CREDITON RUGBY CLUB

Tiverton Thirds 17 - Crediton Thirds 15

A FRIDAY evening (November 12) trip to Tiverton may not be everyone’s cup of tea but the squad of Crediton players who made that sojourn, gave a very good account of themselves.

Two very evenly matched teams containing a mixture of two’s and three’s and who shrugged off the cold and damp of the night to provide a feast of entertainment that would warm the coldest of souls watching from the sides.

The added bonus of mud contributed to the occasion and whilst we dominated the set scrums, they slightly edged things in the backs and they did break through for a couple of tries.

However we had two Baker’s in the centre in Brad and Chris and tackling soon became bread and butter to them as defensively they rose to the occasion.

Joe Warren tackled as if his life depended on it backed up by a solid performance from full-back Mike Jones.

Tiverton scored a couple of good tries which were very well executed and almost impossible to stop. The fact that we didn’t stop them rather proved that point.

Chris Hooper led from the front with hard running and with the evergreen veteran trio of Wayne Reed, Richard Grey and Andy Hawkes following his example.

A combined age of around 120 between them and not a zimmer frame in sight.

Everyone played out of their skin if such a thing were possible. It was a game played in the true spirit of local rivalry, who needs Premiership rugby when grassroots games are played like this week in, week out?

It was great to have support from a lot of Kirton supporters cheering the lads on. For the record each side scored three tries but they converted one and we didn’t. Chris Hooper bagged a couple of tries and Tyler Farley scored one.

Since 1971 Tiverton Thirds and Crediton Thirds have met on 88 occasions, we have won 38 and Tiverton 47, with three games drawn.

Crediton Colts 24 - Topsham Colts 12

The Colts welcomed Topsham to the Blagdon ground on November 13 and both sides put on an entertaining display for the large crowd that had assembled.

The only real disappointment was that the game was played throughout with non-contested scrums as the visitors said they did not have any props.

Our offer to lend them two was somewhat disappointingly declined. Of course, that decision negated any advantage we might have had in the scrum and ensured Topsham had some set piece ball to provide their speedy backs with opportunities to run and which helped the game to be a more even affair.

Crediton took the lead when a drive from the forwards saw prop Tom Gulley over for a try although the conversion attempt drifted wide.

Topsham hit back with a well worked try through their backs and the conversion put them two points clear.

The game continued at a pace with play going from end-to-end, Crediton full-back Freddie Borthen was always sound under the high ball and looked dangerous when he ran it back. In the centre, Freddie Blackburn was punching holes in the Topsham defence although they did manage to keep the Crediton attacks at bay. Eventually though we did find a way through and fly-half Hayden Gosling scored and added the conversion to put us 12-7 ahead.

As the interval approached, the visitors also found a way through our otherwise solid defence to score out wide, the missed conversion meant the break had arrived with the score all square.

The second half was again evenly balanced only we did create chances and took two of them, another from Tom Gulley after several phases from the forwards and which was not converted.

With the game going into the final minute, a clearance kick downfield was chased down by centre Kofi Firth to score at the posts with Gulley adding the conversion.

A generally impressive performance from the Colts who look pretty strong in all departments with some quality players throughout the squad, the future for the Club looks extremely promising.

Paul Harris