Sidmouth Under-13 girls travelled to Cullompton for their latest action.

When the sides had met in Sidmouth earlier in the season the Mid Devon girls had won 6-1 in a fairly one-sided encounter.

However, this time round the score was much closer with Cully winning 5-4.

Sidmouth, boosted by their previous outings success over Plymstock, and led out onto the pitch by Minty May, began well and things were even-steven without either side managing to get the better of the other’s fine defence until, just before the close of the first quarter, the home side broke the deadlock with a breakaway try.

The second quarter saw more of the same with solid tackling the order of the day from both sides and this made opportunities to score few and far between! However, there was a special moment early in the quarter when Cleo Turley broke down the left to dot down for the first Sidmouth score.

Amy Scott, Ellie Monro Higgs and Jess Perry made a number of crunching tackles and Abbey French was her usual busy self heaping pressure on the Cully back lines.

Esme Bagwell managed a couple of long runs that were stopped with her just short of the line.

At the other end of the pitch Immy Bagwell made a number of try-saving tackles.

Sidmouth scored a superb try when Lucy Tanner and Annabelle Emmott linked up prior to Minty May weaving her way between three opponents before crossing the whitewash.

The final quarter began with Cullompton holding a 5-3 lead. Sidmouth threw everything they had at the Mid Devon side, but, despite scoring a fourth try they were unable to even the scores up.

A huge positive for the Sidmouth girls after the game was the fact that the opposition lauded them saying that it was the hardest game that Cully had faced this season!

Given the current rate of development and progress in the team, when the sides meet in the second half of the season, Cully may well find it even tougher!