Sidmouth Under-14s booked a place in the final of the Devon Cup after a thrilling 19-14 success over Cullompton.

Sidmouth started brightly and applied all the pressure with brutal carries from Finlay Johnson making the hard yards. Owen Tidball had manfully stepped up to not only lead the defensive structure, but to shackle the home team’s star player Tom Putt.

Joe Elsworth opened the scoring when he cleverly wheeled an attacking scrum, breaking on the blind side to go over and he also converted his try to make it 7-0.

Injury to full back Sean Harvey led to a reshuffle with Louis Maynard taking over on the wing and Josh Roberts taking on the full-back work and Roberts was quick to settle into the role, one in which he produced a masterful display of last line defence.

Just before the break Cully put up a huge ‘up and under’ which got spilled by Sidmouth on their line and an opposition winger pounced leaving the sides all square at half-time.

Cully were the dominant force in the second half early exchanges and took the lead through their pacey winger. The advantage was short lived though, as Louis Stamp sniffed out an undefended gap and ripped through to score and spark great celebration amongst the supporters!

Joe Elsworth held his nerve to convert the try to level the scores at 14-all. However, with this score it meant that Cully, as the away side, would ‘win’ the match and book the final berth! The Mid Devon side strangely spurned what looked like a kickable penalty. Then, with seconds to go Finlay Morgan made a short break, drew two defenders and off-loaded out of the back of his hand to Josh Golding who raced away crossing the Cully line with two defenders desperately trying – and failing – to stop him! The final whistle blew following the missed conversion and the celebrations began to acknowledge superb win and a County Cup final to look forward to.

Sidmouth Under-14 coach Craig Morgan said: “There are one or two good players in this team, but without the unassuming ability and commitment of all the squad there would be no results like this. The Under-14s can enjoy the ride as success is a journey not a destination. These moments will live long in the memory.”