Impressive Hakes Defeat Tiverton

St Ives 40 v 17 Tiverton

Last Saturday at Alexandra Road St Ives earned their second victory of the season in impressive style with a win over Devon side Tiverton in their latest Western Counties West fixture.

Before kick-off a minutes silence was immaculately observed as a mark of respect for ex St Ives player, John Tanner, and club stalwart, Chris Bell, who both sadly passed away last week.

Head coach, Paul Thirlby, named a side virtually unchanged from the previous weekend’s victory over St Austell. Jamie Prisk returned to the second row, with Harry Parton moving to No.8 and Archie Mackay to openside flanker. Jordan Gott moved back to fly half with Tom Nicholas moving back into the centre giving another chance to young Peter Skeggs on the wing. So the changes were positional rather than personel.

St Ives began the game solidly and were rewarded after just 3 minutes of play when Jamie Prisk crashed over for an early try, the conversion was added by Jordan Gott to give the Hakes a 7 points to nil lead.

St Ives kept up the pressure on the visitors and began to force them into errors. In the 8th minute a poor Tiverton penalty that failed to make touch was superbly taken by Liam Jolly on the touchline. It was recycled quickly and worked through the hands to the other side of the field, where Peter Skeggs collected the ball and finished off an excellent passage of play with his first senior try, again Gott added the conversion to put St Ives 14 - 0 ahead.

With St Ives keeping Tiverton pinned in their own half for long periods it was only a matter of time before they scored again. Once more it was consistent St Ives pressure that forced an error from the visitors. This time a poor clearance allowed second row Prisk to dance through the Tiverton defence to score his second try of the afternoon in the 25th minute. Again Gott slotted the conversion to put the Hakes in control at 21 points to nil.

With their tails up the St Ives players looked imperious and their fine first half performance was capped with a fourth try which secured a bonus point in the 35th minute when a penalty awarded on the Tiverton 5 metre line was quickly taken by scrum half Liam Jolly who caught the visitors defence napping and crossed for the try. Fly half, Jordan Gott, rounded off an excellent half with the conversion to put St Ives ahead by 28 points to nil.

The referee brought the first half to a close a few minutes later with no further score.

The second half began with Tiverton on the attack seemingly determined to get something from the game after being on the receiving end of a highly impressive first half performance from St Ives. Two poor exit kicks put the home side under unnecessary pressure. In the 44th minute they grabbed a try of their own when Harvey Scott scored their first points of the match, Callum Stone added the conversion to give the visitors some hope at 28-7.

A Tiverton resurgence was not to be however, in the 47th minute one of their players saw yellow for a late tackle on a St Ives player reducing them to 14 men. This was almost instantly punished by St Ives when Jordan Gott scored a fine individual try which he converted himself to extend the St Ives lead to 35 points to 7.

Frustration continued to show amongst the Tiverton players and they were reduced to 13 players when another of their players was shown yellow in the 50th minute. However, the referee had reversed his decision through ill-discipline and Tiverton kicked to touch close to the St Ives line. This time though it was the Devon side that scored almost straight away when they formed a maul on the St Ives 5 metre line that all 13 of their players forced over the St Ives try line, allowing Richard Tucker to score the try. The conversion was missed to make the score St Ives 35, Tiverton 12.

The St Ives players were in no mood to allow Tiverton to get back into the match and soon got back to scoring more points of their own. Once again young winger Peter Skeggs received the ball in a wide position on the right and showed good pace to finish off the move and score his second try of the afternoon in the 64th minute. This time the conversion was missed but with the score 40 points to 12 in St Ives favour the result was no longer in doubt.

The Hakes were reduced to 14 men themselves when replacement Jon Wright was shown yellow in the 69th minute. Tiverton punished the St Ives defence almost straight away with another try in the 70th minute when Harvey Scott crossed for his second of the match. The conversion was missed to set the final score at St Ives 40, Tiverton 17.

This was the Hakes best performance of the season to date and sees them climb to 10th position in the league. This coming Saturday they travel to second from bottom Burnham on Sea. Kick off in Somerset is scheduled for 2:30pm; any travelling support would be very welcome.

St Ives : James Bishop, Ben Taylor (Captain), Ben Jenkins, Jamie Prisk, Jamie Hoskin, Martyn Lawrance, Archie Mackay, Harry Parton, Liam Jolly, Jordan Gott, Peter Skeggs, Steve Kenward, Tom Nicholas, Pete Mabbott, Lewis Thomas.

Replacements: Jonathan Wright, Tom Chandler, Joe Rouncefield (All Used)