Devon one

New Cross 31

North Tawton 28

THE loss that nearly was - after losing the first half  26-14 and looking right out of it, North Tawton came back strong in the second half to take it to the wire and give the hosts more than a bit of a fright. 

After 20 minutes Tawton would have been content just to keep the score respectable and keep clear of any more injuries after New Cross had run in three unanswered tries to give them a 21 point lead. However, the patched up North Tawton side, which it has done many times this season, refused to roll over and they came back with a try from Matt Baker and a Dave Fewings conversion to reduce the deficit 21-7.

New Cross replied quickly with another try but missed the kick to move the points tally to 26-7 but  just before half time a try and kick by Fewings made the score 26-14.

New Cross were very much in charge for now. A fifth try for New Cross early in the half  gave no clue of the fight back that was on the way. At 31-14 down it looked all over for Tawton but the visitors were not finished yet.

North Tawton started to ’bully’ their opponents and were rewarded with a try by Simon Quick in the bottom corner with the extras added by Dave Fewings for 31-21. This gave the home team some cause for concern.

Now playing with the wind and using it to their advantage the North Tawton team look a different side, all talk of keeping the score respectable was soon forgotten - the visitors could smell a win and another try by Matt Baker with kick by Dave Fewings took the side to within three points - a penalty would get a draw and a draw meant away teams win in the cup matches.

Alas the final whistle came just a bit to soon for North Tawton and they ran out of time well before they ran out of endeavour - final score 31 28.

Every player with the gold and black can be proud of their efforts - from the oldest player, Dave Quick, who put in a full 80 minutes to Billy Butler who put in a huge shift for the team.

North Tawton man of the match was number eight Matt Hurrell who made some superb line breaks and gave New cross problems all day.