TEIGNMOUTH suffered a 66-40 defeat away to joint South West Two leaders Topsham in a 16-try thriller, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

Dayne Layton conjured up a try hat-trick for the Teigns and there were further five-pointers for Dan Allison, Jamie Gray and Sam Lines. Jack Mayne put over five conversions.

Centre Joe Cave had two of Topsham’s tries and there were singles for full-back James Mattin, No.8 Finn Mack, wing George Holwill, hooker Ethan Barnaschone, wingmen Dec Hadley and Shane O'Hanrahan, scrum-half Pat Gibbs and centre Henry Batty, who converted eight from ten off the tee.

Pete Parsons, the Teignmouth captain, felt his side could not have done much better.

“Despite the score we were really proud of our performance,” said Parsons.

“When we had the ball we caused trouble for Topsham, but when we spilled the ball and lost possession they were just too good on the counterattack.”

Ross Bovingdon, the rugby manager at Topsham, had several words of praise for Teignmouth.

“Teignmouth had their fair share of possession – and had plenty of questions for us when on the attack – but I was not pleased to concede 40 points,” said Bovingdon.

Teignmouth are at home to North Petherton this Saturday, when they hope to have Jack Bond back behind the scrum after a three-week concussion lay-off.

Also poised to return in the backs is Faolan Lidstone, who has been recovering from a long-term ankle injury.

Teignmouth’s women were in action the following day and they travelled to Withycombe with just 12 players and so Withycombe matched the numbers, writes Judi Hellier.

Withy gained possession from the KO and quickly ran the pitch to score an early try which was converted.

A Teigns injury meant a borrowed player for another club had to step in before Withy scored again, unconverted this time.

10, Sutcliffe got Teignmouth on the boars with a try of their own but Withy steamed on afterwards, running the score up to 31-5.

9, Wreford scored just before the break to make 31-10 and give the Teigns hope for the second half.

Teignmouth kept the pressure on and were able to deny Withy a try in the danger zone. This valiant defending kick-started a comeback at the other end of the field, 16, Currie scoring with Horsell assisting the try and converting to make it 31-17.

Wilson’s strong leg driving was demonstrated again which was followed by another great run. A penalty in Teigns favour was taken quickly by 10, Sutcliffe who made a breakthrough scoring under the posts which was converted by Wreford, cutting the deficit down to seven points.

Withy suffered 2 injuries and unexpectedly, the referee called the game 12 minutes early due to player welfare concerns, leaving Teignmouth feeling robbed with the final score of 31-24.

Kiera Goddard and Jane McLellan won the players of the match for the backs and forwards respectively.