A bumper crowd witnessed a superb Teignmouth performance in the first local derby for some years,

The two sides had never before met in a league match, and to the uninitiated it would have been difficult to believe that the home side was the one which had spent the past 30 or so years in the lower reaches of the league pyramid.

As usual, the Teigns set out to dominate in the first 20 minutes; normally this produces at least one score for them, but on this occasion the Tics were a hard nut to crack, as they put up stiff resistance. However, a score seemed inevitable, and in the 23rd minute Dan Force, playing out of position on the wing, got on the end of a flowing move and touched down in the corner.

This setback seemed to wake the Tics up, and they finally put some pressure on the home defence. A well-worked move by their talented backs eventually resulted in centre James Wood diving over in the corner. Skipper Alex Jeffrey curled in a superb conversion from the touchline to give the visitors the lead.

The lead didn’t last long, however, as Teignmouth re-asserted their authority up front, and Torquay were forced to concede a penalty on their 22. Mike Saxton popped over the kick to give the home side an 8-7 at the interval.

However, for the second time in as many weeks the Teigns were reduced to 14 men just before the break, as skipper Colin Aldworth was guilty of a high tackle, but this week it seemed to spur them on to even greater efforts.

The 10 minute sin-bin was negotiated safely, and then the home side really started to turn the screw. When another Saxton penalty hit the post, the rebound came straight back to the Teigns, and Will Sowden burst through some fairly feeble attempts to tackle him and scored near the posts. Saxton had no trouble with this kick, and Torquay seemed to know that the game was up.

For the rest of the match Torquay really only got into Teignmouth’s half when they kicked off. The home pack ratcheted up the pressure, Torquay’s prop Jon Woodhead was sent to the sin bin, and it was just a matter of how many the home side would score.

Tries from centre Jake Bury and replacement hooker Andy Webber, both converted by Saxton, ensured that for the 26th match running Teignmouth gained a bonus point. This run, stretching back for over a year now, is an important statistic in explaining the success the team has had in this period, and the result was that Teignmouth are now third in the table.

Coach Simon Morrell was fulsome in his praise of what he called “most complete performance of the season so far”, and refused to single out any players for special mention. The fans, however, were singing the praises of second row Ronnie Kelly for his storming performance, and 49-year-old prop Tony Wolke who played the full 80 minutes and managed to leave the field at the end unaided!

This week sees the Teigns travel to Cornwall for another stern test against sixth-placed Truro.

Report By Paul Williams