we had to make a few changes at the start due to last minute drop outs but this shouldn't of caused us a problem. like most weeks we started the game asleep and minehead scored 2 quick tries but we finally got our game heads on and Derek Smith dived over from the back of a ruck and the subsequent conversion kicked by debutant Steve McKinney who then scored his own try and kicked the points.

At this point halfway through the first half we were just ahead by 2 points , we were dominating the rucks and mauls but just before half time a wayward pass was intercepted and Minehead ran in a try, end of half 3 points the difference.

The game was well balanced, but with the way we were starting to turn the screw the game looked like ours but we didnt
expect the ref to make some bad decisions and not make the same calls for both sides.

We had a good passage of play then a missed pass led to a hurried kick which was charged down and Minehead scored again.

We regained our composure and after stealing the ball from counter rucking quickly spread the the ball out and Paul Davey finished it.

With the game still tight we forced an error from their fullback which Jimmy Dival got to first ( which is a first ) but the ref said a minehead player touched it down, This perplexed us and we lost composure and Minehead scored again, then shortly after the restart another clearance kick was charged down which resulted in a foot race between their winger and our forwards , no contest.

We started getting back into the game again then from a rolling maul Martin Jakes ran through the middle of their
defence and scored.

Minehead then secured the win points when they scored another 2 tries from interceptions.

Manager Mark Tizzard said " we started slow again but got ourselves back in to the game , the lads never gave up and sometimes got perplexed by refereeing decisions which caused us to give away stupid penalties. After all this it was an entertaining encounter and it was really helpful that a few vets had turned out to help at short notice.  The tackling was good and we were very strong in some areas of our play but some need tweaking."

Ivel started well and on the first attack Dan Jones broke through the midfield and scored the first of his 4 tries and this first try seemed to deflate the opposition.  Ivel stuck to their game plan and used what strengths they had to their advantage.

Ivel scored another 5 tries in the first half to Martocks 1 and Tom Lane converted 50% of them. The best individual try
of the half was scored by Steve Wilson who  carried the ball from the Ivel half and got bundled over the try line by pursuing tacklers.

At the start of the second half Martock came at Ivel hard but with determined tackling and superior counter rucking Ivel put the first points on the board for the second half .   Martock tried to slow the game down but instead of playing their game were forced to play the way Ivel dictated and led to Ivel scoring another 4 tries, the best of which saw Mark Gibson catching from a restart and weaving his way through the Martock defence but getting caught 10 metres short but he managed to off load to the following support who went over .

This was a very good team performance of old and young heads and next weeks game will be a lot tougher but taking all the positives from this game you never know.

The try scores were Dan Jones (4), Tom Brownhill, Mark Gaston, Ollie Jjarvis, Steve Berryman, Mike Beckerleg, Steve Wilson and not forgetting Kris Shore and Tom Lane kicked 5 .

Ivel 2XV went into this game with high hopes , we had a few changes but still had a very strong team. From the start we could see crewkerne's plan as it is always the same, using their forward strength to keep driving the ball on. After about 10 mins they kicked a penalty in our corner and from this secured their own ball and drove over for their first try and this basically was how they got most of their tries.

We had a glimmer of hope when debutant Spence ran onto a pass at the halfway line and broke through numerous tackles to touch down, this showed Crewkerne we weren't going to be pushovers as the score was 10-5 after 20 mins.

After some more of our pressure we gave away another penalty and they put it in the corner and drove over again from the line out. We never gave up, the tackling was excellent again, we had a lot of the play but just failed to find that final move/pass to put more points on the board.

This was always going to be a difficult but we have improved immensly this season.  We are in the top half of the table and haven't cancelled a single game and this is due to new and aged ( trying to be polite ) players turning out each week to make  good sized and balanced teams.

There were debuts this week for Spence,Ryan Williams and Ed Ragget who all had a good games as well as the rest of the team and so on this note we would like to wish all the players a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and will look forward to the first game in the new year against Taunton 3rds.

The first game of the new year and we had a large squad to choose from which is good . we started a lot better than previous games even though Taunton put the first points on the board from a penalty , we didn't panic and soon went over from an expansive move with Joe Day scoring in the corner.

we were starting to dominate in the forwards and from continued pressure on their try line Derek Smith found room to dive through and score. Taunton then scored a try of their own from a bit of complacency from our lads , but Taunton were getting frustrated and had a man watching for 10 mins.  While he was off we scored again through Alex McGuinn, so ended an entertaining first half 18-10 to us.

At the start of the second half Taunton came out strong and scored after 5 mins and then we knew they weren't giving up, but we started to give away a few penalties and after numerous chances they finally broke our defensive line and scored again.

The Taunton back line looked dangerous every time they got the ball but credit to our lads they were putting everything on the line but Taunton scored again.

Alex McGuinn kicked another 2 penalties and Jamie Crichton smashed through to leave a tense last 8 mins with 3 points the difference , this was causing tension in the Taunton camp and they had another player watching the rest of the game ( who should have walked a lot earlier ) , but with the last attack of the game we got the ball out to ash helliar in our own half and he was gone , we all thought he was home dry until the taunton fullback got
across and tackled him 10 metres short who then kicked the ball out.

Manager Mark Tizzard said " a very entertaining match to watch , a tale of two halves, but in the second half our fitness let us down a bit , but we had a good turn out , were very good up front in the rucks and rolling mauls and big thank you to those players who turned up but who didn't get on the pitch"

Cheddar started the game strong and showed us they were going to use their big boys in the pack but we held out for the first ten minutes before we secured and recycled our own ball and unleashed Dan Jones who broke through their back line and scored between the posts, Zim converting.

They came back at us strong and after numerous pick and drives drove through our defence to score and kick the conversion. This was our wake up call and we responded well by using what we were doing best and securing line out ball , moving it quick and Dan Jones going over again. We then had to lose Dan Jones to the firsts and the introduction of Rich ( the gas ) Gaston helped us to send send Zim over for 2 tries before the half ended.

Ccheddar were very frustrated and starting to lose their heads and we capitalised on this and the fact their backs didn't want to tackle when we spread the ball wide and Paul Davey went over only for the ref to say he didn't ground it , so from the following scrum Cheddar knocked on at the back of the scrum and Roger ( Popeye ) Law  took the quick penalty and dived over the line.

From the restart we shipped it out fast and Grant broke a few tackles and scored his first try, then Rich Champion went off and Harold came on but we still didn't lose any composure and it wasn't long before Grant was on his way again to touch down.

We then scored another two tries through Grant who must have nearly ran the length of the pitch for all his tries.

Cheddar scored once more near the end and this was the end of a good team perfomance.

Tiz said "This was always going to be tough test playing a team near the top and having a depleated sqaud as well. At 1.45pm I still didnt know my starting line up as we were waiting for players to turn up so I could then pick a team, but in the end I did have a good quality squad and we used our best stratagies well. A big thank you to all who turned out and a very very good all round team performance".

Man of the match Grant

Scorers : Jonah 2, Zim 2 and 8 conversions, Popeye 1, Grant 4

We started the game very focused as in past weeks we haven't been and it has cost us games. From our kick we put pressure straight away on Martock and after a few Martock pick and drives we stole the ball and moved it along our back line where centre Shaun Rudd found space and scored.

From the restart we recycled the ball well and moved it through our backs and debutant Jonny Beaumont raced away from inside our own half and scored between the posts.

Martock were starting to bicker amongst themselves and from the following restart we kept on doing what had been working well and when we got in their 22 they gave away a penalty which Simon Burrows took it quickly and smashed through to score.

We didnt have it all our way as their forwards were doing a good job of disrupting at breakdowns which gave them a penalty which they kicked and choosing this option showed us they didn't really have anything in their backline.

We stole the ball from the restart and sent winger Tom Simms over for his first try of the season ( welldone ).

Martock were trying to slow things down and try to get us to play their way but we didn't get caught up in this and from another flowing move Shaun Rudd carved his way through their defence and score his second and just before half time Paul Davey took a pass at a lovely angle and scored.

From the start of the second half Martock came at us strong and were using their forwards to pick and drive and then offload to their big centre but we defended this strategy well and as their centre was always on his own we were getting a lot of penalties and putting more pressure on Martock.

We secured our ball at the line out and quickly moved to our backs where Neil Mathieson shook off a couple af tackles
to go over.

We were in their 22 quite soon after the restart and from a few recycles Jamie Critchton smashed his way through to score.

At about the 60 min mark a Martock player got a nasty blow to his head which needed an ambulance and so the match ended.

 

Final Score   Ivel 2XV  48  Martock  3

Manager Mark Tizzard said " this was one of our better starts to a game and we kept playing our own game for the whole match. In previous seasons we have played into the hands of our opponents and this season we have stuck to our way of playing and this is a big bonus as the number of wins and bonus points show.  All credit to Martock they
stuck at it and we hope their player is ok  "

 Conversions : S.Rudd, D.Williams, T.Simms