TRIBUTE SOUTH WEST ONE WEST

Camborne 17, Bridgwater & Albion 0

BRIDGWATER & Albion slumped to defeat in Cornwall in a scrappy game littered with errors, writes Tony Pomeroy.

Inside the first three minutes Bridgwater conceded two kickable penalties but David Mankee hooked both chances wide and then made a clean break which almost gave the home side a try.

Bridgwater were struggling with the normally reliable lineout misfiring badly and also with one or two poor clearing kicks.

After 14 minutes a good move saw Denovan tackled just short of the home line. He stretched out and was within inches of scoring but it was turning out to be that sort of day.

Bridgwater kept up the pressure but then when they unaccountably lost the ball in the home 22, Camborne tore away and were only halted by desperate defence five metres from the visitors’ try line.

Camborne then spurned an easy three points in a ploy to get the opening try. They were thwarted when Matt Hastie stole the ball to start a Bridgwater move which travelled 65 metres.

Bridgwater exerted some pressure until a break out of defence by home winger Alex Ducker gave them brief respite.

Camborne were then penalised but Chris Ashwin was narrowly wide with a 45m penalty attempt.

The opening score came after 33 minutes – Bridgwater picked up the ball at the back of a scrum deep in their own 22 in an attempt to run out of defence.

But they lost the ball and two short passes later debutant home centre Keiran Westlake crashed over under the posts – Mankee converted easily.

The half-time whistle blew shortly afterwards – and for almost the whole of the third quarter Bridgwater were camped within ten metres of the home line.

The pressure was set up with a superb miss pass from Ashwin which reached Garryn Basson on the wing near the half-way line.

His bullocking run took him just short of the home line.

Then Hastie set up Allen, whose powerful effort was also held up short.

Bridgwater had three possible ‘tries’ ruled out in quick succession, once for a forward pass and twice the referee ruled no grounding of the ball.

Minutes later another good chance for Bridgwater was lost.

After 26 minutes an innocuouslooking Camborne move seemed to have been halted in midfield but suddenly the ball reached Ducker who, despite being confronted by defenders, managed to find a path to the line.

Mankee converted and almost immediately landed a 45m penalty awarded for a high tackle by Bridgwater.

Basson again came very close with a strong run and the game ended with Bridgwater driving hard at the home line.

n St Austell are the visitors to College Way on the final weekend of the season (kick-off 3pm).