It has been quite a year for Sidmouth RFC with the Chiefs resuming their league campaign on the first Saturday of January when they entertain the team sitting immediately below them at the top of the table, St Austell.
The Cornish side will arrive at the Blackmore, sitting second with 54 points- six fewer than the Chiefs, who have played one game fewer and so a home victory and the gap between first and second will increase to one of 11 points.
As for Sidmouth Chiefs year of 2018 it began – and ended – with Western Counties (West) League meetings with Paignton.
The South Devon side were hosts to Sidmouth back on January 6 when the Chiefs won 40-26 and the final game of 2018 was on December 8, when the Chiefs won 34-18.
In the year, Sidmouth have played 25 matches, winning 20 of them, drawing two and losing just three with their only defeats in 2018 being a January 13, 29-25 home defeat to then high-flying St Ives (SW), a March 17, 24-22 defeat away at Chard and a 34-7 defeat in the penultimate game of last season- the visit to Wadebridge Camels.
The biggest win of the year, was the January 27 67-0 success at home to Torquay and they did also record one other clean sheet victory – that being the 40-0 win they enjoyed at home to Crediton back in November.
In terms of the point’s tallies at either end of the pitch in the 25 matches that the Chiefs played, they scored 931 and shipped 412.
This current season the Chiefs are unbeaten in their league campaign, having won 12 and drawn one of their 134 fixtures to date. So far they have scored 447 points and conceded 181. Only one other side, Crediton, have bettered the points conceded – they have shipped 180, while, in terms of points scored, the next best is the 367 scored by fourth placed Wellington.
Tribute Western Counties (West) table – top six as at end of 2018
P W D L F A Pts
Sidmouth 13 12 1 0 447 181 60
St Austell 14 11 0 3 324 185 54
Crediton 13 10 1 2 283 180 48
Wellington 13 9 1 3 367 184 43
Tiverton 14 7 1 6 296 242 37
Wadebridge Camels 14 7 0 7 315 346 35
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