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North Tawton A 38

Torrington seconds 8

FOR the third week running North Tawton had to rely on the Centenary pitch to provide a playable surface for this match. With the first team match cancelled they had a strong pool of players to draw upon, combining youth with experience to produce a good win. The team featured two father/son combinations in Dave and Simon Quick and Richard and Will Lethbridge.

With just a minute played full back Will Lethbridge came into the line, with his characteristic pace, to break through for the first try; the conversion was missed, the ball seeming to stick to the ground. About ten minutes later Richard Lethbridge completed a family double and went through for a second try, following up a break off a scrum by his fellow flanker Bill Sharp. The conversion by the try-scorer came back off the crossbar.

It was not all one way traffic and Torrington worked themselves into contention with a penalty kick, well struck by fly half Tom Lock. North Tawton responded well with another try for Will Lethbridge, coming at a well chosen angle onto another good pass from Bill Sharp to cut the Torrington line to pieces. This time the conversion by the try scorer was good, taking Tawton to a 17-3 lead.

On the stroke of half time Torrington took a lineout, which should have been secured by Tawton, close to their try line. Flanker Ryan Knight gathered the ball and touched it down for an unconverted try, leaving the score at 17-8 at the break.

With a number of substitutions at half time North Tawton started the second period in determined style and soon set up a rolling maul which made ground to the Torrington 22 metre line, where Torrington conceded a penalty. This was taken quickly and the ball was fed along the line to the right wing where David Brock scored the try, his first for the A team. The conversion by Jake Ayris took Tawton to 24 points.

With the pitch starting to resemble a quagmire, Torrington put up a valiant defence but could not stop Tawton from scoring two more tries. The first was for prop Gareth Williams, who stepped up to add the conversion and round off a good performance on the day.

The final score was fortuitous for Ben Sharp as the ball ricocheted off a Torrington player. Sharp was quickest to react and collected the rebounding ball to run in under the posts for a try; once again the try scorer took the conversion leaving the final score at 38-8.