Torrington Seconds 0 North Tawton 50 WITH their first team away playing in the semi final of the Devon Junior Cup, Torrington were pushed to put out a second team and fielded 14 players, including a loaned prop from North Tawton. Many clubs might have cancelled the fixture in similar circumstances but Torrington sportingly honoured the fixture. Within a few minutes of the start North Tawton opened the scoring following a break off the back of an attacking scrum by scrum half Peter Gyde. He fed an inside ball to captain for the day Keith Jones who completed the move with a pass on to David Fewings. He touched down virtually under the posts making the conversion easy for himself, to make it 7-0 nil to the visitors. The strong northerly wind affected the flight of any long kicks and also caused problems for the line outs, as Torrington found out with their first penalty kick. It was a day for them to keep the ball with their strong forwards, where the lack of a player was less of a handicap. North Tawton were awarded a penalty which hooker Adam Davis tapped and ran, only to hit the defensive wall of the Torrington pack. The ball went loose and Tawton's Stuart Bowker, playing at number eight, cleaned it up and went through for a try. This time the conversion went wide. A good run by centre Luke Honeychurch made room for wing Mike Symons on the left flank to burst through for his first try, but again the conversion was missed as the wind had its effect. Tawton were now 17-nil up and nearly extended that lead through Symons again as neat handling by flanker Keith Jones again gave him space. This time the Torrington defence was sound and held out the attack. More pressure from the Tawton threes led to a maul on the home side's five metre line as the forwards became more involved. Bowker broke off the back but was held up; then a scrum to Tawton close to the Torrington try line fed the ball to fly half David Fewings who stepped back inside the defence and wriggled through for a try. Once again the conversion went wide. From the restart the ball was passed out to centre Luke Honeychurch who set off on a stunning run through the defence. His silky running and change of direction, complete with a hand-off, led to what was possibly the individual try of the season. The conversion was successful so that Tawton went in to half time 29–0 ahead. At the start of the second half a strong charge by second row James Henshaw set Tawton back on the attack, but the momentum was lost. Some good loose play by Bowker re-started the move and a feed to Honeychurch led to another neat try for the centre. Fewings completed the conversion to take the score to 36-nil. An injury to Tawton prop Keiran Cree evened up the numbers. Twice Torrington were close to the Tawton try line but could not convert the pressure into points and Tawton were able to clear. For a long spell there was no further score until once again the threes came to life. Slick handling by Fewings and Honeychurch gave full back Tom Davis the narrowest of gaps down the right hand touch line and he made the most of it with a strong burst to the line for his first try of the match. The conversion from out wide was struck by Fewings to extend the score to 43 – nil. Torrington came back with a final, determined play to get themselves on the scoreboard. Unluckily for them a speculative pass out by their fly half went loose, only to be picked up by Tawton's flying Honeychurch. He executed a neat 'outside to in' move, cutting back inside the defence to score his hat trick try under the posts. This left Fewings with an easy conversion to notch up a rare half-century win for North Tawton. l Next week North Tawton resume the League trail with an away match at Old Technicians in Plymouth.