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North Tawton 22

Salcombe 10

HAVING lost the home fixture narrowly Salcombe were always going to be a handful in the return match at Taw Meadows. As it turned out North Tawton did the double on them, the first time in several seasons to do so. To add interest Salcombe were one place above North Tawton in the league.

Tawton had James Miller moving to tight head prop where he had a good game, helping maintain the dominance of Tawton's pack in the set scrums. They drove Salcombe back and a break off the back set the three-quarters away on an attack, finished off with a try for centre Will Hawkin. The conversion by David Fewings made it 7-0.

In the 13th minute a scrum went down and a serious arm injury to Salcombe's prop led to a lengthy delay. Salcombe came back well from the restart, putting Tawton under pressure, but an impressive long range penalty kick by Tawton's Fewings edged his side to 10 points. Shortly after a hanging up-and-under from Fewings had Salcombe in confusion and left wing Rob Stepto collected the bouncing ball and feed it out to Chris Martin on the outside, who went over for a try.

North Tawton were penalised on their 22 metre line and again as they failed to give the 10 metres. Salcombe's fly half Chris Drew chose to kick and duly slotted their first points to take the score to 15-3 to Tawton as the extended half drew to a close.

Salcombe set up a good attack at the start of the second half through a break by Drew but good tackling saw the homes side work their way back into Salcombe territory; after good work from Alfie May and Paul Turner Tavistock were awarded a penalty on the five metre line. They chose the scrum and drove Salcombe back but the ball was held up. Resulting from the melee from a second scrum fly half Dave Fewings touched the ball down — with the conversion had 22 points.

Salcombe got back into the game after a Tawton player was yellow-carded for holding on in the tackle and shortly afterwards Salcombe number eight Stuart Winzer took the ball from a penalty tap and drove over for a try. This was converted by Drew to take Salcombe to 10 points. Salcombe almost scored another try but the final pass went forward.

North Tawton steadied the ship and put in some better mauling play, and superb tackling by flanker Dave Gibbs helped them hold out the attacks until the final whistle. North Tawton are now fifth in the league.