The pressure was on for Tiverton to deliver the goods – and they did to go up

TIVERTON are on their way back to the Two South West division after trouncing Penryn 52-10 to clinch the only guaranteed promotion place out of Counties Western West.

Tiverton and Paignton went into the final round of fixtures neck and neck at the top of the table on 82 points each. Although the Cherries overcame Plymstock Albion Oaks 2-22 in their final game, and finished level on points, they had to settle for second as Tiverton had one more win in their record, which put them top of the shop.

This season there is no consolation prize for finishing second in the Western West division as neither Tiverton or Paignton had good enough playing records to qualify for one of six wild-card promotion places. Cullompton benefited from one last season.

So the pressure was on Tiverton to deliver the goods … and deliver them they did!

“We knew what we had to do and played some magnificent rugby at times,” said Jon Hill, the Tiverton coach.

“The bonus point we needed was in the bag by half time and we went on score eight tries against a side that is better than the scoreline.

“Going into the game we knew it was not long ago that Penryn had beaten Paignton (second) at Paignton and Plymstock (third) at home so we did well to put 50 points on them the way we did – and we probably wasted a few more chances.

“And we did it despite playing a man short for 20 minutes due to two yellow cards.”

Tiverton had every reason to be quietly confident going into the game as they were unbeaten at home all season and had only lost once since the end of September. Paignton turned them over at Queen’s Park in early January.

One of the secrets of Tiverton’s success has been the try-scoring form of winger Ben Bingham, who took his tally for the season to 30 with a hat-trick against Penryn.

First-half tries by Bingham, Mike Butt, Alex Pike and Butt again, plus two Callum Stone conversions, swept Tiverton to a 24-5 lead.

Bingham opened the second-half scoring with two in a row and was followed over the line by Curtis with two more. Stone carried on kicking.

Tiverton have not featured higher up the league ladder than Western Counties West since dropping out of South West Two at the end of the 1999-2000 season.

University of Exeter fell away in the second half as they dipped to a 59-22 home defeat at the hands of Camborne.

The Students gave as good as they got in the first half and were only 24-17 behind at the break.

The Students did themselves no favours by giving away two penalty tries early in the second half. Despite a try in between for Luke Shuttleworth, their race was run.

Camborne hooker Ben Priddey took his National Two West try tally for the season to 30 with five in his side’s win.

Priddey’s is not only the leading try scorer in the division, he is also the top point scorer with 150. Goalkickers

usually top that particular table.

The game was played on the allweather surface on the University’s Stocker Road sports campus – and the Cherry & Whites were soon at home in unfamiliar surroundings.

Will Tanswell put Camborne ahead with a sixth-minute try and there was the first of five for Priddey soon after.

The Students gave as good as they got in the first half and were only 24-1 behind at the break. Priddey had tries on 28 and 40 minutes for his hat-trick with Ellis Baldry and Sammy Erskine responding for the home side.

Sam Rodman added try number seven for the Cherry & Whites. Pridday crossed for eight and nine three minutes apart in the dying embers of the game