PUDDLETOWN 50

WHEATSHEAF CC 14

PUDDLETOWN thrashed Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew, with Harry Pomeroy getting his maiden try for the club on a glorious spring day at Greenfields where Puddletown formally opened their new pitch, the ‘Phil Smeeth Memorial Ground’.

The pitch is named after Phil Smeeth, a club stalwart who over many years performed various roles within the club.

Sadly, Phil passed away in 2016, but his daughter Donna Russell and her family were special guests on the day to see the pitch dedicated to her father.

The new pitch is the culmination of lots of hard work from club members, supporters and players.

The spirit of local club rugby that Phil Smeeth instilled in the club lived on with Wheatsheaf only able to field twelve players, but Puddletown lent them three players so that the sides were even for the game.

The home side started well with winger James House running in an unconverted try in the corner after a sweeping move across the pitch.

However, the visitors were next to score, with their inside centre showing some neat footwork and dancing through the Puddletown defence to score a converted try under the posts.

Within a few minutes the Villagers were back in front with Sam Pomeroy gathering a bouncing ball and feeding out to centre Jacob Holt who went over to score another unconverted try.

Puddletown’s third try came from a line out, the ball spun neatly across field and back inside to fly-half Tom Yeatman, as he was held on the line, the ball broke loose and Harry Pomeroy was on hand to pick up and dot the ball down for his maiden try for the club.

The home side were now in the ascendency as hooker Jez Beale barrelled over for the fourth and bonus point try and Dan Udell made the conversion.

Just before the break Puddletown scored their best try of the game with a move that started in their own half, the ball being passed through the hands of forwards and backs, with man of the match Harry Pomeroy repaying Yeatman with the final scoring pass and Udell again made the conversion to make it 31-7 at half time.

The men in red extended their lead 10 minutes into the second half with Sam Pomeroy going through a Wheatsheaf line out onto a bobbling ball and touching down for an unconverted try.

Five minutes later a loose Wheatsheaf kick was fielded by Yeatman, he ran it back into the visitors’ 22 and offloaded to captain Joe Malpas who went over next to the posts to score while Udell added the extras.

Puddletown brought up the half century with a well-worked move off their own line-out 15 metres out, within two passes inside centre Udell had blasted through the defence, he fed to Sam Pomeroy who fed back inside to James Perrett, he went over to score a converted try.

The visitors had not given up on playing some decent rugby of their own and just before the final whistle they took a quick free-kick and went over to score a converted try to make the final score 50-14.

Puddletown coach Sam Cload said: “It was another good day for Puddletown RFC and a great day for grassroots rugby.

“I especially want to thank James Brise, Sam Holt and Ollie Raines for volunteering to play for the opposition and making a game of it.”

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