Okehampton Colts 22

Sidmouth Colts 15

FOLLOWING the narrowest of victories at Sidmouth last month, Okehampton welcomed the South Devon team in green back to Oaklands for a keenly anticipated return in wet and windy conditions .

Playing with both slope and wind advantage the hosts came out of the blocks with admirable intent and soon had the visitors on the back foot.

Okehampton Colts were playing with a level of efficiency that belied the conditions and with play driven towards the 22 the half backs of Nash and Searle spotted the space on the blind side and two well timed passes saw wing man Giles Heard zip over in the corner for the opening try; Searle converted superbly from the touch line.

From the restart the momentum was maintained with the Okes using the strong breeze wisely keeping Sidmouth pinned deep in their own half . After several phases of play again the forwards dominated; the ball was released to the backs and with Searle making a half break, Chris Swash was on hand at speed to take the off load to score; Searle again converted.

For the first 15 minutes Okehampton had enjoyed more or less complete dominance but Sidmouth were too good a side to capitulate and they dug deep and forced their way back into the game . A sharp looking backline started to ask serious questions of the Oke defence which held firm against a sustained period of pressure .

With the hosts reasserting some control towards the end of the half , Searle slotted a penalty with the last kick of the half to make it 17-0 to Oke at the interval. .

Early stages of the half saw a stalemate with Okehampton making substitutions . Sidmouth started to pin the home team back in their own half with some good positional kicking although the Oke back three of Heard, Kieran and Ryan Lee coped well with the pressure albeit some clearing kicks showing some wayward tendencies.

Play was now being played mostly in the host's half and while stoic defence was limiting the visitors threat, Oke's indiscipline at the break down led to an increasing penalty count.

Eventually the Sidmouth pressure got its reward when their fly half spotting his wing man in acres of space out wide. A perfectly struck kick dropped into the arms of his colleague to go over for the try.

Oke restarted with a vengeance and it was only a matter of minutes before they were back in try scoring mode when Swash went over with a score that sealed the game for them. In the last few minutes Oke paid the penalty for some sloppy and ill judged exuberance when the visitors scored an interception try and a penalty.

Ignoring the last five minutes, this was an efficient performance from the Okes and confirms there standing at the top of the Devon Colts Cup merit table with the side now having gone through the regular season of Merit Table fixtures and friendlies unbeaten