Cornwall and Devon league
Bideford 19
Okehampton 13
THE game started in blustery conditions with Bideford playing into the wind.
The visitors were soon on the attack when Ollie Wickett's kick off was fielded by the Okehampton pack. Good counter-rucking from hooker James Starkey and skipper Harvey Brown saw Bideford turn the ball over and go wide through Andy McKenzie-Shapland, who was almost able to put wingman Andy Baxter over for an early try.
The Okes defended well for the first 10 minutes and then went on the attack themselves winning a penalty on the Bideford 22 and fly half Gary Sizmur knocked it over to take the Oke's into a 3-0 lead.
Bideford went on the attack again from the kick off – the forwards working hard to win the ball back and good handling from the backs eventually saw Wickett dive over in the corner for a 5-3 lead.
As the first half continued it was end to end play with both sides taking their turns attacking each other's goal lines, but it was the Chiefs who struck next when ever-present number number Simon Bright made a break down the left to take the ball forward and beat three defenders, before Starkey carried the ball forward to set up a Chiefs ruck. With the Okehampton defence in disarray the ball was spun wide through the hands of McKenzie-Shapland for skipper Brown to score his first of the season to the right of the uprights. Wickett knocked over the conversion.
It was the Okes who started the second half the stronger of the two sides. In a similar moment to the Okehampton try in the league game earlier in the season, hooker Bruce Griffith found himself with no one to beat and strolled in under the posts for Okehampton's first try of the day and the away side narrowed the gap to 12-10.
Bideford got going again and when they disrupted an Okehampton scrum close to their own goal line, back-row Nathan Giddy was able to scramble upon the loose ball and give the Chiefs some breathing space with a nine point lead. Wickett looked to add a penalty to the Chiefs' tally, but missed from wide left.
Okehampton's introduction of player/coach and former Plymouth Albion player Brett Luxton made a clear difference to the travelling team's confidence with some quick thinking and impressive runs at the Bideford defence. With five minutes left, the Okes opted for the kick at goal to get within one score and a chance of winning, Sizmur again knocking over the kick.
With a shortage of time left Bideford used attack as the best form of defence with James Scott winning a turnover after the kick off. Wickett went for goal again and almost identically to the earlier kick missed just to the right, but it had little influence on the final score as Bideford were able to close out the game for an impressive victory.