Western Counties West

Crediton 13 Okehampton 26

FOLLOWING a torrential hail storm, the skies cleared for kick-off in this derby against local rivals Crediton.

With the fresh breeze at their backs Crediton started brightly and stoppred a near certain score in the first few minutes. The Okes soon hit their stride with a great break from coach Gaz Evans which unfortunately for them came to nothing.

On six minutes Oke were awarded a penalty and they elected to kick for the corner. The kick was overdone resulting in a 22 drop-out to Crediton. The Okes reclaimed the ball from the kick-off where Rhys Palmer scored a memorable try ghosting past the defensive line of the home side to score. Skipper Tom Powell added the extras .

Flanker Liam Sampson made a great blind-side break and then on 13 minutes Gaz Evans sped through to score the Okes’ second try; again, converted by Powell.

To their credit Crediton did their part in making this an enjoyable game for the several hundred spectators. They continued to test the Okes’ defence with a series of good line breaks especially featuring fly-half Mark Lee and centre Chris Simpson.

The Okes defence remained resolute with lock Neil Perrott putting in two big hits and his second row partner Paul Lawrence making a big clear out at a ruck.

On 21 minutes young colt Noah Nash took advantage of a shortage of Kirton defensive line on the blind side of a scrum to score a superb try which was again well converted by skipper Powell. Just before the half time break Crediton managed a penalty to make the score 21-3 at the break.

In the second half Crediton proceeded to put the visitors under pressure. The Okes defended heroically with both Liam Sampson and Dean Abrams putting in a number of crunching tackles.

On 43 minutes with Crediton on the charge, captain Tom Powell relieved the pressure with an excellent clearing kick. By this time, Nicky Martin had replaced Ian Langbridge at prop and Tom McGratton had replaced Gaz Evans at number eight.

Play was now end to end with both sides striving to achieve dominance. Okehampton conceded another penalty to narrow the gap and then on 60 minutes Crediton broke the deadlock with a fine try by centre Chris Simpson. after an excellent break by number ten Mark Lee. With a successful conversion the score had become 21-13.

Crediton lock Cam Huxtable looked to have scored a certain try but knocked-on over the line after a crunching Oke defensive tackle. With time running out for the Okes in their pursuit of the elusive fourth try that would give them the fifth bonus point centre Rhys Palmer made another of his powerful runs that took him through the Crediton defensive line for another quite superb try. The conversion hit the post but it did not matter as the full five points had been secured.

The match was not quite a classic but a good, competitive local derby played in an excellent spirit.

Okehampton were due to play Devonport Services last night (April 13), on Saturday are home to Torquay to Oaklands and on Wednesday, April 20 play Saltash at Oaklands. These three matches may well decide whether the Okes make the play-offs against the runner-up side in Western Counties (North).

A trophy was presented some 40 years ago by Frank Webb, a stalwart of Okehampton rugby, to be played for annually between the Okehampton and Crediton rugby clubs over two legs, home and away.

The sequence had gone on for 30 odd years , almost without a break, with both sides holding the Trophy 17 times each. With the advent of leagues the trophy competition continued while both clubs were in the same league, but stopped a few years ago when Crediton moved into a different league.

With their promotion back to the Western Counties (West) league last season the competition could be restarted.

Paul Harris of the Crediton club found the trophy and arranged for it to be refurbished. Paul contacted Okehampton and the competition was reborn.

The second leg was the game between the clubs on Saturday at Crediton. Okehampton went into the game with a 28 point advantage from the first leg, and their win meant that they won the trophy.

Sadly Frank Webb is no longer with us, but his daughters, Sue Banks and Sarah Self were invited by the clubs to present the cup to the winners.  They thought that Frank would have been very proud that the competition he started between the two clubs had been resurrected. Following an excellent lunch laid on by Crediton RFC and an entertaining game, Sue and Sarah presented the cup to the Okehampton club captain Tom Powell. The teams look forward to a rematch next season!’