick was deemed to be a miss by the referee when most thought it was a good’un making the score 19-0.

We are now in the last third timewise, North Tawton were down to 14 with a yellow for a high tackle but Totnes were struggling to keep the full 15 on the field.

Injuries were taking a big toll in any fight back they could make.

With 10 minutes to go Tawton players got their fourth well-deserved try, Gary Sizmur taking his second of the afternoon making sure that the Tawts got all the points available to keep some pressure on league leaders Exeter Athletic. Final score was 24-0.

Totnes played to the end but it was a comfortable win for North Tawton. Man of the Match was Ryan Goss, running good lines and always ready to support, he never went backwards all through the game.

Chris Phare