Devon two Salcombe 20 North Tawton 15 FROM the kick off North Tawton showed they were in this match to win it against the league leaders. Playing into the strong breeze, a lofted chip by fly half David Fewings was fumbled by the Salcombe defence and Fewings followed up well to scramble over the line for the first try. His conversion was good and Tawton went into an early lead. Salcombe recovered and were shortly awarded a penalty, but the kick to goal was missed. The Tawton scrum was again in form and began to dominate the set scrums, pushing back the home pack in the sets. Territory was gained and a break by centre Chris Martin took Tawton back to the Salcombe 22 metre line. At first the defence recovered well but the clearance was not decisive and a second attack involving Mike Symons led to a maul. The ball was recycled and scrum half Peter Gyde slipped the ball back to Fewings who popped over a neat drop goal to push Tawton 10-nil ahead. Once again Salcombe responded and gained a penalty lineout on Tawton's 10 metre line; Salcombe stole the ball and left wing Gareth Bewley broke through for the home side's first try, converted well from wide out by fly half Jack Davey. The next chance to score fell to North Tawton, following some untidy play by Salcombe, who conceded a penalty. This time the kick failed to carry. Soon good work in the loose by the North Tawton forwards gave the threes another chance. A pass by Fewings picked out Martin in the centre and his jinking run took the visitors back into the attack but soon Tawton were back defending again. They were penalised on the 22 metre line and a kick to goal was converted by Davey to level at 10-10 at the end of the half. From the restart Salcombe made a promising foray into Tawton's territory, and it took good clearing up work by Symons and Martin to stem the attack. A long kick downfield by Martin took Tawton back to the Salcombe 22 metre line. The packs were battling for possession in an evenly matched rucking and mauling contest. Finally Salcombe regained a foothold in Tawton's half and the defending side were penalised once too often, leading to a yellow card. Following this incident a tap penalty was opted for by Salcombe and their flanker Jamie Laban broke through the defence to score in the corner to make it 15-10 to Salcombe. It was then the turn for North Tawton to gain the penalty decisions and a long, wind assisted kick by Fewings took Tawton to the Salcombe five metre line. They defended the initial attack but pressure from a Peter Gyde break led to another penalty and the Tawton scrum drove over the line but the ball was held up. From the resulting five metre scrum a maul developed in the corner and this time the ball was touched down by full back Stuart Bowker. The conversion was missed but Tawton were now level at 15 -15. This unnerved Salcombe and they started to throw loose passes and attempt ill-advised kicks into the strong wind. North Tawton gained more penalty decisions and two long range attempts by Fewings were unluckily missed. One of these was a shot from just inside his own half which bounced off the cross bar. The second dropped short but Salcombe knocked on under the posts from which Tawton got a five metre scrum. In the subsequent play a ball broke loose and was picked up by left wing Bewley who sprinted away from the Tawton cover and scored a try, much against the run of play.