Western Counties West

Okehampton 10

St Just 10

OKEHAMPTON will feel a little aggrieved that they did not take two more league points from this game as it appeared to be one they had in their pocket.

Playing uphill but with a strong wind at their backs, Okehampton took the lead after ten minutes when, following a fine storming run, number 8, Alistair Mason, passed the ball on to Steve Alford whose pass was intercepted under the St Just posts

The resulting passing movement from St Just led to an interception by Okehampton winger Graham Sage who scored in the corner. The try was not converted.

Ten minutes later a loose kick out of defence by St Just was fielded by the Okehampton full back Buzz Brimacombe who set off on an elusive run before feeding right winger Gary Carey who crashed over taking several defenders with him. Again the try went unconverted.

St Just began to take control up front with their strong pack causing Okehampton problems in the set scrum. Following a period of forward pressure St Just were awarded a penalty which was kicked to the corner.

From the resulting lineout from five metres out a clean take and drive resulted in a try being scored in the corner, which was unconverted.

From the restart Okehampton took play deep into St Just territory and despite a large amount of pressure the final pass always seemed to go astray in the difficult windy conditions. The half time whistle blew with the score at Okehampton 10, St Just 5.

At the start of the second half Okehampton appeared to have scored a perfectly good try when Alistair Mason drove over from short range although the referee was unsighted and awarded a five yard scrum.

The ire of the crowd was audible when some minutes later he awarded St Just a free kick for what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate wheeling movement from the scrum by Okehampton, the result of which led to St Just scoring another try in the corner from a forward drive.

Despite a number of sweet passing movements and a close penalty attempt Okehampton were unable to secure victory and the game began to deteriorate into a rather bad tempered affair. Fortunately the

final whistle was not far away, leaving Okehampton feeling themselves rather hard done by.

Mention should be made of the service from scrum half David Bickle, whose passing on the difficult windy day against a strong scrumaging pack was of the highest order.

Tiverton 32

Okehampton 12

OKEHAMPTON?s recent resurgence, which has seen them win five out of their last six league games, was interrupted at Bolham Road on March 8 when they were beaten in a game not nearly as one-sided as the scoreline suggests.

The Chiefs were without the service of three key players and without their full complement of replacements. Things went from bad to worse as they found themselves 14 points down within the first 15 minutes following two converted Tiverton tries.

Okehampton reasserted themselves and for the next ten minutes had the majority of possession, with Gary Carey making a number of runs up the right wing.

However, Tiverton were to score next following a rolling maul which was converted to make the score 19-0. On the stroke of half-time Tiverton were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which was converted to make the half time score 22-0.

At the start of the second half Tiverton failed to get to ground following a driving movement.

The next 20 minutes saw Okehampton win a lot of possession and some good driving runs were made by Number 8 Alistair Mason, although the possession could not be converted into points. Mason stood out in many ways, notably for a number of crunching tackles. However, again it was Tiverton to score following a flowing move from their backs.

Okehampton then began to wake up and following a penalty in front of the posts flanker Steve Alford ran the ball before passing on to Alistair Mason, who made a fine driving run. The ball went through several pairs of hands before scrum half Simon Griffiths scored near to the posts. The try was converted by full back Buzz Brimacombe to make the score 32-8.

Okehampton started to throw the ball around and following a fine passing movement Brimacombe came into the line at pace, sold the dummy, went through the gap and, following a chip ahead, won the race to the line to score a fine individual try. This was not converted.