Devon two

North Tawton 33

Ilfracombe 0

NORTH Tawton continued their charge for the Devon two title with a comprehensive win over the dangerous Ilfracombe at Taw Meadow. Despite a scrappy affair North Tawton recorded a third consecutive bonus point win, taking them top of the league, 15 points out of 15.

Starting with much of the possession Ilfracombe found themselves camped in their own half after much patience from the Tawton defence. This proved efficient as turnovers became inevitable and North Tawton's free running backs were given time and space to move the ball out wide.

It did, however, take 25 minutes for the deadlock to be broken — shortly after Kerswill was lost to a trip to hospital for a blood injury — A Dennis found a neat offload from Quick to go under the sticks, which was duly converted by brother C Dennis. The first score opened the floodgates; Rickerby latched on to another well timed offload from C Dennis to take the score to 14-0 to the home side at half-time.

With 99% of the first half territory going in North Tawtons favour, it was difficult to see a way back for Ilfracombe but the job was far from over as North Tawton had the bonus point win in mind.

The second half saw a continuation of the one way traffic as Ayris bundled over on the 45 minute mark only to be denied a try for a deemed double movement. He did however, redeem his earlier denial by latching on to a kick through from Rickerby to take North Tawton one try from a bonus point.

An Ilfracombe revival looked hopeful as North Tawton withstood a period of defence but again remained adamant for a clean sheet. With Kerswill returning and Mckelvey entering the frame, the well worked front five were given a much needed breather after a top stint against the much larger Ilfracombe pack.

Some defiant defence from the visitors and ill-discipline from Tawton saw a period of stalemate between sides leading to debutant Hancock coming off the bench for his first game in the yellow and black hoops. After 75 minutes a rare penalty was kicked to the corner and a drive from the line-out led to Ilfracombe running out of bodies and a set of hands saw skipper Letherbridge score the bonus point try.

M Dennis finished off in style with a fine 70 metre opportunist try.