Express & Echo (City & East Devon Edition)
Tiverton thrash Bideford for season double
»»TIVERTON ran in nine unanswered tries on the way to a 0-0 win over Bideford that sealed a league and cup double.
The Counties Western West championship, and with it promotion to the Two South West division, was already secured before Tiverton arrived at Bideford for the Devon Junior Cup final.
Two Tiverton tries in the first eight minutes hinted at what was to come, although Bideford upped their game after that and a put their guests under a long period of pressure midway without turning that into points on the board.
Bideford got into plenty of promising positions, but wrong options, lack of support at the breakdown and a hit-miss line-out did them no favours.
Tiverton finished the first half on the front foot – they turned around 27-0 up – and tries early in the second half merely confirmed what had been apparent from the start.
Callum Stone kicked Tiverton into an early lead from the tee then converted a try behind the posts dotted down by Mike Batt, who overlapped wings to take a scoring pass from Ben Bingham.
George Whiting was next over the line – he cashed-in on a strong run by Dave Harris – with lock Jamie Green and scrum-half Alex Curtis following suit before the break. Stone converted the latter’s try.
Matt Reed came off the bench to get the second-half try scoring under way. Stone converted from head ahead. Tiverton had four further tries up their sleeves, which were shared between Ben Vickery. Jack Sampson, Bingham and, finally Aaron Smith. Stone was four out of five in the second half.
Tiverton coach John Hill said: “Huge amounts of effort has gone into the level of success we have achieved this season.”