CAMELFORD took on relegated Bodmin for the first time at their Lane End ground for their game of the Cornwall League season.

Given that Bodmin have just been relegated from the Devon and Cornwall League, this was always going to be a hard challenge for the ‘Ford’, and so it proved, as the visitors ran in a number of tries.

Camelford’s new faces and returning players were determined to make life difficult, but their inability to clear under pressure proved crucial.

It took Bodmin over ten minutes to register their first points and this was against the run of play after the home side started brightly in both attack and defence.

As the visitors piled on the pressure, Camelford were unable to clear to touch after they had won a counter ruck in their 22.

The attempted kick was fielded easily by Bodmin who ran with the ball before going over in the corner. The conversion by Ash Carter was excellent, giving Bodmin a 7-0 lead.

Camelford made a similar mistake a few moments later as the kick-off was a touch too deep. It was fielded by Lee Taylor for Bodmin who neatly fed inside and the break gave the speedy Bodmin side some more space. Desperate covering defence by the home team was to no avail as Bodmin out stripped them with good handling and pace. The try was scored out wide again and the conversion missed. With Bodmin now 12 points in the ascendancy, Camelford reacted and worked hard to pin the visitors in their own half. Bodmin were forced into some hard graft and created a good attacking ruck just in the home 22.

The retreating Matt Dyson stuck a foot in the way to prevent quick ball and was yellow-carded, therefore reducing them to 14 men for ten minutes.

Bodmin scored their third try soon after although Camelford continued to fight, led by the big tackling of Ian Burnard and Luke Plummer.

Camelford continued to play well but couldn’t penetrate the visitors defence and found themselves 45-0 down by the break as they scored a further four tries, three of which were converted.

At the break, Camelford replaced debutant Lee Robinson with Dan Stuckey out on the wing, moved Luke Palmer to scrum-half and Mike Wilshire back to his favoured centre role. It took Bodmin 11 minutes to get the scoreboard working again as Camelford put real pressure on them and defended really well.

Camelford finally scored as the ball was spun on the blind to Wilshire. He made an excellent break pulling in Bodmin defenders and fed neatly to Stuckey who finished really well in the corner to make it 52-5.

Bodmin added two further tries before the home side registered their second try of the afternoon with the last action of the game.

Luke Plummer took a swift tap and made a tremendous break. He offloaded to the supporting Callum Fritchley who danced his way over from 35 metres leaving the visiting defence in his wake. Bodmin trailing in his wake.