THE hookers scored a hat-trick of tries for Wadebridge Camels as they saw off Topsham 37-20 at Molesworth Field on Saturday, writes Richard Hope.

Despite the monsoon weather over the last week, the pitch looked in fine fettle at Egloshayle.

The reports of rain showers during the game appeared to be unfounded and all was set for a stern test of the Camels' Regional Two South West title ambitions.

Camels were without broken thumb victim Will Symons, but James Grubb was back in the number 12 shirt having returned from his year-long antipodean adventure, while Herbie Stupple had last played for the Camels 17 years ago, and during this break he has accumulated more clubs than an overloaded golf bag. He pulled on the number 8 shirt as if he had never been away. 

Olli Aggis, back from his lumberjacking expedition to Canada, was on the bench, while hooker Shawn Hartleywas next to him, having abandoned plans to swap the sweet air of Cornwall for London smog. I don't believe there is any club at this level who have two hookers of this quality to call on.

Twice-promoted Topsham ventured from Devon with high hopes. They ran into a Camels XV who were in very uncompromising mood.

From the first scrum of the day, the Camels moved the ball right towards the try line and when stopped they then switched play to the left and the ball moved smoothly through the hands. Topsham were forced to concede a penalty and it was no surprise that Darren Livett took a quick tap and forged over from five metres out.

Danny Thomas added the extras to make it 7-0 and only two minutes had clicked by on the Egloshayle Church clock. Topsham were soon on the scoreboard themselves. Taking a ball against the head is a rare event but after seven minutes the visitors managed to hijack a Camels scrum and moved the turnover ball to the blindside at pace, and their right wing Will Loughton showed the covering defenders a clean pair of heels and scored in the corner.

There were a lot of penalties throughout the game, which is inevitable when a team is put under a lot of pressure. It didn’t take long for the league leaders to find the Topsham Achilles heel. It was the catch and drive from any line-out with 20 metres of their line. By the final whistle Topsham must have been sick to death of that particular tactic. The 11th minute brought hooker Callum Bate’s first of two tries from a catch and drive. His throwing at line-outs continues to be flawless and he had the ball shuffled back to him as he joined the back of the driving maul (12-5). The game then entered a period of ebb and flow. Wadebridge continued to have the lion’s share of territory and possession but just failed to engineer the clear final scoring chances. A feature of the game was that penalties were taken very fast, and it contributed to the whole game being slightly chaotic.

It was clear that the Camels pack had the upper hand when the two eights engaged in close arm combat. Topsham attempted to avoid those situations.

It took a full 20 minutes for the Camels to disturb the scoreboard operator’s slumbers. It was no surprise that it was a virtual carbon copy of the previous try. Penalty, kick to the corner, line-out, catch, drive, touchdown. No surprise either that young Bate was the scorer again (17-5).

Topsham narrowed the margin with a penalty just before half time, and following the break they had more success as inside centre Henry Batty went on a weaving run from the Camels 22 to the try line through four missed tackles. He added the conversion and at 17-15 Topsham must have thought they were in with a shout of the spoils. The Camels clearly had other ideas and five minutes later the forwards were turning the screw again from a line-out close to the Topsham line. The first shove to the line was rebuffed but it allowed scrum-half Owen Wilson to pick up and dive over down the blindside. Thomas nailed the extra two points from wide out (24-15). As in the first half, the game went into a 20-minute period of limbo until the Camels broke through again. Most of this time was spent in the visitors' 22 and, following a string of penalties, they received a warning from the match referee Spencer Pearce about the consequences of any further infractions. Topsham fly-half Lewis Webb received a yellow card a short time later. The ’hooker’s hat-trick’ was completed in the 27th minute with Bate’s replacement Hartley touching down under a pile of bodies following a lineout (29-15). This was also the bonus-point try so it was a sensible decision to add a penalty from Thomas in the 32nd minute to put Camels three scores ahead (32-15). Much credit to Topsham, who never threw the towel in and took every opportunity to run with the ball, and with five minutes left, it brought them a deserved consolation try with left wing George Holwill scoring in the left corner (32-20). As if to add insult to injury, there was still time for yet another try from a line-out and catch and drive. The honours went to Livett this time for a final score of 37-20. It was a match dominated by forward power, but it would be remiss not to mention the performance of the prodigal son James Grubb, whose defensive contribution was notable. On Saturday, the Camels travel to Truro for a 2.30pm kick-off.