Report by Phill Raddenbury

If it was a blood and guts display of Club Cup rugby then Tregorrick Park was the place to be, crammed to the rafters in the stand with a huge Wimborne travelling support it offered the pride and passion for the purist and a nail biting finish to the faithful St Austell Massive.

Wimborne started brightly immediately pressuring the home sides twenty two and try line, stoic defence from the St Austell back line prevented this and the Saints clawed their way back up the field, an impressive break and kick from Full Back Sam Tank eased the pressure, possession from this earning a Penalty and Scrum Half Matt Shepherd opened the Saints' account with a clean struck penalty. Wimborne immediately stepped up a gear and an enthralling display of fast moving interchanging passes took them again to the home goal area, the defence held and a turn over tackle from Ian Venner saved the Saints and Skipper Andy Ashwin cleared the lines. A Sin Bin for Wimborne winger Tom Brown from the resulting phase of play gained the Saints some extra territory and they started to enjoy more possession and field position.

Clean line out delivery from the in form lock Scott McNally again opened the attack for St Austell a penalty for not releasing by Wimborne allowed Matt Shepherd to strike his second in the 27th minute, a similar run of play allowed Matt Shepherd to claim his third of the match just 3 minutes later.

The caper continued with the battle for supremacy in the mid field enthralling the crowd with heart in mouth breaks for both sides. At half time the Saints turned around 9-0 but everyone felt that the match was yet to begin.

The Saints seemed to suffer a half time hangover starting with Wimborne the brighter of the two, effective phases of play supported by some great work by the visitors pack resulted in a penalty which Tom Moyesey struck with ease and reduced the deficit to keep them within a converted try, Saints countered and again the mid field became a battlefield for the forwards ploughing relentlessly into one another, the set pieces were evenly contested while the break had yet to come, it was not long before the Tregorrick faithful were rewarded, Sam Rhodes and Paul Winterbottom both recently introduced to the game made an impact with Winterbottom powering over from a ruck to send the Tregorrick Park Massive into a frenzy. Shepherd narrowly missed the conversion and with 20 minutes to go the mayhem commenced.

With Wimborne cleverly utilsing the skills of old heads to get the chance to recoup their breath it became a torrid encounter with Sin Bins for St Austell's Adam Kellow , Paul Winterbottom and Hugh Noott and Wimborne's Will Tarband something had to give and the visitors James LLewellyn scored a late try.

Nerves turned to unbridled joy as the final whistle from referee Mr Curry bought the house down, the final score 14-8 with either Brighton or North Walsham offering the last hurdle before Twickenham.

Next week it is back to league action with a Western Counties West league home game vs Truro k.o 14:30 it promises to be yet another hard game.
Star Man for the Saints Andy Ashwin for his unerring direction of the team.

Tries
St Austell - Winterbottom, Pens- Shepherd 3
Wimborne-Llewellyn, Pen Moysey