Tribute Cornwall and Devon: Wellington 20, Bideford 8.
THE season ended on an upbeat note as the Red and Blacks eventually ran out comfortable winners in their final league match.
The side was virtually unchanged from the one that failed to turn up the previous week at Crediton but the performance was altogether different.
advertisement
The visitors went ahead after they turned over Wellington ball and full-back Sam Old deftly kicked over the covering defence and won the chase to the ball as it rolled over the line.
Wellington returned to the attack and were level on the stroke of half-time as lock Anthony Gill, who was having an outstanding match, was driven over after a line-out on the Bideford five-metre line with fly-half Matt Parsons unable to convert.
However, he was able to put the home side ahead shortly after the interval when he slotted a penalty and a further Gill try followed following a series of driving mauls as the home side realised that the visiting pack was not up to strength and could be put under more pressure. The match was not entirely dead as Bideford closed the gap with a penalty of their own by centre Sam Griffin.
Wellington returned to their plan of action and rounded off the scoring after winning a Bideford line-out in the clubhouse corner from which they drove fully 20 metres forward and across for skipper Tim Jenkinson to ground the ball for the try. Replacement Jared Baker calmly split the uprights with his conversion for the team's final points of the season.
With Crediton losing to bottom side Teignmouth Wellington finished a creditable fifth from bottom after much concern in the middle part of the season.
Home wins were secured against all the top three sides and five out of the top seven with a double over 11th-placed Wessex and a home victory over Teignmouth with a draw against local rivals Honiton.
The shape of the division for next season looks tough with Penryn and Hayle dropping to Cornwall and Devon and Saltash and OPM's definitely coming up.
The winner of the play-off between Helston and OPO's will join them. If the former wins, there will be six Cornish sides in the division which will present a huge challenge next term.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
