Western Counties West

Honiton 25

Okehampton 26

IN an incident packed affair, Okehampton came away with the victory after an end to end tussle with a much improved Honiton side.

Honiton may be bottom of the pile, but they are a much improved outfit and they gave it their all in a game that could have gone either way.

The Okes played up the infamous Allhallows slope, and were delighted to take the lead after ten minutes. Carl Poynton delivered a pinpoint cross field kick over the narrow home defence, which was gathered cleanly by winger Craig Dennis who had a clear run in for his fifth try in the last two matches.

It was not long before Poynton added a penalty, and the Okes were sitting comfortably at 8-0 ahead after 20 minutes.

Honiton showed flashes of their potency in midfield though, and it was not long before this bore fruit. Centre Hyland was the finisher as the hosts cut though an Oke midfield that looked too open, too often, throughout. Home winger Webber soon added a simple three pointer to tie things up after 31 mins.

The Okes soon forged ahead again as they began to up the pace. Pressure on the home defence forced the Lacemen to concede penalties, two of these being excellently landed by Poynton from far from simple angles. So at the interval Oke were in a healthy position, 14-8 up with the slope advantage to come. However as we know only too well, Oke have a habit of easing off and not ramming home their advantage.

Honiton came out fully fired up, and took the Okes by surprise. It was not long before the home side had regained the lead, as powerful centre Barrett ran through some flimsy defence and crossed for a try converted by Webber to gain a one point lead.

The Okes were under the cosh at this point, and Sam Turner saw yellow as the home side cranked up the pressure up front.

Depleted Oke were now really struggling to repel Honiton's pick and go tactics. Skipper and second row Nick Guilbert was the next beneficiary, as he crossed for a rare try to stretch the home side's lead.

Okehampton gained a lifeline thanks to the quick thinking of replacement scrum half Joey Bruce, back to his lively sniping best. He took a quick tap, and cut a swathe through the Lacemen's ranks before feeding Tom Mcgratton who finished well in the bottom left corner. Poynton converted with aplomb from the left touchline as the Okes nosed ahead at 21-20.

Back came the home side as impressive Dalton got a deserved score to regain the lead for the hosts; he again took advantage of an unusually poor Oke defence around the side of rucks, although Webber missed the conversion chance.

Poynton then missed a second straightforward penalty chance before Oke lost centre Luke Honeychurch — a victim of the rock hard surface. Play was forced onto the reserve pitch as the ambulance arrived to take the unfortunate Okes' centre off to hospital.

As play recommenced on the new pitch the Okes brought on Steve Alford and numbers gathered to force a concerted drive which hooker Chris Searle successfully grounded.

The conversion was missed, but Oke had a one point lead that they held onto without too much alarm in the short time that remained.

The Okes will be pleased with an away win and, with some of their attacking play.