BUDE’S hopes of National Cup glory remain very much alive and well following their hard-fought victory over local rivals Bideford at Bencoolen Meadow last Saturday.

After two walkovers in the previous rounds and two previous attempts to play this match postponed due the waterlogged state of both their pitches, the game finally went ahead, helped by a Saturday morning work party.

Playing away from the clubhouse end of the ground in the opening half, Bude quickly made inroads into the visitors' territory and on 9 minutes following a powerful drive from the hosts' pack, the ball was quickly recycled by scrum-half Ollie Rowland and fed along the three-quarter line to Edy Hilliam-Cooke, playing in the unaccustomed role of locking the back row in the absence of regular No.8 Fred Saxton, took the scoring pass and barrelled over to set the scoreboard ticking.

Five minutes later Bude doubled their lead when a penalty award was kicked to touch and from the resulting line-out hooker Harvey Cholwill dotted down at the back of his pack's powerful driven maul. The conversion attempt from Thomas from wide out on the left again failed to find its target, but Bude led 10-0.

As the half wore on Biddy began to come more into the game, but their decidedly suspect discipline let them down as the penalty count began to mount against them. A 25th minute penalty award to Bude enabled Thomas to slot the simplest of kicks to take his side's lead to 13-0.

Two yellow cards dished out to former Bude players, Fraser Priest and Dec Smale, for indiscipline did little to help Bideford's cause, but they got through to half-time unscathed.

Following the turn around and now back up to a full complement, Biddy had their best spell of the match, ending on the hour with replacement three-quarter Sam Picillo going out over out wide on the right, shortly after Smale had been held up over the line.

However, Biddy were unable to turn that score into a momentum swing and with seven minutes remaining the Seasiders made the game safe as a well-worked “catch and drive” move saw hooker Cholwill dot down at the base of the maul for his second try. Thomas converted superbly from the touchline and Bude home and hosed.

The Seasiders' reward for this well earned victory is a auarter-final tie away to St Mary's Old Boys from North Bristol in early May, with the victors facing the winners of East Grinstead (East Sussex) or Trojans (Hampshire) in the semi-final a week later.

Despite being two games behind in their league programme, Bude have no game this Saturday due to Helston and Perranporth having rearranged league and cup matches, as do Bideford who Bude would have visited in the second leg of the Harpers Feeds Cup.

The seconds and Colts also have the weekend off, while the ladies welcome Exeter Saracens on Sunday.

BUDE: Will Pharo; Cobi Yelland, Ben Tharme, Olly Denford, Oscar Davey; Brad Thomas, Ollie Rowland; Hayden Chater, Harvey Cholwill, Anthony Kennett; Will Hockridge (capt), Alex Robinson; Finley Fry, Matt Maniglia, Edy Cooke. Replacements: Charlie Firman, Olly Mounce, Josh Rowland.

Tries: Hilliam-Cooke, Cholwill (2); Convs: Thomas; Pens: N/A.

Seasiders’ man-of-the-match: Edy Hilliam-Cooke.