Hakes Defeated, but get Bonus Point
Torquay 22 v 15 St Ives
The Hakes slipped to their fourth successive defeat at the hands of Devon side Torquay last Saturday. Despite being defeated they notched up their third bonus point of the season.
There were four changes from the side that narrowly lost against visiting Exeter University last week. A new second row of Ben Jenkins and Jamie Hoskin replaced unavailable Jamie Prisk and Tom Chandler. In the backs, new signing Reece Gilbert, former Camborne Colt, took up duty on the wing in place of Josh Palmer. Lewis Thomas returned at full back.
The game began well for the Hakes. Captain, Ben Taylor scored an unconverted try in the 13th minute.
The Devon side levelled the score on the half hour mark through Lewis Harben. The St Ives players responded well and once again put the home defence under pressure. A second try came, this time from new signing and centre three quarter, Steve Kenward. The successful conversion put the Hakes back in front by 12 points to 5. However, the home side subsequently upped their game and applied pressure on the St Ives defence for the remainder of the first half. This was too much for the visitors; the referee was forced to award a penalty try on the stroke of half time. The conversion was added by James Wood to make the score at half time 12 points each.
Eight minutes into the second half Torquay scored again through another penalty kicked by Wood when the St Ives players were penalised for crossing.
Despite the best efforts of the St Ives side they were condemned to their fourth successive defeat when James Wood crossed for the try that sealed victory for the Devon side on 77 minutes. Wood kicked the conversion himself to make the score Torquay 22, St Ives 12.
In the dying moments of the match fly half Jordan Gott gave the Hakes late hope when he kicked a drop goal to pull the Hakes back to within a score of Torquay. It wasn't to be for St Ives, however, and the referee brought the game to a close a few minutes later with the final score Torquay 22, St Ives 15.
This latest loss will have a number of supporters thinking that St Ives will be in a relegation battle once again, giving a feeling of, ‘we’ve been here before’. However, all stakeholders should take heart. On their last visit to Torquay the result was a 66:0 defeat. That was in season 2014-15, when we were relegated and Torquay finished only two places above us. Last season they finished fifth. We have closed the gap considerably. At this stage of the season, during that last Western Counties West campaign, we had no points at all and were rooted to the foot of the table with a point’s difference of -171!
The Hakes will be back in action this coming Saturday when they welcome Devon side Sidmouth to Alexandra Road in their latest Western Counties West league game. KO is scheduled for 3:00pm at St Ives. This is a big game even at this early stage of the season. Make sure you are there to see it.
St Ives: James Bishop, Ben Taylor (Captain), Jon Wright, Ben Jenkins, Jamie Hoskin, Martyn Lawrance, Sean Stevens, Harry Parton, Liam Jolly, Jordan Gott, Peter Mabbott, Steve Kenward, Tom Nicholas, Reece Gilbert, Lewis Thomas.
Replacements: Peter Skeggs, Grant Thirby, Joel Stevens
