ONE hundred and seventy school children took part in the Tavistock Area Primary Schools Tag Rugby Festival on March 22.

This year saw the introduction of an all-day event which culminated in four different trophies being won.

There were three pools in the morning with St Andrew’s A, Horrabridge B, St Peter’s, Meavy B and Gulworthy playing against each other. Gulworthy pulled off the surprise of the morning by beating St Andrew’s and not losing any of their games.

They went through to the cup competition in the afternoon, along with St Peter’s, who were also undefeated in the pool games. St Andrew’s A and Meavy B went into the competition for the trophy and Horrabridge B the vase.

Pool two consisted of Whitchurch, St Andrew’s B, Horrabridge A, Lady Modiford’s, Tavistock B and Meavy C.

The two strongest teams were Whitchurch who won all five games and Lady Modiford’s who only lost to Whitchurch. Horrabridge A and St Andrew’s B were the middle two teams and Tavistock B and Meavy C the vase teams.

Tavistock A, Horrabridge C, Bere Alston, Meavy A, Lamerton and Milton Abbot were in the final pool which was won by Tavistock from Meavy A on tries scored. Lamerton and Bere Alston went into the trophy competition and Milton Abbot and Horrabridge C the vase.

After a quick break for the referees – Mark Rundle, Adam Williams, Morgan Warnett and Will Slater, who had refereed 15 games each, and for the scorers Mhairi McCall and Martin Exley-Deane to sort out the afternoon fixtures — the three different competitions started.

Milton Abbot came top of the vase competition with Horrabridge B runners-up.

St Andrew’s A won the trophy with St Andrew’s B and Horrabridge A tied in second place, both scoring the same amount of tries and having the same amount of tries scored against them.

The cup competition was dominated by Whitchurch who again won all of their games, with small school Meavy, who had entered three teams into the festival, coming in second, receiving the silver medals and retaining the Small Schools Cup. Lady Modiford’s were third and Tavistock A fourth.

These four teams will be invited to take part in the West Devon finals at Okehampton on Tuesday, April 26.

Mhairi McCall of OCRA, who organised the event, said thank you to Tavistock Rugby Club for hosting the event and supplying the referees. She said it was a great day for all those involved.