Vets 29 - 38 Young Un's

This annual fixture between Exmouth Vets and Young Un’s is proving to be another successful date in the Clubs calendar.  The game was played in true festive spirit in front of a good crowd of spectators eager to blow away the Christmas Day cobwebs.  The match was helped along by some interesting refereeing decisions from Dan Gorfin.

It was good to see father Nick Tuckett playing for the Vets against son Ty, who regularly plays for the Colts,  in the Young Uns side.

The Vets took advantage of the muddy conditions to try to slow the Young Uns down and they held out for the first 15 minutes but the Young Uns then scored 3 quick tries all of which were converted, to take a 21 point lead after 25 minutes.  Tries came from Brad Perkins, Paul Morgan and Matt Hannah who each kicked their own conversions.

On the stroke of half hour some good interplay between the forwards and backs for the Vets saw Rich Haynes go over in the corner, the Alan Pyne conversion fell short.

After 35 minutes the Young Uns further increased their lead with a fine break by Paul Morgan from his own 22, who offloaded to Brad Perkins on the halfway line for him to score under the posts, kicking his own conversion.

Just before the interval the Vets reduced the margin when a catch and drive try saw Stu Lowe power over for a try and he kicked the conversion making the score 28 12 in the Young Uns favour at the break.

The team talk at half time by Manager Stan Jordan worked well because within minutes of the restart, Ricky Croal drove over in the corner for a try.  Mike Loaring missed the long range conversion.

The game was now slowing down due to the pitch conditions with both sides now finding difficulty in recognising their own players.  After 10 minutes Kiwi Andrew Powell broke through the Vets defence to score an unconverted try wide out.

For the next 20 minutes there was much too-ing and fro-ing up and down the pitch with referee Dan Gorfin getting involved on a couple of occasions.  After 30 minutes a catch and drive on the Young Uns 22 was joined by players from both sides, leaving Vet Roger Nye alone in mid field.  This resulted in a try for Dan Cuthbertson.

Straight from the re-start, Jack Downie increased the Young Uns lead to 16 points with a brilliant individual try in the corner but the conversion failed.

In the closing minutes of the game, another catch and drive from the Yong Uns 22 saw Vet Simon Tate get the final touchdown near the posts with Alan Pyne adding the extras giving a final result Young Uns 38 points Vets 29 points.

It was a thoroughly entertaining game enjoyed by a large number of spectators.