Thornbury suffered their fourth consecutive defeat as they went down to table-toppers Okehampton writes Dave Fox.

The result meant Thorns’ have now lost six of their last seven matches and they remain dangerously close to the third relegation place.

Okehampton kicked went ahead after two minutes with a simple penalty. The early stages were even, but Thorns went ahead on twelve minutes.

A clever move on halfway put Dan Hussey through a gap and he raced down the right touchline.

He was hauled down but the forwards picked up and drove forward in a number of charges towards the posts where Liam Pemberton was able to touch the ball down at the foot of a post and claim the try. Jake Wood converted for a 7-3 lead.

Thornbury’s scrum began to struggle against a far bigger and experienced eight and that powerful unit regained the lead when they drove Thorns over the line for a converted pushover try.

Okehampton were now in control but Thorns’ defence was sound, however on the half hour Thorns lost the ball running out of defence and presented the visitors with a try and a 15-7 lead.

The match took on an unsavoury flavour a few minutes later when Louis Ogilvie was violently taken out and had to be replaced.

Then as the half drew to a close Thorns attacked in the Okehampton ‘22’ but lost possession and Okes raced to the other end of the field and scored a third try. At half time Okehampton led 22-7.

In the second half Thorns gained more ball from the breakdown and were able to launch more attacks. Rich Bennett and Harry Glew were close to scoring but the Okehampton defence was sound and kept them out. Instead the try came to Okehampton when they drove over from a lineout. The conversion extended the lead to 29-7.

But Thornbury hit back with a spectacular try.

Wood bisected the defence on a fine run from halfway.

As he was caught he fed Sam Poustie who passed to Hussey who was hauled down ten metres from the line but he passed out of the tackle to Alfie Richardson who scored between the posts.

Wood converted and at 29-14 Thorns had a glimmer of hope they could salvage something from the game. But it was not to be. Okehampton closed out the game to deny Thorns a point.

There were many fine performances. Kieran Wilson battled well against a prop twice his size and age and was prominent in the loose, as was Liam Pemberton and Ben Phillips. Jake Wood had an outstanding game again, but the match sponsors awarded the Player of the Game to Rich Bennett for fine defence and creative attack.

Thornbury’s next league game is a crucial one at Coney Hill on Saturday, March 2 as they look to bounce back in their quest to avoid relegation.