CAMBORNE were made to work extremely hard for 16-14 victory against a determined Wells side.

The Cherry and Whites secured the spoils courtesy of a David Mankee penalty inside the final ten minutes to keep their winning home record intact.

With early season leaders Ivybridge suffering their first reverse of the campaign, Town in third place have closed the gap to only five points ahead of this weekend's eagerly awaited Cornish derby clash at St Austell.

Hard hit by injuries, Camborne will also take heart from the fact that they reach the end of October in a strong position with more South West One points in the bag than in either of their recent season tilts at promotion.

Tony Whittle resumed at lock for the home side whilst Richard Kevern switched to centre for the honeymooning skipper Steve Kenward.

On the bench, prop Malcolm Hearn made a welcome return from injury.

The well organised visitors, who were easily the best opposition seen at the Recreation Ground so far this term, had the better of the opening exchanges playing down the slope and deservedly went ahead on 19 minutes with a converted try from a quickly taken tap penalty.

Camborne soon responded when an excellent break by the hard running Kevern followed by a well timed pass allowed debutant Jack Dickson on as a replacement right wing to scorch over for a corner try.

Though Mankee failed with the tricky conversion as the interval neared the fly-half edged Camborne edged in front knocking over a 25m penalty for an 8-7 lead.

Early in the second period, good play by Wells excellent fly-half Aaron Cook created a try near the posts which saw the visitors regain the advantage.

Cook then easily landed the regulation conversion to stretch the lead to six points.

The Cherry and Whites stormed back down the slope laying siege to the Wells goal line with repeated forward drives before eventually full back Dean Pascoe did well to stretch out an arm to dot down another corner try that went unconverted.

Exchanges were then even for a long period before the home side trailing by a point bagged their crucial closing stages score.

The reliable Mankee coolly found the posts with a 45 metre penalty shot and Camborne went on to close out the game pinning valiant Wells deep in their own territory.

CAMBORNE: 15 Pascoe, 14 Floyd, 13 Kevern, 12 Thirlby, 11 Parma, 10 Mankee, 9 Peacock; 1 Endean, 2 Bartle, 3 Milliner, 4 Whittle, 5 Kemp, 6 Stanleick, 7 Bone, 8 Roberts.

REPS: Hearn, Woolcock, Dickson.

TRIES: Dickson, Pascoe.

PENS: Mankee 2.