Tribute Devon Two

Old Technicians 17,

It was a case of cometh the hour, cometh the men for Dartmouth last weekend.

The Riversiders’ league campaign got off to an emphatic bonus-point win over an Old Techs side who were probably expecting a result on their own patch, especially after coming so close in the Dave Butt Memo­rial trophy final a few weeks ago.

With the local rags already predicting that this year’s title race was between the Plymouth sides of Old Techs and OPMs, the Darts have made a statement of intent, having now beaten both of the fancied sides.

The team travelled to the game with an air of quiet reflection and confidence, as they probably had their best squad available with the right players in the right places, and sure that they could do a job.

Resplendent in new apparel, sponsored by Chris and Liz at the Crab and Bucket, the Darts looked the business as they went through the pre-match routine.

Old Techs won the toss and elected to play the first half with the sun at their backs and hence in the eyes of the Riversiders, which made the action of catching the high ball something of a lottery for the Dartmouth team.

This point was rammed home when the first ball of the game was knocked on for an Old Techs scrum.

However, after a Darts turnover they had a period of sustained pressure that was rewarded after 10 minutes with a penalty, converted with some elan by Jack Clark.

Dartmouth were then forced to make one of three changes in the first half, when Ricky Seymour replaced the injured Alex Parrot.

There were no changes to the Darts style, though, as after another Old Techs misdemeanour, the Darts kicked for touch, won the line-out through Adam Sharam, and went over through Nick Shillabeer from the ensuing drive.

Clark added the extra points with another fine kick.

There followed two more changes to personnel, with Richard Lobb picking up a dead leg, replaced by Dave Champion, who was unlucky not to have started the game, and an injured Jack Clark making way for Aarron Hunt.

All these changes bear testament to the uncompromising stance of the Dart­mouth team.

On the 40-minute mark, Old Techs had their first shot at points but the penalty went wide, leaving a half-time score of 10-0 to Dartmouth, who were in complete control.

The second half got off to a flyer, with both teams in scoring mood.

The Darts bagged a try through winger Ben Peters, with Dave Champion just missing the conversion, but Old Techs replied quickly with a try from a penalty on the Darts five-metre line to make the score 15-5 to Dart­mouth.

In the process of scoring Peters had picked up an injury and was replaced by a now-recovered Jack Clark.

Dartmouth went further ahead after 47 minutes when Shillabeer got his second try of the match but Clark, kicking into the wind, was unable to keep up his previously imperious kicking and put the conversion wide.

Player-coach Tom Clark now used another of the Dartmouth changes, bringing on Jack Stirk for himself, no doubt to see from the sidelines how the team were performing and if anything needed tweaking.

He made the switch only to see Old Techs score again through a converted penalty try, making the score 20-12 to Dartmouth.

With the game opening up now, Darts scored next through Karl Caunter, though with a strong wind against Champion he was unable to convert.

With a 25 points to 12 lead Dartmouth were now in the ascendency.

Dartmouth used up the last of their replacements, with Dec Ham­mond replacing Glen Allison in the front row, with perhaps the pace of the game starting to tell as Dartmouth conceded a further try with eight minutes left on the clock.

Any hopes of a Techs resurgence were dashed when they conceded a penalty which Champion duly slotted over to give Dartmouth a 28-17 win.

Dartmouth’s man-of-the-match award went to Adam Sharam, with the Tsangs October man of the month going to Dave Champion.

Dartmouth are at home to St Columba and Torpoint on Satur­day in round two of the Devon Two league, with kick-off at 2.30pm.