Teams 
A glorious early morning away to Okey meant sun cream, with a side of hand sanitizer (Frank Cousins!) were slapped on, along with copious amounts of horse liniment for the stretching of muscles due to the delay between games!
The crowd were faced with an uphill first half spectacle against an extremely large Okey pack and speedy 3’s recovering from Covid.
A slow start by the Bide boys were kept in the game early doors with ‘le crunch’ Tom ‘my dads actually watching today’ Holmes putting his body on the line to defend the goal line. Lack of match practice and a few high tackles followed an exciting three-quarter run by the strong Okey offence, giving them a deserved try in the corner 5-0 Okey.
Bide reacted with spirit, flair and enthusiasm with some good counter attacking in their half under pressure from the impressive Okey side; with quick ball finally delivered by the Bide pack, the ball flew out through silky hands for Curley ‘Poodle’ Jarret to score – 5-5
Sandy ‘back on games’ Carrick converted 7-5
Bide continued with good pressure in defence with some hard-hitting tackling and quality banter by Monty ‘my dads the loudest on the touch line’ Olde, confusing the ref at the restart thinking he was a windmill with the arm gestures! (for info the ref said do you know who I am? Apparently some famous ref?!!) The commitment in defence was evident with the unfortunate wrist injury to Harv ’last in the A&E Sunday queue’ Foreman, where he had to wait several hours to be informed his arm was fractured in two places – his immense body effort meant a try saving tackle, of course we all send our best wishes for a speedy return to the team.
Not being content with just one injury, Marley ‘tweaky hamstring’ Carrs decided to hobble off (obviously not enough horse liniment) was replaced by ‘Will ‘tower of power’ Bliss and Lucas ‘looking cool’ Cackett ramping up the attack.
Okehampton continued with lots of possession until Charlie ‘pocket rocket’ Stevenson attacked blind from a ruck to find to Finn ‘snakey hips fat fingers’ Johnson and Hen ‘I’ll show Grandpa’ Cousins dived adjacent to the corner flag to steal 5 points against the odds – 12-5 Bide.
Bide played out the rest of the first half keeping the ball tight with some good ball retention by Moose ‘El Capitano’ Waters.
The crowd were fed and watered at half time with the only coffee bean waved at tepid water – some interesting coffee combos! The obvious sound half-time team talk by the coaches meant downhill advantage and scrummaging discussed and put right in preparation for the re-start.
Half time replacements were James ‘ready brek’ Creswell popping up on the right wing glowing with energy.
With a new sound platform up front, the game changed with some great attacking running by ‘The Twinnettes’ Sam and Ruben and the front row now looking shapely and back ‘on form’ – this front row combo was reminiscent of a twig between two oaks but gave us ample ball for the next few scrummages – hats off to Hen ‘Willy’ Willis and the ever-growing Jon ‘JT’ Taylor as hooks.
A turnover ball, and some touch line hugging running, pressure was put back onto Okey to defend. Strong tenacious attacking play was provided by all and after a rock steady scrum on Okey’s line gave the old Charlie to Sandy half-back combo (if you like marmite) score 17-5
Conversion supplied by the confident Mr Carrick- 19-5 Bide.
Marley ‘legs swapped’ Carrs had snuck back on the pitch and followed some ill-disciplined Okey horse play causing a line out penalty to Bide. A well crated lineout turned into a maul and pick and drive, whereby Joe ‘forgive me dad for dropping the first two touches’ bullocked over through two HUGE players to score – a switch of kicking tactic gave Curls the conversion 26-5 Bide.
Although Bide should have sealed off the match at this point, Okey were never going to give up and scored after creating some illusive and penetrating runs by their man of the match fullback – 26-12 after Okey converted.
Pressure was being fully absorbed by Bide and we suffered from lack of ball retention at times, although the Bide boys fully put their bodies on the line during the final 10 minutes. The defence was once again apparent with last minute try stopping tackles – A final Okey try gave the final score a heart stopping 26-19 to Bideford.
A good result for the boys – a learning curve in some areas of the game, but lots to be positive about.
From the team Whatsapp group, there were more than just a few aches and pains and recovery for Bude will be important in the coming days. Hope all injured players get well soon.
