Cornwall and Devon League

St Ives Hakes 8

Bude 27

BUDE celebrated St Piran’s Day with an emphatic bonus point victory over promotion rivals St Ives at a muddy, wind-blown and decidedly chilly Recreation Ground.

The inclement weather and the difficult underfoot conditions seemed tailor made for the heavy artillery of the bulky St Ives’ forwards but it was the light infantry of Bude that took an early command of the scoreboard with a try from a well-constructed rolling maul that was grounded by Joe Wilson. Dan Pearce kicked the conversion and also successfully landed a penalty kick to give Bude a ten point advantage.

However, as the conditions deteriorated the big guns of St Ives began a steady bombardment of the Bude defences. Bude were defiant in defence and time and time again repulsed the heavyweight charges of the St Ives’ forward brigade with scything and aggressive tackling spearheaded by the combative Duncan Tout, Steve Yates, Andy Yates and Ollie Mounce.

At the same time the smaller, lighter but tightly knit Bude front five well led by the gnarled Will Kingdon and Jason Bolt more than held their own in the set pieces so that at half time St Ives had only a penalty by Grant Thirlby to show for their efforts.

After the break St Ives continued their barrage of the Bude defensive line keeping Bude under heavy fire penned in their own 22 area. Bude manned the trenches resiliently but after a series of mauls close to the Bude line Grant Thirlby was able to wriggle his way under the Bude guards to notch a St Ives’ try reducing the deficit to two points.

The possibility of defeat loomed for a beleaguered Bude but the introduction of Adam Black and Freddie Saxton in place of the weary, battle-scarred veterans Dave Gregory and Chubby Cholwill added a much needed fire power to the Bude ranks; this led to a series of dominant scrums that drove back the opposition at a rate of knots that seemed to change the complexion of the battle.

Bude’s resurgence was rewarded when a penalty conceded by St Ives was kicked to the corner and from the resulting line-out a powerful surge by the re-invigorated Bude eight ended with a try for the influential Adam Black to give a 8-15 score line.

The lead was increased when Joe Wilson burst through the defence before off-loading to winger Ollie Denton who shrugged off his opposite number to race over in the corner.

The final nail in the St Ives’ coffin, and the bonus point try, was hammered in by two-try Denford who followed up a speculative kick by Liam Cook that was spilled by the St Ives’ winger to hack the ball forward, expertly gather and canter over the line to score under the posts. Dan Pearce converted to cement an 8-27 away victory that was a further encouragement to their promotion ambitions.

Bude — Tries: Black, Denford x2, Wilson. Pen: Pearce. Convs: Pearce x2

St Ives — Try: G Thirlby. Pen: G Thirlby