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Date Posted: 12:28:53 04/22/04 Thu
Author: rb
Subject: Evening Herald Report for Last Night's matches

The trophy cabinet at Moorlands Lane will today be filled with spoils from the RNEC and Pedrick Cups as Saltash first and second teams head back across the Tamar. Ashes' second-string overawed Argaum Wanderers with a 45-5 scoreline which included a hat-trick for centre Matt Simmonds.

Skipper Steve O'Melia said: "Matt Simmonds was our man-of-the-match. Overall we had a good game, played well and a fine end for 53-year-old Fred Tucker who is retiring."

Argaum had made the early running and Chris Millar jinked his way out of trouble for Saltash.

Simmonds threw a wayward pass at the other end to deny his side the first blood but within minutes was over the line from a tap penalty move.

Argaum's driving maul saw Paul Venkort stopped short at the other end and further pressure from the Wanderers tested the Ashes defence.

On the 20 minutes a penalty fed along the line from Millar found the gap for Simmonds' second with scrum-half Ben Jones converting.

Ashes had the territory and Simmonds completed his trio of tries inside the half hour when a clever kick over Argaum dropped in-goal.

Right winger Ryan Jones dived into the left corner with Jones potting the conversion and on the half-time whistle had added the extras after Ashes' pack drove over.

Trailing by 33 points, Argaum brought Will Moulder on to steady their front row and Wanderers spent the third quarter inside the Saltash half, the Mattus brothers being a constant threat.

Ashes had introduced club chairman Steve Moss among the replacements but the fresh legs couldn't prevent Argaum's Stuart Courtman from finding a hole in the defence.

The restart took Saltash into Argaum's half and with the pack driving forwards Ashes' Andy Hughes came up with the ball on the half-hour. Full-back Kevin Noyce potted the kick.

Ashes continued to press the Argaum line and replacement Noyce, on for Grant Brettell, weaved through on the stroke of full-time, with his conversion bringing the Pedrick Cup with a 45-5 victory.

Argaum spokesman Richard Belli said: "We battled well and stuck at it. We had some youngsters and will hope to build on this next season."

St Columba and Torpoint put up a gritty display against Saltash in the RNEC Cup final and victorious Ashes skipper Steve Hall praised them, and said after the 26-5 win: "Credit to Columba, we have played teams from higher leagues but none have given us as hard a fight as tonight.

"We've had an up-and-down season so to finish with some silver will lift our spirits."

Saints paid no respect to Ashes' status as they laid on the first attack which ended with a five-metre scrum. But after full-back Si Nicholls' up-and-under found Saltash's Vaughan Roberts responding, a high ball caught Columba empty at the back. Ashes attacked but were too complex in the backs until centre John Forde slipped through to make the opening touchdown.

Craig Walters' penalty attempt went wide as Saltash were caught handling in the ruck two minutes later.

But Columba stayed in the area and Greg Mason made some crashing runs at Ashes' backline in a passage of play which gave Columba the impetus for number eight Drew Blakely to round off. Half an hour in and the score was even again.

Skipper Hall picked up at the back of a scrum to sprint 50 metres up the wing.

Hauled down just short of the line Ashes made the most of the opportunity and a switch move put Nigel Owen in to regain the lead. The Ashes fly-half's conversion went high and straight for a 12-5 half-time advantage.

Saltash came out fired up for the second half but still found the final pass going astray.

Julian Oakes and James Woodward were felled short of the line by a Columba defence that was proving impenetrable. But Hall peeled off a five-metre scrum and his cross-field run gave John Forde a running line for the Ashes centre to drag his tacklers in with him.

Ashes' higher league experience began to show with Woodward punching holes in Torpoint's defences - but Columba's Shaun Austin caught everything at the lineout and Nicholls was always ready to attack from deep.

Nippy scrum-half Jeff Thompson split Saint apart and took Ashes to within a metre of the line but Phil Masters' illegal use of the boot had the second row heading for the sin-bin and Columba clearing their line.

With the whistle drawing near, Saltash found some urgency and from outside the 22 fly-half Owen dummied to go in under the posts. His kick was academic to the 26-5 result but Columba didn't stop fighting.

Columba skipper Pincher Martin said: "It was a very good performance, we raised our game. Saltash deserved to win but we gave them a good game."

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