St Ives Slip up at Crediton

Crediton 17 v 13 St Ives

St Ives recent run of form which has seen them win in their last four outings came to an end in Devon last weekend when they came up against a resilient Crediton side in their latest Western Counties West league match.

The first quarter of the match was scoreless. Crediton pushed St Ives back into their half on numerous occasions, but the first chance of points did fall to St Ives from a penalty kick in the 11th minute. What looked like a routine kick between the posts was missed, however, to keep the scores level.

In the 21st minute as St Ives pushed forward into the Crediton 22, a wayward pass was intercepted to gift the home side the opening try of the match. With the conversion added St Ives found they were trailing by 7 points to nil.

As the Hakes pushed forward looking for their first try of the afternoon they began to put the Crediton defence under pressure. The remainder of the first half though was all about points from the boot. The first opportunity fell to St Ives when Crediton were penalised for a high tackle in the 24th minute. Once again the kick sailed wide past the posts and the chance was missed. St Ives suffered a setback only a minute later when full back, Lewis Thomas, was forced to leave the field with an injury.

The next penalty chance was again awarded to St Ives when the home side were caught offside in their own 22. This time Jordan Gott slotted the ball between the posts to score the Hakes first points of the afternoon to make the score Crediton 7, St Ives 3 with 35 minutes played. Only 2 minutes later the St Ives score was doubled when Crediton were found offside again and Gott punished them with another 3 points from his boot; (7-6).

The last action of the first half, however, was in favour of Crediton when they kicked a penalty of their own to leave St Ives trailing by 10 points to 6 at the break.

With St Ives looking to build up some pressure on the home side after the restart they suffered another setback, in the 41st minute, when they lost number 8 Archie Mackay to an injury, forcing Paul Thirlby to shuffle his pack once again.

St Ives were being made to defend their line for long periods and, adding into the mix misplaced clearance kicks, it was almost inevitable that the home side were to grab the next points. In the 49th minute Crediton scored a converted try to put them 11 points clear.

It was beginning to look difficult to see where St Ives were going to get the points they needed to put them back in the game. Each time they tried to mount an attack they were thwarted by resilient home defence, or their own miss handling of the ball.

As the game wore on, the conditions became darker and darker due to the fading light. The Hakes were handed an opportunity when a Crediton player was shown a yellow card for repeated infringements at the ruck in the 74th minute. The remainder of the match saw St Ives have their best spell of the match. Two minutes later following a series of sustained attacks as the home side struggled with being a man down, Captain Ben Taylor forced his way over the line to score the Hakes first try of the match in the 76th minute, Gott added the conversion to set up a thrilling finale to the match with the score Crediton 17, St Ives 13.

Despite constant pressure by the St Ives players in the last 5 minutes of play it was too little too late for The Hakes and the referee brought the game to a close with no further change to the score line. A loss, but another losing bonus point, which will probably seen as three dropped. Fortunatley, Wadebridge also lost so the gap to fifth is now only one point.

This defeat leaves St Ives still in 6th place in the league, but they now trail leaders Devonport Services by 13 points. With Devonport travelling to St Ives for the last fixture of 2016, it will be an exciting end to the year. Kick off at Alexandra Road is scheduled for 2:30pm this coming Saturday, any home support would be very welcome.

St Ives : Ben Jenkins, Ben Taylor (Captain), Tom Chandler, Jamie Prisk, Harry Parton, Martyn Lawrance, Sean Stevens, Archie Mackay, Liam Jolly, Jordan Gott, Joe Rouncefield, Steve Kenward, Tom Nicholas, Peter Mabbott, Lewis Thomas.

Replacements: Jacob Ninnes, Joel Stevens, Jake Clemson (All Used).