Okehampton U9s 35

Barnstaple U9s 20

PLAYED at North Tawton, this was probably the game of the season so far. Okehampton attacked from the start and against a big Barum team soon got into their stride.

Buster Francis opened the scoring with a storming run to the corner and added a second after excellent work by forwards Thom White and Chris Courtier.

Sam Ewen added a third after an outstanding break by Matt Johns and good follow-up work by Tom Fogerty, Dan Curtis and Lloyd Heard.

Barum never gave up and after a period of attacking play broke from their own half and scored in the corner.

Francis quickly got his hat-trick after another storming run to the corner and this was followed by excellent tries for Johns and White involving passing movements between the whole team.

In the second half, playing against the wind, Okehampton found tries harder to come by as Barum tightened their defence. Barum replied with a try which made for a hectic last ten minutes.

Jamie Hignett and George Speke found room and made some good breaks, one of which led to Hignett opening his account for Okehampton after a good 20-metre run to the corner.

Chris Osbourne, Henry Cooper and Graham Bennie, all relatively new to the team this season, are learning with every game and continue to play a full part in the team?s so far successful season.

Barum came back strongly in the last few minutes as Okehampton tired, but strong tackling by Dan Curtis in defence kept them at bay.

North/Okes U10s 20

Barnstaple U10s 50

ANOTHER encouraging performance against a strong Barnstaple team. The boys stuck to their jobs and never gave up.

Jordan Lee again had a strong game, as did Mike Heard and Martin Hann, who gets getting better every game with some strong driving runs.

Despite Barnstaple scoring early tries North/Okes kept at it resulting in Mike Heard scoring in the corner.

Slow defending led to Barnstaple scoring more tries but a second wind saw North/Okes come back with two well worked tries by Jordan Lee.

The boys dug deep in keeping Barnstaple at bay in the second half, with good defending by Jack Stanbury, Peter Gillard and Thomas Mallet resulting in Peter running in another try in the last few minutes.

North/Okes U11s 31

Barnstaple U11s 5

THIS was a good win for the combined side, although the scoreline may flatter them a little.

The North/Okes started more alert and switched on than their opposition. Forwards Will Hawkin, Andrew Fishliegh, Merrick Kirby and Tom Dean worked well in the mauls and scrums, providing good ball for the backs to use, resulting in four tries in the first 15 minutes. Two came from Andrew North and one apiece for Darcy Heard and James Ewen, who had an excellent game at scrum-half. Heard added two conversions and North one, to make the score 26-0.

The home side believed they had done enough, and allowed Barnstaple back. The visitors were unlucky not to score when their forwards, who could give the home side a few lessons in rucking, were held up short of the line, and only good clearing kicks from Heard kept the visitors at bay in the first half.

The second half started well for the North/Okes when North evaded a couple of tackles before passing to James Speak who touched down for his first try of the season.

But the home side sat back again and allowed Barnstaple too much time and room to run. They were eventually rewarded with a try when their forwards forced a maul over the line for a well earned touchdown.

Although Barnstaple kept attacking North/Okes, they were unable to breach their defence again.

Okehampton U12s 7

Barnstaple U12s 24

BARNSTAPLE?S pack won this game with better control of the ball in the scrum and line-out.

Okehampton tackled well, especially Tom Brown at full-back, but could not win enough good ball.

To their credit Okehampton did score the best try of the match ? Robert Long winning a good line-out ball close to the Okehampton line, Will and James Heard moving the ball along the backs to David Binns, who had a good jinking run up the wing, finally being tackled 13 metres short of the try-line.

Okehampton worked the ball back quickly for Robert Long to peel off the maul and outpace the Barnstaple defence to score. Tom Brown converted.