Penryn 42 Tavistock 24

Penryn and Tavistock defied the conditions to put on quite the spectacle for those who attended on Saturday, although it was Penryn who took maximum points with eight tries in two devastating spells at the beginning of each half.

A minute’s silence was held before the game in memory of Borough groundsman Dave Sanders, who sadly passed away earlier in the week, and Penryn produced a result to do the occasion justice.

Penryn welcomed back some familiar faces in the form of ex-Penryn captain Sam Harrison, who had a fine game deputising at hooker for Penryn, and Josh Chambers, who returned from injury to take his place on the bench.

The visitors started well, moving the ball nicely against the stiff breeze, looking to play from wide and starving Penryn of any early ball. It was a good job they did, because when the Borough got their hands on it at last, they put Tavi to the sword.

First of all Jake Seviour finished off a lovely move to open the scoring, but Seviour couldn't quite convert his own try.

Moments later, the Devonians were behind their own posts again, this time it was centre Ollie Evans who slalomed his way through the defence to finish well. Seviour added the extras.

Matt Williams crossed next after a powerful surge, and despite Seviour's missed kick Penryn had a 17-0 advantage, and a cricket score looked on the cards.

Tavistock were far from done, though, and hit back, although slightly against the run of play with a try from the back of a messy scrum and added the extras as well.

The bonus point was secured for the home side soon after though, when Will Paine crossed after a clinical backline move.

Seviour was again unlucky with his kick in the poor conditions as it struck the post.

Tavi did give themselves a lifeline when they crossed right on half time for another try Penryn would consider too soft for their liking. Again the extras were added and the visitors amazingly only trailed by eight points.

Penryn were faced with a tough task in the second half against a strong breeze, and despite being narrowly ahead after a dominant first half display their lead was trimmed soon after.

A successful penalty from the deadly boot of Richard Goldsby-West reduced arrears to just five points as alarm bells rang in the home ranks.

Those bells however were to prove nothing more than a temporary alarm as a blistering spell crushed Tavistock.

On at half time, the returning Chambers spotted a gap and his pace took him away from several Tavi defenders before a simple draw and pass put flanker Phil Hinchley in for an easy try.

Seviour missed out kicking into the strong wind. Penryn soon found themselves again camped in Tavistock’s 22 following more good work, and Hinchley crashed over again to really take the game away from the visitors.

Seviour missed again but Penryn were scoring so freely it barely mattered. The next was a cracker: Ben Trevaskis made the initial burst, before a superb break from the versatile Adam Hughes raised the volume of the home crowd.

After several phases the ball came wide and Mitchell Vague danced his way over for his first Penryn try - 22-17 had become 37-17 in the blink of an eye, and the contest was as good as done before the rain began to pour.

Superb Penryn defence kept the away side  out time after time, but the relentless pressure saw Tavistock notch a third converted try to put some respectability back into the scoreline.

Penryn, though, were not done and man of the match Hughes completed the scoring for the afternoon with another simple and clinically taken try.

A much improved showing from the Borough who entertain Western Counties leaders Ivybridge at home this Saturday in the National Intermediate Cup.

15 J Seviour 14 Paine 13 Evans 12 A Seviour 11 Horton 10 Vague 9 Hellier 1 Oldfield 2 Harrison 3 Williams 4 Hancock 5 Trevaskis 6 Hughes 7 Hinchley 8 Jones (Captain) Reps: Cockerell, Rainbird, Chambers

Tries: J Seviour, Evans, Williams, Paine, Hinchley (2), Vague, Hughes
Conversion: J Seviour