BIRTHDAY boy Chey Bryce celebrated reaching 34 with a try hat-trick as Ivybridge came from behind to beat Sidmouth 34-32.

The Bridge went 12-0 down in the first half and were 24-22 and 32-31 in arrears at different stages in the second.

A Ben Fallows penalty two minutes from time won it for the Bridge, although without Bryce’s try-treble, they might have struggled to stay in touch.

Neil Thomson, the senior team manager at Cross-in-Hand spoke after the final whistle. “We found ourselves 12-0 down despite being 85 percent dominant at the time.”

The second half was a tit-for-tat affair with both sides taking the lead at different times.

Thomson felt Ivybridge played better rugby and offered more in attack.

“We scored some well-worked tries by moving the ball – two of Chey’s were corner tries – and our forwards were superb, especially in the lineouts,” said Thomson.

“Sidmouth defended well against us up to three phases, but when it came to phases four, five and six they ran out of defenders.”

Ivybridge’s only first-half points came from Bryce with a try wide out.

James Cantim opened the second-half scoring for Ivybridge with a try converted by Fallows.

Bryce peeled away from a line-out for his second try. Mike Jensen’s try, converted by Fallows put the Bridge 24-22 up – and Bryce’s third was converted for a 31-22 lead.

Sidmouth hit back to go 32-31 up and it stayed that way until Fallows booted the winning points.

Sidmouth’s try scorers were Sam Heathcote (2), Rory O’Brien and Harry Emmett. Jake Smith kicked their goal points.

Stand-off Matt Grieveson went off with a hamstring strain at halftime and is unlikely to feature in the away game at Wotton Bassett this Saturday.

Talking of Ivybridge and their 2nd XV visited Salcombe RFC and it was an odd feeling post-match for the losing home team on Saturday. To score 32 points at home but still be on the losing side was a tough pill to swallow, especially when only trailing by a point with roughly ten minutes left to play.

Then again if you ship out 50 points at home you don’t really deserve to win and that message will be the one drilled into Salcombe’s players during the coming weeks.

If the Crabs aspire to win more matches this season and improve on last season's league position, then matches such as this must live long in the memory and serve as a benchmark for future displays as to what is required to truly challenge at the top of the league.

None of this is to say Salcombe played badly, far from it, the performance across the board was a huge improvement in tempo, discipline and aggression from the previous week against a team who routinely have 50 players at training and on this evidence will hurt many teams during the course of the season.

The crowd in particular will have been treated to a wildly entertaining match that had everything you can want from grassroots sport, all in the glorious sunshine. When Salcombe fired they really fired on all cylinders crafting 5 excellent tries each in facets of the game, Graham McNicholl got the Crabs first following a flowing move with fast hand to finish well in the corner, Jay Hannon got the second after driving maul of a dominant line out.

Dan Hepburn got on the scoresheet next from close range after some aggressive phase play under the posts, McNicholl got his second after a frenetic counterattack and a mix-up by the Ivy back three on their own goal line. Lastly, debutant full-back Eddie Willows latched onto a break from his own half by Man of the Match Jordan Anderton to beat the last few defenders to the line. All these tried were sadly interspersed between moments of weak defence belittling the more positive elements of the Crabs display.

Unfortunately, the lasting memory of this fixture will be he thought of “what if”, what if certain decisions were made differently, what if certain things had been spotted, what if fitness levels were such that matching the opposition’s pace for more than 70 minutes was not just out of reach. Salcombe will take what they can from the positives in defeat, and there are several, but more is learned in defeat and that being the case the lessons will be clear.

Thank you to the volunteers who provided the food and assisted with the match, the referee, the visiting Ivybridge second team and of course all the supporters who made their voices heard throughout.

The Crabs travel to old friends Old Technicians next week with a big point to prove, Old Tech’s find themselves coming off the back of a big win and Weston Mill is always a tough place to play so will need to lick wounds, train intensely and come into the game with an attitude of ascendency and fervid appetite to consign this result to history.

Rugby used to be a 15-a-side game, but nowadays the 15 that take to the field are usually supported by a 3, in our league anyway. Kingsbridge taking their first trip across the Tamar this season to Bude, went with just the bare 15.

Already on the back foot for numbers, head coach Doove Stephens had to play the full 80 minutes in the second row, with Stuart Giles filling in as hooker, due to the unavailability of others. Both players deserve huge credit for their performances. For the team to flourish in the league, others need to step up and offer their services. A bare 15 is not enough.

Bude kicked off down the slope with the wind behind them and within a couple of minutes, Kingsbridge found themselves a converted try down. Things got even worse for the visitors when once again the Bude big men ran through the defence and scored another converted try to make the score 14-0 within ten minutes.

The small band of Kingsbridge supporters, it wouldn’t take long to name them all, were starting to think the worst. Somehow the Blue and Whites regained their composure and started to play. Their defence tightened up and they started to make inroads into the home side's defence. From one of their forays into the Bude 22, the ball came out to winger Gareth Coombes, who jinked his way past a couple of defenders and somehow managed to get the ball onto the line to give Kingsbridge a much-needed score. The conversion went just wide.

The Kingsbridge pack was actually dominating the scrums but Bude had some very strong powerful runners at 10, 12 and 13 and they kept making precious yards towards the Kingsbridge line. One missed tackle saw Bude run in another converted try to give them a 21-5 lead at halftime.

With the wind behind them, Kingsbridge’s hopes of a comeback were soon boosted by some intelligent kicking from fly half Ben Newman. A source of territorial gain they don’t use enough. Having camped on the Bude line for several minutes they were rewarded when scrum-half Joe Banfield scored to reduce the deficit. Newman’s conversion made it 21-12.

Unfortunately, the visitors gave away a penalty which Bude converted to pull away to 24-15.

This setback seemed to spur the Kingsbridge team on again and soon another run, by the perpetual motion that is Dave Harris ended with him stretching successfully over the line for the visitor’s third try. The conversion was narrowly missed.

Bude added another penalty following a Kingsbridge yellow card to extend their lead to 27-15 before Kingsbridge reduced their lead back to 27-22 with a try from vice-captain Dan Jarvis.

The clock ran down before Kingsbridge could get back into the home side’s half and the final score of 27-22 just about reflected Budes supremacy outside the scrum.

The 15 who turned out deserve massive praise for the way they stuck to their task. A word for the team's Manager who is away for a few weeks – Kev Baldry is having an operation and everyone at KRFC wishes him a very speedy recovery.

Dartmouth had victory snatched from their grasp away to Topsham 2nd XV, who scored two tries in the last 10 minutes to win 33-28.

Dartmouth, 16-7 down at halftime, looked to have done enough to register their maiden victory in Devon One since gaining promotion back in April.

The first of Topsham’s late tries put the game in balance – and the second, controversially, swung it the home side’s way.

Dartmouth’s coaching team were expecting the winning try to be ruled out for a foot in touch as the Topsham’s touch judge had raised his flag. The referee over-ruled him and the try stood.

Wing Josh Squires scored Dartmouth’s first half try. Piers Benjamin, Richard Lobb and Lewis Sharam after an interception claimed the others. Sam Churchill converted all four.

Dartmouth are at home to early Devon One pacesetters Torquay Athletic this Saturday.

Dartmouth forward Myles Churchill, who sustained a broken leg in the aborted league opener at Withycombe, is recovering at home after an operation to pin the fractures.

Churchill spent several days in hospital in Exeter being treated for a double fracture of his left leg.

The game, which was abandoned, will be replayed on Saturday, November 2.