Cullompton suffered their ninith South-West One (West) defeat of the season as they went down 29-15 away to highflying Newton Abbot on Saturday.

In their first visit to the All Whites since the sides’ Devon One days, Cullompton took the field with three changes. Alex Brooks was back at ten pushing Rob Stanley out to left wing in place of absent Lee Powell and Chris Grant was in at three for injured Henry Weekes.

Adam Pearce opened the scoring for Cully on 17 minutes with a well taken penalty and five minutes later Cully struck again when scrum half Tom Frankpitt chipped over the defence off the back of a ruck, for Stanley to collect and dot down in the corner for an unconverted try.

It was not until the end of the half that the All Whites replied. Full-back Mike Saxton had fluffed two earlier penalty attempts but struck his third to make it 8-5 at the break.

A decisive moment arrived 15 minutes into the second half when Cullompton flanker Sam Harris was sin binned for going in the side of the ruck.

Four minutes later the Cully pack, bereft of their brawny backrow brother, were called upon to defend a five-metre scrum which collapsed and Newton Abbot were awarded a penalty try, making it 12-8.

Cully hit back when the ball mysteriously squirted into their the Abbot goal area to be pounced on by Shere but, almost immediately, home number eight Stroud stripped the ball from Cully defenders and went in to be given a try.

This left the score at 19-15 as both Pearce and even Saxton managed touchline conversions.

A Saxton penalty made it 22-15 and, three minutes from the end, the All Whites’ replacement winger Ross McQueen touched down in the corner after an interception and Saxton’s conversion completed the scoring.

Cullompton are home to Paignton on Saturday.

Tiverton gave an excellent account of themselves before going down 29-22 at home to table-topping Camborne in Western Counties West. Adrian Jarry, Mike Broomfield and youngster Jack Sampson scored the tries for Tiverton, who travel to play Devonport Services on Saturday.