Friday, April 19

Tribute Duchy Plate final at Redruth

Bude seconds 3

Falmouth seconds 29

BUDE seconds were eventually beaten 29-3 by their Falmouth counterparts in the Tribute Duchy Plate final at Redruth on Good Friday.

After the confusion with the coach, which saw the club enlist the help of Holsworthy Rural Community Transport to provide a couple of minibuses, Bude’s mix of experienced heads and youngsters got down there safely and put in a committed performance.

Bude played with the wind in the first-half and made good use of it with Brad Thomas clearing his lines well. Both sides were looking to make a strong start and it was Falmouth that came close to scoring first on five minutes but with some great defence from Bude, Falmouth were held up over the line. From the resulting scrum Bude won a penalty and cleared their lines.

It was now the North Cornwall side’s turn to attack, and from a quick ball from a lineout, centre Will Pharo made a great line break and from the next phase the player was held up over the line. Bude now really kept the pressure on and stayed in Falmouth’s half for a long time. On 20 minutes Falmouth were penalised for holding on and captain Ian Wickett decided to get some points on the board and went for goal but Pharo’s kick was just wide of the upright.

Falmouth’s second visit into the Bude 22 on the half hour and with several carries got within five yards of Bude’s try line, but a great turnover from David Gregory resulted in a penalty against Falmouth for not releasing giving Bude chance to clear the lines and get back into Falmouth’s half. Good pressure again from Bude resulted in a penalty on 34 minutes with a successful kick at goal from Pharo to make it 3-0.

From the restart Falmouth pushed hard, but strong Bude defence, this time from captain Ian Wickett, saw him make the tackle and got to his feet and forced Falmouth to hold on to the ball resulting in a penalty and again chance to clear their lines.

However the pressure was building and the coastal club grabbed a deserved try two minutes before the break, meaning Bude found themselves 5-3 down at the interval.

One substitution was made at half-time where injured Tristan Williams left for Dan Furse to come on.

The second half started with much of the same and five minutes in Falmouth were awarded a penalty which they kicked for an 8-3 lead.

Ten minutes in Bude made a few changes Joe Wickett went on for Kai Wilkinson-Hardy and Chris Ball on for Tony Price.

With fresh legs on Bude kept pressure on in the Falmouth 22 but just couldn’t score.

With tiring bodies, we had to make some forced changes with Ian Wickett suffering a bad hamstring injury and Will Hockridge a bad knock to the head, on came Liam Sharp and Phil Thomas.

Some strong running from Shaun Thomas and Pharo kept Bude on the hunt but on 62 minutes Falmouth’s number six broke the defensive line and ran in from 30 metres for a 15-3 advantage.

Chris Heard was brought on for Brad Horton but Bude were tiring and conceded two further tries before the end with plenty of Bude’s players going off injured.

Bude chairman Paul Cholwill said: “The boys can hold their heads high after this performance, the scoreline flatters Falmouth with them running away in the last ten minutes, where probably the slightly younger fitter team pulled away.

“The Bude boys left nothing in the tank and gave it everything and did the club proud. A big thank you to Ian Wickett and Larry Newton for all their hard work with the second team this season.”

Bude —

Mark Beckly, Tristan Williams, Will Pharo, Shaun Thomas, Arron Gilroy, Brad Thomas, Ian Wickett (capt); Tony Price, Martin George, Marc Mansfield, Kai Wilkinson-Hardy, Brad Horton, Will Hockridge, David Gregory, Alex Robinson

Replacements: Liam Sharpe, Chris Ball, Joe Wickett, Phil Thomas, Chris Heard, Dan Furse