ST AUSTELL 22pts FALMOUTH 36pts

Falmouth travelled to St Austell for a hastily arranged friendly match last Saturday and came away with a well-deserved victory from the game which was played in almost ideal conditions.

St Austell and Falmouth exchanged league status at the end of last season when Falmouth gained promotion to the Cornwall and Devon League in place of St Austell who dropped down to Cornwall League 1.

Falmouth had to make changes to their side with the late withdrawals of Victor Norman and Mario Massimino, but Adrian Fidler and Michael Kevern occupied their spots and made solid contributions to a very good team performance. While St Austell always threatened, they were unable to take the lead at any point in the match and Falmouth stamped their authority on the game with three well-taken tries in the second half.

The first session was very evenly contested with each side taking opportunities to score in turn. Falmouth ran in three tries by outsides Stuart Slater, Ben Allen and Ben Meneer, two of which were converted by Liam Chappell and Adrian Downing, while the home side crossed for two unconverted tries by Alan Newman and Mark Pascoe.

Both teams tried to run the ball at every opportunity and produced an interesting spectacle for both sets of supporters who relished the first half which finished with Falmouth in the lead at 10-19.

From the restart Falmouth continued to press whenever in possession and were rewarded with three further tries by Ben Allen, Rob Allen and Jonathan Biggins and one conversion by Adrian Downing. St Austell tried hard not to lose touch and came back at their visitors with two tries by John Tate and Robert Pollard, one of which was converted by Tate to make the final score 22-36.

Falmouth A played at home against the Hayle in what was the fourth match in the Merit Table. Falmouth, who have won only one against St Just, when they played them at home and have been defeated in the two away matches against Perranporth and Mounts Bay.

This was going to be a tough match for Falmouth as the Hayle 2nds have strength in depth and are a strong team capable of adapting to all weather conditions. The match was sponsored by Metal Surgery (Wessex).

The gamebegan with a lot of pressure from Hayle that resulted in a penalty, which was missed. The next 10 minutes were very scrappy with neither side making much of an impression.

Eventually 20 minutes into the game Falmouth started to stamp their authority on their territory and on the stroke of half-time Keith Biggins kicked a penalty for Falmouth.

The second half proved to be much more exciting with Falmouth taking more control of the game. Shortly after half-time Falmouth started a move in their own half when Ken Whitfield picked up the ball from the base of the scrum and fed it to the scrum half. The the ball went along the three-quarters line before finally finding it's way to Shawn May who scored an excellent try, Keith Biggins converting.

Hayle retaliated to this try, exerting a little pressure, which resulted in a penalty kick, which they scored from. The game then got a little fiery as tempers started to flare which resulted in yellow cards for Ken Whitfield and C. Kemp for Hayle. Hayle seemed determined to come back into the game at this point and from a rolling maul they scored an unconverted try.

A.Symons was sent of for Hayle but the hard work had been done for Falmouth A and the end result was 10-8.

Next Saturday Falmouth 1st XV are at home to Newquay in an important league game, sponsored by Penryn Plastics, and kicks off at 2,30pm. This will be a crucial game for Falmouth who narrowly lost to Newquay in the Powergen Vase Competition earlier in the season.

Falmouth A make the trip to Newquay. Both teams will be selected and announced at training on Thursday.