Lankelly-Fowey 22

Camelford 7

WITH most rugby and football fixtures falling foul to the weather it is a great credit to Lankelly-Fowey and Camelford that they played out this ‘dead rubber’ of a cup game.

Camelford travelled to Lankelly minus a number of key players, including both their skipper and vice captain.

The continuous miserable drizzle and rain from the past four months made the Lankelly pitch very heavy and, in places, the mud was difficult to run through. Both sides set about playing rugby, but it soon became difficult for the spectators to make out who was who.

The home side broke the dead lock on 17 minutes. The Ford were caught napping when the hosts took a swift penalty and passed wide to score in the corner. The conversion was missed to give Lankelly-Fowey a five point lead.

The game then entered stalemate with both sides finding it difficult to achieve any meaningful possession. Eventually the dead lock was unpicked as Camelford had a sweeping move down field due to a couple of excellent line breaks.

They established a ruck on the home side’s 22 and spun a good ball out to Ian ‘Snake Hips’ Worsnip who beat two defenders to dot down between the posts. Rich Jasper added the extras to give the Ford a 7-5 lead.

Lankelly-Fowey pushed back into enemy territory and gained a scrum five metres out, in the muddy corner at the bottom of their notorious hill. Camelford could not with hold the onslaught and Lankelly’s number eight went over for another unconverted try.

With Lankelly leading 10-7 at the break the game was very much in the balance, but a missed kicked kick off by Camelford went straight to the home side’s fly-half who capitalised on the gift. He made plenty of ground before Lankelly got the ball wide, won a ruck and the fly-half finished off what he had started with a well taken, and this time converted try.

The rest of the game was a bit of a shambles as both sides struggled to master a muddy and very slippery ball. Mistake after mistake gave possession away and each side cancelled each other out. At the death Lankelly-Fowey span the ball wide again and scored another try to finish the game as 22-7 victors.

It is a great credit to both sides that they tried to perform in such difficult conditions, especially at the end of the game when the teams’ kits were indiscernible.

Credit must also go to referee Dave Saunter, who managed this affair extremely well allowing a mess to be a game of rugby.