NO excuses, North Tawton were well-beaten by a well-drilled, very good Topsham side who had run up a 60 point victory at Newquay the previous week, and on this showing, will take some stopping for the gold medal position at the end of the season.                                                   

While a loss is never nice it has to be said that the North Tawton side never gave up and took the game to Topsham at every chance they got.    It was a somewhat depleted side that took to the field for the home team, injuries, even at this early stage of the season, taking their toll on players availability, so there were several key players missing at kick off.

Topsham were very keen to show their intent, scoring the first try of the match inside the first five minutes - a good break down the wing by the Topsham winger, who was going to be a torn in the side all match - and North Tawton were seven points down.   

A penalty for the Tawts got them on the score board 10 minutes in and the score was 3-7.

For a while the home team were getting more ball and looked to be settling into the game with some good phases of their own, but another good break by the visitors resulted in a second try and with the kick added the score was 3-14.

Coming up to half-time another well-taken penalty by Gary Sizmur took the score to 6-14.

The Tawts were very much in the match, but as had been the trend all afternoon, as soon as North Tawton close the points gap to give themselves hope, Topsham scored.

Very early in the second-half they get a third try, moving away from the Tawts 6-21.

A great knock down and pick up by Luke Dennis with North Tawton’s only try of the match making the score13-21.

In the last 15 minutes of the game, and with a few subs coming on to refresh their efforts, Topsham really took the game away from North Tawton a couple more tries and a penalty taking their tally to 38 with the Tawts, despite big efforts, they were unable to add to their well deserved 13 and the final score was 13-38.

Chris Phare