Clevedon 3 - 44 Exmouth

Clevedon’s fate was probably decided in the player’s huddle immediately after last week’s disappointing Cup final, as the Exmouth side that travelled to Somerset was determined to return home as South West 2 Champions. They did it in fine style with the forwards creating the platform which allowed the backs to show their talents to the full. As a former South West 1 outfit nobody takes Clevedon for granted on their own ground and when the sides last met at the Imperial Ground, albeit in poor weather, the Cockles could only ground out a 15pts-3 win.

Saturday was very different with the sun shining and with a strong breeze favouring the Cockles in the second half the new Champions never looked in trouble and by half time the writing was on the wall. There were some good individual performances with Richard Cadywould living up to his growing reputation as a No 10 and skipper Mark Wathes showing how dangerous he can be when attacking from deep. As always Gary Hooper orchestrated things and Brother Adam added the edge in the front row. The scrums and line outs were a lot tidier than recent weeks; James Finnegan was getting his hands on the ball, No 8 Chris Strong was tidying things up nicely at the back of the scrum, Marty Kerslake tackled anything that moved and the pack as a whole were in charge throughout.

The first Cockles score came after five minutes when receiving the ball from a lineout on his own 22 the sheer speed of Gary Hooper took him to Clevedon’s 22 and Paul Morgan was in support and touched down wide out to score an unconverted try. The wind spoilt Cadywould’s conversion attempt but minutes later with the wind at their backs Clevedon closed the gap with a penalty when Exmouth went offside following a lineout close to their line. The Cockles were soon back in the Clevedon 22 and when Richard Cadywould received the ball in open play he jinked his way thorough the Clevedon defence and scored under the posts, converting his own try.

By the end of the first quarter Exmouth went further ahead when another break by Cadywould took play to the Clevedon 5 metre line. Clevedon kicked the ball out and from the lineout a text book catch and drive was finished off by Ben Boswell. Clevedon responded with an assault on the Exmouth line but a turnover scrum by the Exmouth eight on their own line followed by a penalty returned play to the Clevedon half. Ollie Turton went close but was bundled into touch and Exmouth arrived at half time fully in control.

Following the restart a Clevedon attack was snuffed out by the Exmouth defence and Richard Cadywould took a quick drop out. He regained the ball, carried it forward twenty metres, popped the ball to Mark Wathes who ran it to the Clevedon 22 and Ollie Turton was in support and scored wide out. With only three minutes of the half played and with the score at 22pts-3 Exmouth could now step on the gas. A break by Seb Phelps took the Cockles back into the Clevedon half, Ed Baxter was putting in some punishing work and a series of drives provided Mark Wathes with the ball in space and he scored the first of his two tries. Richard Cadywould added the points and two minutes later the No 10 added a penalty to his personal tally following a turnover scrum by Exmouth which produced the penalty shot.

With seventy minutes played Mark Wathes claimed his second try when he finished off a run by Jack Downie from halfway and in the closing moments Richard Cadywould capped a fine personal performance by scoring and converting his own try.