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Cullompton 46 Crediton 18

CULLOMPTON recorded their first league win in over ten months with a 46-18 derby demolition of local rivals Crediton at Stafford Park.

Cully ran in seven tries, courtesy of Alex Brooks, Sam Harris, Paul Baker, Marcus Busch, Tom Harold, Will Denford and Tom Frankpitt, while Adam Pearce added four conversions and a penalty to complete the rout.

Cullompton declared their intent straight from the whistle, firstly pushing the visitor’s pack back in the opening scrum and then when centre Tom Harold spilled the ball after a solid tackle, Cully fly-half Alex Brooks randown the blind side to score an unconverted try in the corner for 5-0 with two minutes gone.

Josh Lee pulled a try back for Crediton, before flanker Sam Harris dotted down from close range to restore the Cully lead.

A good handling move saw full-back Marcus Busch to put winger Paul Baker away in the corner for Cully’s third – and Pearce added a penalty for a 20-5 lead.

A Crediton penalty made it 20-8. But shortly before half-time, Brooks fed Busch to score under the posts and secure the bonus-point inside 40 minutes.

Eleven minutes into the second-half, Avery-Wright pulled back a penalty for Crediton, but this seemed to set Cullompton going as they replied with three more tries two converted by Pearce for a 46-11 lead.

First, Frankpitt ran his tap penalty to the Crediton 22 and via a Brooks pass, centre Tom Harald carried in a crash ball through three tacklers to go in by the posts.

Then a good Driscol breakthrough was taken on by Pearce, who drew the defenders and left Denford just two defenders to hand off as he made his way to the line.

A Cully thrust to the club house corner was met by determined resistance but the home side countered with a dazzling sequence of passes and offloads going through the hands of most of the team members, until that most deserving of players, Frankpitt popped over to get his name on the scoreboard.

As the attritional game neared the end, a Crediton scrum near the Cully line gave them their chance and Wayne Reed scored with Avery-Wright converting - but Cullompton did not seem to care as they savoured a 46-18 win, the first since last November.