Western Counties West Okehampton 21 Devonport Services 39 AFTER two excellent wins this season Okehampton need not be too downhearted after this disappointing second consecutive defeat. The Okes never deserved to win this match, but can point to half a dozen first team players unavailable. Oke really only produced glimpses of what they were capable of in the last quarter of the match, and by then it was far too late. Okehampton failed to come out firing, and Services took advantage of Oke's failure to make first up tackles and their tendency to drop passes to gain a valuable early lead. First hooker Farrow crossed from close range shortly after Oke had spilled a pass virtually on Services' try line. Visiting fly half Anstis converted and landed a penalty as Services led 10-0 after 15 minutes, despite Oke having the better of the early exchanges. Both fly halves then missed penalty chances before Oke finally produced several phases of play in sequence. This resulted in a stretched Services' defence, and colts winger Lewis Taylor stepped inside on the left flank to score his first senior try for the club. Oke had already been denied a pushover try as their scrum was starting to gain ascendancy. The hosts now looked right back in the contest, but soon shot themselves in the foot defensively. Missed tackles and an outrageous dummy allowed Devonport second rower Gregory to pilfer the first of his hat trick of tries. Anstis added the extra two. Home captain Tom Powell potted a penalty in reply as the Okes went into the break 17-8 down and seeking some second half inspiration. The Okes started a little brighter at the start of the second forty, Powell poking over another penalty after 45 mins to reduce the deficit to 17-11. However, the home side once again failed to consolidate, and openings around the fringes allowed Gregory to stroll over for his second score, Antis converting to make it 24-11. Thing then got worse for the home side, as only minutes later, Gregory was again allowed acres to cross for his third score. At 29-11 down Oke finally started to find some rhythm, and their willingness to move the ball had the visitors' lumpy pack struggling to keep up. Replacement centre Giles Heard crossed for a good team score in the top left corner to make it 16-29. Then with a quarter of an hour remaining right winger Rob Fishleigh stepped past the full back to score in clubhouse corner, after good approach work by home skipper Powell. Suddenly at least two bonus points seemed a possibility for the hosts as time ebbed away. Unfortunately an offside penalty award allowed Anstis to gain another three pointer, and in the last minute Oke failed to control a defensive scrum, visiting replacement number eight Robinson benefited with another try to make the final score 21-39. This was not the result that Oke had hoped for, but in this season of blooding youth and building foundations for the future, the bigger picture must take priority. Several colts enhanced their reputations, and amongst the bright spots were an outstanding performance from returning back rower Simon Cox and another impressive outing for emerging flanker Liam Sampson.