Torquay U15s 5

Okehampton U15s 17

MEETING for the first time these two sides sized each other up in the first quarter. Pressure was intense with both being forced to make uncharacteristic errors.

Finding no way through the Okehampton backs Torquay chipped the ball over and then found Phil Woods at six foot and full pace. He broke the first few tackles before being hauled down after a 30-metre charge. Capitalising on the territory gain Okes? forwards ground their way downfield with Matt West, Chris Searle and Sam Turner making the hard yards.

Scrum ball for Okehampton was passed to Herrod-Taylor at inside centre who held up the defence, creating space and popping the ball to Richard Bolt who drove through the tackles like a bullet for his first try, converted by Andy Herrod-Taylor.

The second try came from loose play by Torquay with Dean Beardon hacking the ball on from 45 metres out and pressurising the full back to touch down in goal. From the five-metre scrum Okehampton tried the short drive twice before Bolt burrowed under the tackles for his second try in the corner. The missed conversion bounced off the top of the posts leaving Okehampton 12-0 ahead.

Simon Cox at 8 made a try-saving tackle five metres out when Torquay had a rare run in Okes? half before half-time.

Torquay rallied in the second half. using the wind and slope and camped in the Okes? 22. Eventually the pressure told and Torquay found a gap out wide for an unconverted try.

Commitment and support kept the scores at 12-5 until the dying minutes. Ruck ball was spread wide with Bolt and Cox interlinking with a one-two and setting Bolt free for his hat-trick.

With Bolt?s tries and Cox?s try-saving tackles Okehampton came away with a deserved win. All 15 kept going despite the pressure from the home side.

This week away to Exmouth. Meet 9.15am.

Okehampton U12s 29

Sidmouth U12s 7

THE first half was evenly matched with both sides rucking and mauling well and putting in solid tackles.

Sidmouth opened the scoring and Mason Whittle scored the first try for Okehampton.

At half-time Richard Friend was switched to hooker and was quicker to the rucks, securing possession and enabling the backs to move the ball through the line, causing Sidmouth problems.

Tom Brown, at fly-half, scored in the corner for the first try.

Good rucking and mauling by Robert Long, James Heard, Ricci Cobb, Stuart Bennie and Richard Friend pulled in the Sidmouth defence and allowed centre, David Binns, to score in the corner.

The forwards, now dominant and supplying good ball to the backs, with Tom McGratton having strong runs and testing the Sidmouth defence, were well supported by Jake Chisholm..

The match ended with Mason coming into the back line from full-back to break through and score two more tries, the last being unstoppable.

North/Okes U11s 19

Sidmouth U11s 7

SIDMOUTH had narrowly beaten North/Okes earlier in the season so this was always going to be a tight game.

The home side were first to cross the line. James Ewen picked up the ball from the base of the scrum, threw a dummy to offset his opposite man, and ran in unopposed to touch down, converted by Andrew North.

North/Okes kept up the pressure on the visitors. James Speak and Merrick Kirby both had good games in the second row, and Sam Robertson had a couple of good runs on the wing. Their efforts were rewarded with another try from North who burst through a couple of tackles to score. The conversion was missed, to leave the score 12-0 at half-time.

North/Okes found it difficult to get the ball wide to the backs in the second half. Recycling by the forwards was not as good as it has been, leading to a stop-start game. Will Hawkins came close to scoring but was forced into touch.

Sidmouth raised their game and were rewarded with a well taken converted try.

With a couple of minutes left, North/Okes attacked. The visitors? fly-half put in a good clearance kick, which was caught by Luke Miller, who had an excellent game at full-back, Miller ran the ball back at Sidmouth, but was tackled short of the line, Darcy Heard scooped up the ball and dived over to score, converted by North.

Unfortunately, a nasty eye injury forced the Sidmouth try-scorer to leave the field.

The North/Okes players are Will Hawkins, Andrew Fishliegh, Chris Reynolds, Merrick Kirby, James Speak, Tom Dean, James Ewen, Andrew North, Darcy Heard, Cameron Rickerby, Kevin Dennis, Samantha Robertson, Bill Sharp and Luke Miller.

North/Okes U10s 0

Sidmouth U10s 15

ANOTHER good performance from the under 10s with improvements in all aspects of their play from good driving runs from Jordan, Peter and Adam. Adam made some good defensive tackling along with Peter Vernon and Thomas Mallett. Also going well was the scrum with Martin, Mike and Jack working hard and winning good ball.

Okehampton U9s 30

Sidmouth U9s 5

THE Okes were in cracking form for this eagerly awaited re-match. From the kick-off Thom White ran through the whole of the Sidmouth team to score a sensational try which set the tone for the match.

With Tom Fogerty settling in well at scrum half the backs began to see a lot of the ball. Good interchanges between backs and forwards created the space to allow firstly Matt Johns (2) then Sam Ewen to score brilliant tries.

A further try from Matt, running in from 40 yards, allowed Okehampton to maintain their grip.

Forwards Thom White and Buster Francis tackled like demons in close play allowing the backs the space to make huge inroads into the opponents? defence. Felix Gardner and Chris Courtier both played their part in Okehampton?s forward domination.

In the second half this young side continued to display superb rugby skills. Henry Cooper and George Speke, playing on the wings had their best games yet, making good breaks and playing a big part in defence, together with Dan Curtis and Ollie Kirby, who pulled off some stunning tackles whenever Sidmouth threatened.

A final try from Buster Francis came after good work by Lloyd Heard and Graham Bennie through the middle. In the dying moments Sidmouth scored a consolation try.