3rds/Legends- Romp to victory to delight sizable home crowd

Picture attached shows team manager Richie Camies gratefully accepting the match ball from David "jock " Price of Jocks barbers Okehampton who kindly provided sponsorship of said ball on Saturday.

The Winning Way…….
The fourth fixture for the 3rd team / Legend’s / vets / saw them take on Cullompton 3rds in front of a large crowd on what started out as a very cold day. The pitch passed the mid-morning inspection and the word was sent out to pack plenty of deep heat and port!!!!!!
Cully had made the journey down with just the bare 15 players selected to play down the slope. The first 10 minutes saw Oke playing plenty of rugby in the Cully half but were unable to convert the pressure into any points. The breakthrough came 5 minutes later when Ed Jones pounced on a loose ball from the Cully line-out and “sprinted” the 5 yards to dive over the line. Will Searle kick from out near the touch line to take the score to 7-0.
Oke gave away a few penalties which allowed Cully to progress down into the Oke half and started to press the Oke defence. Oke then turned over the ball and started a counter attack from their own 22. The ball went through several pairs of hand as Oke attacked down the right hand side of the pitch before it was switched back in field. Then to the amazement of the crowd, and players, the referee stopped play for what he deemed was a forward pass when Oke were just 5 yards away from the line and looked certain to score what would have been a real contender for try of the season.
Oke continued to press from this point and were award a free kick near the right hand touch line. With Oke being dominant in the scrum they elected to take the scrum. Alfie picked up the ball from the base of the scrum and fed Sagey who dived over in the right hand corner. Will missed the resulting kick. 12-0
Cully managed to relieve some of the pressure and got back into Oke’s half and started to attack down the left flank. However Beano read the move and intercepted the ball. The crowd could see the horror in his face when he realised he had 50 yards to run to the line. He rounded the full back and pushed ever closer to the line however the Cully players were starting to make ground on him. A couple of side steps saw Beano evade the covering defence but then, just yards away from the line it appeared that he tried to sidestep a player that wasn’t there and fell spilling the ball forwards……however some believe there was a sniper in the ground!

Then just before half time Oke scored their 3rd try of the game with Perrot going over the line from 10 yards out after another big scrum from Oke. Will missed the kick leaving the score 17-0 at half time.

Half time saw Oke make a lot of changes and gave the opportunity for a couple of the youngsters to get some game time and also bring down the average age….for a short time anyway! During half time the referee did pass comment that he was surprised that the magic sponge is no longer used and has been replace by bottles of Port! Going downhill Oke went straight on the attack and it wasn’t long before a good move down the left saw Matt Madge run in behind Cully’s defence to score. The kick was missed. 22-0.
Oke continued to attack and it wasn’t long before they scored again. Evan made a good break down the middle and off loaded to Youngers who charged through under the post. Evan made the kick. 29-0.

Oke looked to score again however the ball was knocked on as Will Searle broke through the Cully defence. Oke were to score again shortly after when fine work from the forwards turn the ball over and it was fed out to Matt who raced in for his 2nd try of the game. Evan missed the kick. 34-0.Then the moment came when Oke brought on Dave “Skippy” Harwood who became Oke’s oldest player for the 3rd team. Dave was soon rolling back the years in his vintage rugby shirt with some great charges and slick off loads much to the delight of the crowd.

Oke scored again when Youngers scored his second try of the game after a good break from Brad Curtis. The kick was again missed. 39-0.Brad then got on the score sheet himself after he broke through the Cully defence and went in under the post. The kick was good. 46-0
The last try of the game came after another turnover from the scrum saw Oke spread the ball wide. The ball went out to the left where Paddy “the man in tights” Blatchford raced the 30 yards to the line just beating the Cully defence. The full time whistle went with the final score of 51-0.

It was a great team performance from Okehampton with everyone contributing but the Cullompton team deserves a lot of credit for playing the whole 80 minutes with just the 15 players. They never stopped battling and despite the score it was a good contest.
The support from the crowd was once again superb and was much appreciated.