NEWTON ABBOT 23 - CREDITON 29

WINS on the road have been hard to come by for Crediton RFC First Fifteen this season so this game played on Saturday, December 14 was a very welcome five pointer!

Although not quite to the same extent as the previous week’s game at home to Newent, this was once again something of a nail-biter for the travelling support.

We had a first half lead of 5-24 thanks to tries from Mark Nott, Henry Gavin and Mark Lee. Ollie Avery-Wright converted all and added a long-range penalty.

Newton’s points came from an unconverted try.

We started the game in very positive fashion and within eight minutes we had opened the scoring when No 8 Mark Nott got the touchdown after a driving maul, Ollie Avery-Wright landed the conversion.

Any joy was very short-lived however as we bungled the restart and handed possession to the home side and a clever chip over the top of our defence bounced nicely for their winger who raced over, the conversion missed but our lead was reduced to two points.

The try seemed to give some confidence to Newton as they ran the ball and had us on the back foot. However, Crediton nerves were calmed when another forward try was finished off by skipper Henry Gavin, Avery-Wright converted for 14-5.

The advantage was increased when, from a scrum, a move down the blind side saw centre Mark Lee brush off a couple of tackles to score out wide.

Avery-Wright converted and then landed a long-range penalty from just inside our half and at 24-5 the interval lead seemed unassailable.

It did not take long in the second half for our supporters minds were cast back to the previous week against Newent as the All Whites rallied with a penalty and an unconverted try for 24-13 and they were beginning to build some momentum.

We did regain our composure and had a couple of opportunities to put the game to bed but they went a-begging.

The pressure on their line mounted and a few penalties were conceded and eventually, the quick thinking of Nott as he took a quick penalty before offloading to Ben Wonnacott who forced his way over.

A rare miss from the tee by Avery-Wright kept the score at 13-29.

With time running out Newton came back with a converted try. All seemed relatively comfortable but the All Whites had other ideas and came out firing for the second half.

An early penalty from the home side reduced the arrears and this was quickly followed by a second try to make, and with the final kick of the game, earned themselves a losing bonus point to finish the game at 23-29.

Well played lads, it was great to secure the five points even though you did make it hard for yourselves at times! However, two successive bonus point wins has lifted us to sixth in the table at the half-way stage of the season, a position that we can be really pleased with.

Ten clubs are separated by a mere 15 points, the equivalent of three bonus point victories. Time and again during the season it has been proved that each side has the capability to beat everyone else and consequently, no team so far has pulled away at the top end.

It only takes one or two sides to hit a rich vein of form and string a few wins together and the table can change completely.

It’s another Devon Derby tomorrow, Saturday, December 21, as we welcome Sidmouth to Blagdon for the final game before Christmas.

PLYMSTOCK 0

CREDITON COLTS 38

The Colts travelled to Plymstock for a friendly as a warm up before their league fixture at South Molton and ran out comfortable winners 38-0.

Liam Bayley scored two tries, and there was one apiece for Liam Newstead, Matt Arnold, Ethan Sibley and Ryan Styles who also landed FOUR conversions.

The Club Committee would like to take this opportunity to wish all our supporters, sponsors and members a Very Merry Christmas and New Year…let’s do it all again in 2020!

Paul Harris