Sidmouth Under-13 girl’s were involved in a terrific match against Paignton and Newton Abbot.

The girl’s were back into action just seven days after a tremendous 8-6 victory over Exeter Saracens.

Without Hatty Tremlett who had been so inspirational in the previous game, the Sidmouth girls made a good start and the first quarter of the contest saw captain Cleo Turley and Abbey French stamp their authority on the match with a couple of early tries. The team suffered a blow when Zoe Allen, who had been making some great tackles, unfortunately ended up at the bottom of a ruck and limped out of the action. Her loss to the team was boosted by the arrival of Esme Bagwell, who had been at a dance class, and she was soon in the thick of the action, putting in some terrific tackling and instigating some powerful counter attacks that often led to Lilly Baker crossing for further tries.

Immy Bagwell and Annabelle Emmot both supported the runners and kept the ball moving and the first half ended with Sidmouth holding a richly deserved 7-1 lead.

For the third quarter captain Cleo Turley handed over team control to Lucy Tanner and she too led from the front making a brace of fast-paced runs down the right wing that led to her crossing for a try of her own before she set up Ellie Monro Higgs for a 30 metre run into the corner. Annabelle Bird also made a couple of weaving breaks, beating a couple of Paignton players each time, working well with Amy Scott who did well keeping the ball alive.

In the last quarter Minty May, who had tackled, rucked and run her heart out all game, got within a metre of getting a try before being knocked into touch by a tremendous Paignton tackle.

Undaunted, Minty took the next crash ball through the opposition to set up her teammate Lilly Baker for a try.

Cleo Turley came back on for the last few minutes to seal a hat-trick of tries and others to cross the opposition line before the end were Lilly Baker and Abbey French.

The South Devon side had the final say with a late consolation.

Both sides played their parts in a terrific encounter with plenty of excellence shown, particularly with offloading and tackling. One thing that also shone through from first whistle to last was that all involved participated with a smile on their faces, clearly enjoying what they were doing.