Okehampton U15s 34

Exmouth U15s 0

THIS match was not as easy as the score line might suggest.

Okehampton, with some regular team players absent, started well with a try by fly half Liam Wilkins. This was closely followed by centre Luke Dennis crossing the line for a try which was converted by Liam. Exmouth then picked up their play and pushed Okehampton back into their own half for a fair amount of time.

The Okes though always looked dangerous on the break and scored three more tries - two by winger Jordan Cornthwaite and one by number eight Marcus Garratt.

The second half was a lot closer with Exmouth again exerting a lot of pressure which the Okehampton backs soaked up. The match was held up for a while due to an injury to an Exmouth player. Okehampton took a player off to even up the sides although they then had to take Conor Kendrew off with an injured shoulder.

When the game restarted Okehampton pushed forward with hooker James Balch scoring a try which Liam converted.

Exmouth U14s 10

Okehampton U14s 35

A SLOW start by the visitors allowed the opposition forwards to gain control of the tackle area, turning over a lot of Okehampton's ball.

Hard working Josh Bickley had another outstanding performance, always making yards and tackling with immense authority. The first half finished at 14-5 in favour of the away side, thanks to captain Giles Heard and Jack Williams with the conversions from Billy Searle.

The second half brought a wave of attacks form the Exmouth forwards, which Okehampton defended exceptionally well against. Player of the match Angus Mortimore had his best performance of the season, leading from the front.

From an Exmouth mistake Searle grubbed the ball on twice before grounding it under the post, to convert himself.

Heard finished the game with a hat-trick of tries, thanks to his strong running and decisive lines, of which all were converted by the ever capable boot of Searle. The Oke pack eventually got a hold over the opposition, with strong tackling from Jake Giles-Phillips and Luke Liversidge.

The Oke's performance was nowhere near their best, and with Sidmouth travelling to Oaklands on Sunday, they will most certainly have to up their game if they want to be victorious.

l JOSH Bush, Dean Andrew and James Baulch from Okehampton College represented North Devon in the Devon U15s trials after being selected to participate from a previous trial at West Buckland School.

The players travelled to Cullompton where the four areas played against each other. The North Devon team played extremely well, beating their East Devon and South Devon opponents. They drew against the West Devon team who were the favourites to win.

As well as the competition, the idea of the trial was to select 38 players to attend a weekend training session at Brixham. All three of the Okehampton members were successful at achieving a place in this Devon squad, which meets later this month.

North Okes U13s 12

Exmouth U13s 12

THIS was by far North Okes best performance of the season.

Exmouth towered above North/Okes in the lineouts player for player but the home side showed real determination and self belief after Exmouth took an early lead by coming back into the game with some great ball handling in the backs. Ollie Crimmins made some great runs up the centre but Exmouth's defence was solid. North Okes rucking was much improved this week and Ben Sharp got clean ball out along the line to Rhys Palmer who dodged his way through to even the score. North Okes took a lot of quick tap penalties and faced up to Exmouth up front.

Back row Marcus Hoddinot, Dan Vincent and Ollie Francis tackled tirelessly for North Okes through out but Exmouth managed a turnover ball in midfield and spun the ball out to their winger who put them back in the lead.

North Okes were running out of time but the last five minutes of the game were spent camped in Exmouth's 22 and a great team effort allowed Charlie Goldsworthy to power over on the final whistle.