Devon one

North Tawton 18

Torrington 12

A SUNNY afternoon and a good fair referee that let the game flow saw two sides that went at it full bore for the whole 80 minutes on Saturday.

This is one of the best games seen at Taw Meadow for a long time, both teams giving it their all in defence as well as attack with ‘heart on your sleeve’ type rugby that even the supporters home and away enjoyed.

High flying Torrington started out as favourites for another win but somebody forgot to tell North Tawton, who came out of the blocks at least as equals to the side top of the league and the first 20 minutes was close hard tackling rugby but no score.

Torrington were the first to break the deadlock with a penalty kick to the corner, lineout and over for a converted try for 0-7. Far from letting their heads drop the Tawton team took it up a level in their commitment and it was not long before they got a well worked try of their own scored by Bill Sharp but a missed kick left the score now 5-7. Unfortunately a bad injury to the Torrington number six held up the game for 10 minutes just before half time, giving both sides a bit of a breather. On the restart a Dave Fewings penalty gave Tawton the lead for the first time  at 8-7.

Back come Torrington and right on half time they scored another try but no kick and the visitors lead at the break 12-8 to the away side.

As the second half got underway Torrington had all the early pressure but against the run of play a bad pass by a visiting player was well read by Dave Fewings, who went under the post for Tawton’s second try; his conversion put North Tawton back in front 15-12.

Now it was a question of holding discipline and nerve as the game was going down to the wire.

A superb drop goal from Alex Dennis made the score 18-12 leaving Torrington needing a converted try to win.

Tawton might have started the match as equals but they finished it the better team on the day and a very sweet well deserved victory was theirs, that’s not to say the home fans were not glad to hear the final whistle.

The man of the match was the skipper Simon Quick, who played a captain’s role in the team’s engine room. This match was certainly a good advert for Devon Oke.