Exmouth 17 - 8 Barnstaple
The visit of Barnstaple to the Imperial Ground 
on Saturday was significant in a number of ways but no more so than Barum being the only side to beat Exmouth in the Tribute league this season. Back in October they gave the Cockles a right seeing to at Pottington Road and have been snapping at their heels ever since. The importance of the game was not lost on supporters either with Barnstaple bringing a large band of followers with a goodly band travelling by train. The game was a tense affair with flashes of brilliant rugby but this time the visitors came off second best and now drop to third place in the league, four points behind Exmouth, who have a game in hand. Three points behind are Taunton who moved into second place after thumping bottom club Camborne.
The game got under way with Barnstaple gifting two penalties within five minutes. The first should have produced a standard catch and drive for the Cockles but they messed up their lineout. In trying to clear their line Barnstaple failed to find touch and when Exmouth ran back at them a scrum was quickly followed by a penalty. With five minutes on the board Richard Cadywould posted the first three points. Barnstaple came back strongly with Kiwi fullback Paul Scheres showing his pace and when the pressure came on the Exmouth scrum Barnstaple gained a penalty in a very kickable position. The normally reliable Barnstaple 10, Neil Giddy, stroked the ball past the posts to miss a golden opportunity to draw level.
The visitors were still controlling things and the number 10 made no mistake five minutes later when Exmouth gave away another penalty on their own 22. The game continued with no side gaining any real momentum but on the half hour Exmouth regained the lead with another Cadywould penalty. Barnstaple passed the initiative to Exmouth when they made a mess of the restart and the game really came alive when Matt Hopper set off on a surging run from his own 22. With no close support he punted ahead for Richard Cadywould to chase and Ollie Turton was on hand to score wide out. With minutes to go to half time Ben Boswell and Jack Downie both went close and at the other end Barnstaple missed a long shot penalty to close the half with Exmouth in the lead 11pts-3.
The second half started badly for the Cockles when within minutes Barnstaple had closed the score to three points. From a scrum in the centre of the field the Barum scrum half Dan Frost feigned to the right and then switched the ball back to Scheres who carried forward and passed to Matt Slee. With only one man to beat there was no stopping the winger who scored an unconverted try wide out. With fifteen minutes of the half played Cadywould slotted another penalty to take the score to 14pts-8 and although Barnstaple were starting to put a lot of pressure on the Exmouth scrum they were unable to convert this into scoring opportunities. With Barnstaple within one score of Exmouth it was a tense affair for the rest of the half until Richard Cadywould kicked his fourth penalty with only injury time to be played.