DESPITE the recent hot weather, Crediton RFC players have been out in force training under the watchful eyes of Stuart Lowe and Jack Yeandle, who have been putting them through their paces.

Numbers have been extremely good which augurs well for the forthcoming season.

We are delighted to welcome back into the Kirton fold, Ollie Down who has returned after a three year spell at Taunton and Dan Lee, who has vast experience gained at Cornish Pirates, Taunton and latterly at Barnstaple, both will be huge assets for the Club.

Matt Watkins has returned to the Crediton area having been away in Bristol for a few years and featured for the Broad Plain Club.

Also joining the Club is Andrew Wright who has moved into the area and who previously played at Esher and, with a number of last seasons’ Colts coming through including Jack Ballett, Freddie Borthen and Freddie Blackburn, competition for places will be strong.

This will be a season of change as the restructuring of the leagues takes place and we find ourselves in Regional Two Tribute South West (the old name of South West 1 West seemed less of a mouthful).

The league fixtures will bring some familiar names back to Crediton with Sherborne being only new Club to appear on our fixture list.

However, we did play an Easter fixture against Sherborne Pilgrims in April 1955! Gone are the Gloucestershire Clubs which reduces our travelling quite considerably.

Sherborne finished 10th in SW2 East last season although, had a total of 25 points not been deducted they would have finished fifth.

They are the most Easterly Club in the league and I am sure we shall look forward to welcoming them to Crediton.

In the opposite direction, we welcome our old friends from Truro after a three-year absence as they were promoted from Western Counties West at the end of last season having finished as runners-up to Wadebridge.

Indeed, Wadebridge had a most remarkable season with 26 wins from 26 games but even more impressive was the fact that they only missed out on two four-try bonus points, ending the season on 128 points out of a possible 130, which I can only assume is some sort of record.

The restructuring of the leagues has meant that the top five from WCW earned promotion and consequently we now have a couple of additional local derbies with Newton Abbot and Teignmouth who finished third and fourth respectively.

The All Whites are back on the fixture list after a three-year gap and it is nine years since we last met Teignmouth in the league.

The fifth placed Club to come up from WCW is Chard and again the last time our paths crossed was in our promotion season from WCW in 2018-19.

The remaining Clubs, Bridgwater, North Petherton and St Austell will be familiar opponents from last season and with all three, honours were even with each game being won by the home side.

The season opens for the First XV on September 3 with a trip to Truro, followed by the visit of Wadebridge a week later.

The Second XV don’t start their league campaign until September 17 when they travel to Tiverton.

However, there are a couple of pre-season trial games with the Firsts at Taunton on August 20 and at home to Tiverton on August 23.

The Seconds travel to North Tawton on August 20.

This is a particularly exciting time for the Second XV rugby in Devon as 15 Clubs in the County now have their reserve XV playing within the league structure.

Not all Clubs have been supportive of the idea but it should prove a real success. Our Second XV will play in the Counties Three Tribute Devon East League (I am sure a better name could have been conjured up!) and we shall be joined by the Second XV’s of Cullompton, Okehampton, Sidmouth and Tiverton all of which we are familiar with having played them in the Merit Table for many years.

However, in addition we shall play the First XV’s from Buckfastleigh, Exeter Athletic, New Cross, OPM and Torrington.

This is a step up for the Seconds with new challenges but certainly a league in which we could do very well.

The old Cornwall and Devon league has been disbanded and replaced by Devon Premier and Cornwall Premier with both leagues feeding into Western Counties West.

The two leagues below that are Counties Three Tribute Devon East and West leagues, both of which will feed into the Devon Premier league.

The reduction in league sizes whilst reducing the travelling for players has meant the loss of two home and two away league games.

The savings on travel of the two away fixtures comes nowhere near to compensating for the lost revenue of the home games.

As a consequence, the Devon RFU has worked extremely hard to revamp the Cup competitions with a view to ensuring that every Club gets a minimum of two additional home games.

Time will tell if it works as we hope it will and much will depend on the cooperation of all the Clubs.

In addition, there is a separate Cup Competition for the Second XV’s and so there is much to play for throughout the season.

There are no changes to the Third XV other than they will now play in Devon Merit Table One NE and whilst at the moment there is no prospect of automatic promotion into the league structure, certainly for this season, it could well happen in the not too distant future.

The only threat to the start of the season will of course be the weather and nationally, there are concerns about the state of pitches due to the lack of rain. Hopefully the situation will improve over the next couple of weeks and with luck, we shall start on time.

Paul Harris