Camborne 13 Old Redcliffians 19 Camborne’s dream of a Twickenham National Intermediate Cup final appearance are over as their Bristol visitors squeezed through to the last eight in an evenly-contested match.

Both teams are currently top of their respective Western Counties tables and only the bounce of the ball separated them on a glorious winter’s afternoon at the Recreation Ground.

On a day when a couple of team errors proved costly Town’s man-of-the- match was all-action scrum-half Dean Pascoe, who defied a hand injury with a superb display.

Old Redcliffians made a great start when the home side failed to deal with a third-minute high ball allowing right wing Paul Todd to gather and run round under the posts for a soft try. Ross Martin knocked over the straight- forward conversion for a 7-0 scoreline.

Soon after Cherry and Whites kicker David Mankee saw a penalty come back off a post, but after a string of penalties awarded against the visitors for persistent spoiling tactics the fly-half cut the deficit with a 16th minute shot.

Old Reds saw prop Jason Owen sin-binned for killing the ball, but down to 14 men they went further ahead with a well-worked blind side attack, which brought a corner try for Todd.

As the interval neared right-wing Cameron Bone made an attempted interception on half way. He fly hacked the bouncing ball upfield and went on to win the race to touchdown wide out. Mankee slotted the angled conversion to make it 10-12 at the break.

Now playing down the slope, Camborne hammered at the goal line early in the half but conceded a relieving penalty when driving for the crucial score. The visitors then put together a sustained period of pressure which was finally rewarded on the hour when the ball was slipped right for centre Henry Goldson to go over. Former Truro fly-half Martin stretched the lead with an excellent conversion.

Minutes later Mankee cut the deficit to six-points with a straightforward penalty to set up a tense closing period.

With fresh legs on up front the young home pack laid siege to the visitors line, with flanker James Goldsworthy inches short but conceded a 73rd minute penalty to allow Old Reds to clear.

Near the end Martin saw yellow for tugging back Joe Parma chasing a kick into wide open space downfield, but from the resulting penalty Town could not get the score required to sneak the result.

Camborne; Joe Parma, Tom Notman, Christian Barbagallo, Tom Hinds, Cameron Bone, David Mankee, Dean Pascoe, Nigel Endean (rep Nathan Curnow 64m), Sam Bartle, Scott Macdonald (rep Leigh Hocking 64m), Jon Griffiths (rep Ryan Spargo 54m), Ryan Smith, James Goldsworthy, Sam Matavesi, Dave Roberts (Capt).

Camborne: Scorers try Bone con Mankee pens Mankee 2