Tribute Devon One

Dartmouth RFC 15,

Topsham RFC 17 

This battle of the basement encounter could have so easily gone the other way for luckless Dartmouth.

Dartmouth had the lion's share of the possession, but in this game it's points that count and although Dartmouth scored three tries to Topsham's two, they ended up on the losing side.

Top's number eight Rupert Stanning intercepted the ball in Dartmouth's twenty-two with fifteen minutes gone and ran the length of the pitch.

With support from either side of him, Dartmouth's full-back Luke Chase stood no chance as Stanning laid the ball out to Ian Jones, who touched down for the first try of the day. Just when Darts thought things couldn't get any worse, Jack Knowles nailed the conversion.

Ten minutes later, Dartmouth were awarded a penalty, Richard Lobb taking over kicking duties while Aaron Hunt recovers from an injury sustained at the start of the season.

The penalty just fell short of Topsham's posts.

In reply, Topsham's Jack Knowles' up-and-under was fumbled by the Darts' defence, Russ Sayer latching on to the ball, hacking forwards and chasing it all the way to the line. Knowles again converted, and Topsham went in at half time 14 – 0 up.

Skipper Reg Varney, not very happy with Dartmouth's first-half performance, gave his squad a firm talking to and Dartmouth came out of the blocks much the quicker.

With a fair wind behind them and some serious tackling from John Dingle, playing at twelve for the second time this season, Karl Caunter and Jake Bridgwood, Dartmouth hit the ground running.

Fifteen minutes intothe second half, a lovely weighted pass from Luke Chase to Scott Silsbury saw Silsbury sprint down the wing to score in the right-hand corner.

Topsham hit back when they were awarded a penalty inside Dartmouth's twenty-two, right in front of the posts.

Topsham's Jack Knowles slotted this one over to take the score to 5–17 with just twenty minutes of the second half gone.

It wasn't long before Jake Bridgwood, once again putting in another good performance, put Richard Lobb through with a brilliant worked backs' move, Lobb going over in the left-hand corner.

This brought Dartmouth to within a score at 10-17, and meant everything was still to play for.

Five minutes later, Dartmouth won a lineout fifteen metres out. Getting their rolling maul going, Reg Varney touched down to bring his average to a try a game now.

Richard Lobb just shaved the paintwork off the left-hand post to take the score to 15 – 17 and that's the way it stayed until the final whistle. Try as they might Dartmouth just couldn't get the elusive win. 

Dartmouth travel to Torrington this week and will hope to convert all the chances into points.

The Riversiders will have to string a couple of wins together very soon if they are to stay in this league and club spokesman Jeff Hunt is sure it won't be long before they get their winning ways back.

He believes all the team needs is a bit of good fortune and they can start the new year in winning ways.

After all, if they can beat teams like New Cross home and away, there's no reason why they can't get back into this league and start to climb back higher up the table.

The club wishes tto thank Mickey Wadeson for sponsoring this match.

Mickey, who has a taxi firm in Dartmouth, has been a keen sponsor of DRFC and the club is very grateful for his financial support over the years.