Honiton RFC top of Devon 1 League

Honiton RFC 1st XV climbed to the summit of the Devon 1 North and East league on Saturday afternoon with a 5-0 win at North Tawton, writes Nick Guilbert.

Honiton have rarely played as badly as they did on Saturday, but with Totnes unable to play due to the weather, Webber took his chance to propel his team to victory.

In a dour game Honiton made countless unforced errors as they failed time and again to put the opposition to bed. The narrow field allowed the home side to defend with relative ease as Honiton failed to penetrate the line with any consistency.

Five minutes before the break the ball was spun out to Webber on the left. Rather than going for the outside he elected to cut inside, against the grain. He side stepped a couple of tacklers and dived to get the ball down under the posts for an excellent individual score. Nex's kick was charged down.

Honiton held out for the rest of the half, and essentially the rest of the game, as they failed to capitalise on their dominance. There is certainly a lot of work to do as they prepare to host old rivals South Molton on Saturday at Allhallows.

Honiton RFC 2nd XV ended their four week wet weather lay off, with a 35-5 home defeat against high flying Kingsbridge in the merit table, writes Jerry Rice.

The "Kings" top the merit table by some way as they are the only side to boast a 100 per cent record and going into the game without much match practice made the task that much harder.

The first half was a rather one-sided affair and, despite some valiant defence, the visitors were to all intents and purposes "home and dry" with a comfortable 30-0 lead.

Honiton rallied in the second half and played their best rugby to share the honours with a try apiece. Luke Kenny, home from Uni, got Honiton's touch down and he looked very sharp throughout. Spiller was mentioned in dispatches for his hard work and there was also a welcome return to the ranks for Louis Lane who has just recovered from a broken hand.

l Honiton Under-16s had their first outing of the season and this was a big step for the lads who as a group, disbanded half way through last year through lack of numbers. They have built up from a mere six boys in September to a squad of 22 and every one seemed keen to take part in this first game.

On Sunday, they travelled up to Ivel Barbarians a well established club that play out of Yeovil.

However, what Honiton lacked in proper teamwork they made up for in effort and all signs were encouraging.

The final score was a 22-5 defeat with Honiton's score coming for a crash move from Jake Vinnicombe. All the boys played well, in particular the back row and the midfield duo, who made some bone crunching tackles.

l Honiton Colts' winning streak came to an end, defeated 14-8 by a strong and well-drilled Exmouth, writes Jason Fahy.

The Lacemen fielded a competitive squad and one capable of taking all three points.

Honiton bemoaned inconsistent refereeing around the fringes as one of the key reasons for defeat but, in reality, they would have sealed victory if it were not for their own poor decision making at crucial moments of the match.

One such poor decision saw a 22 drop out from the Lacemen go blind side much to the delight of the Exmouth back-line who returned the gift of possession with a converted try to lead 7-0.

Honiton clawed their way back but could not turn territorial advantage into points and twice wasted possession with the try line begging.

Stern words at half-time saw Honiton move up a gear, but the Lacemen fell short of top form. Scrum half Meadows, back from a three week lay-off, closed the gap 10 minutes into the second half with one of the few penalties afforded the visitors.

The turning point of the game, steeped in controversy, saw Exmouth respond with seven points, after resolute defence from Honiton resulted in turnover ball five metres from their line. The attempted kick to touch was charged down and grounded for a score by two seemingly off-side defenders.

The Lacemen rallied and fly-half Gould finished off a fine spell of play for an unconverted try to end the game 14-8.

U16 Matt Bailey was singled out as Man of the Match, just edging out the influential Rice.