Torrington triumph in an epic North Devon derby with Barnstaple

There are certain games of rugby over the course of a long season that live long in the memory, and the October 19 clash between Barnstaple Buccaneers and Torrington deserves a place in the history books.

Rarely do you see an encounter with 94 points scored, and even more rare is to have a losing team notch 46 points, but the Buccaneers of Barum ultimately fell two short of their determined visitors.

The Torrington try scorers were Dan MacDonald, Ben Sawyer (2), Marley Carrs, James Reeves, Ben Bourn and Nick Evans, who also slotted four conversions. Torrington return to action with a trip to Ilfracombe on November 8 and a special day for the host club, as they welcome all former players in a celebration of past legends.

Back to Barum, and it was a weekend of narrow losses for the club, as Barnstaple Athletic went down 28-31 at home to Redruth 2nds, and it was a rare off day for the Chiefs in National League 2 West, losing 28-10 at Luctonians. The Chiefs return to Pottington Road for the visit of Chester on Saturday.

South Molton put up a stoic display at a powerful Topsham outfit but were unable to hold back the home tide, going down 64-28, despite tries from Tommy Heard, Reece Fury, Harry Pickard and Jack Routley.

It was a hat-trick of wins for Bideford RFC, as the Chiefs recovered from last week’s disappointment against league leaders Topsham with an entertaining 43–26 victory away at Crediton.

Bideford took the lead through Dec Smale but the hosts hit back to lead 7-5 after 20 minutes. Dean Folland and Charlie Richards were on the score sheet and a Mitch Harris conversion gave the Chiefs a 17-14 advantage at the break.

In the second half, Bideford controlled the game with the hosts struggling against a quick back line, Reece Pearn scoring two classy tries with further tries from Dave Evans and Nick Bone.  The hosts kept going until the end and scored a fourth try to gain a losing bonus point.

“We started very well but we let slip a bit with silly mistakes and penalties, and the hosts got their tails up and were a handful,” said Bideford boss Bradley Goaman.

“We needed a reaction from last week, we have a proud group of players here and you need to win tricky away games and I thought second half we were fantastic. There were a lot of positives, Charlie Stevenson was a real handful on the wing today bute did lose our fly half Fred Palmer, who will be out for a while.”

Bideford Quins continued their excellent start to the season with 50-7 victory over Crediton, and the Colts trounced Tavistock 34-0.