Western Counties West

Okehampton 27

Bideford 27

THE local rugby cognoscenti would probably have considered this game to be too close to call prior to kick-off, and so it proved, although certainly not in the manner anticipated.

In perfect conditions the visitors set about making the most of the slope advantage and soon pounced when Okehampton, running the ball from deep spilled it and then strayed offside in their attempt to recover it. Ollie Wickett, the Bideford ten who was to have an imperious first half, made no mistake with the resultant penalty to put his side 3-0 up with as many minutes gone.

Four minutes later and the lead was doubled after the hosts had been penalised for holding on.

The restart saw a moment of madness from Okehampton hooker George Trerise as he took out a Bideford player while he was in the air. The referee had no option but to issue a yellow card and Okehampton would play the next ten minutes a man short.

The visitors took only a matter of seconds to make the numerical advantage count, a fine backs move seeing a try in the corner for centre Andrew Baxter. The tricky conversion was potted by Wickett and Okehampton were 13-0 down after ten minutes.

The home forwards then started to get a foothold in the game and following a series of drives they were awarded a kickable penalty. Unfortunately, the ball drifted wide of the posts and it seemed as if it was not going to be the home side's day. This feeling was reinforced when, on 27 minutes Baxter cashed-in on a rare slip-up in the Okes' defence to go under the posts for a seven-pointer. Shortly afterwards, a penalty try was awarded to Bideford when their scrum half was tackled on the 22 without the ball following a kick ahead. This seemed to encapsulate Okehampton's first half perfectly as they turned round 27-0 down having not played too badly against a side that looked perfectly capable of beating anyone in the league.

Playing with the slope it took the hosts seven minutes to get on the scoreboard when Craig Dennis slotted a penalty. He repeated this five minutes later and when Tom McGrattan claimed a pushover try on the hour, which Dennis also converted, it seemed that at least the home side had brought some respectability to the scoreline at 27-13.

However, the Oke side, the pack in particular, had more adventurous ideas and set about dismantling the remainder of the Bideford lead.

Firstly centre Luke Honeychurch used his strength and pace to outstrip the visitors' defence following a break from captain Gareth Espin at fly-half. Dennis was successful with the difficult conversion and it was game on at 27-20. Then, with seven minutes remaining a series of five metre scrums, in which the visitors were being given all sorts of headaches, eventually saw Neil Perrot dot down for Dennis to again convert to bring the scores level.

Apart from a long range penalty attempt from the hosts which fell short there was little action of note in the closing stages.

Both sides were happy to share the spoils at the end of an absorbing encounter that was a great advert for grass-roots rugby, or perhaps both sides were out on their feet.