FALMOUTH 27pts Wellington 10pts

Falmouth's opening home league fixture against Wellington, sponsored by the Penmere Manor Hotel, was a hectic but nevertheless very entertaining game which was not decided until the final quarter when Falmouth took complete command and ran in two excellent tries to win 27-10.

Until then Wellington were always in contention and gave as good as they got in all the exchanges, but eventually Falmouth's superior forward play laid the foundation for this well-deserved victory by winning and retaining the ball for long periods.

The game got off to a very slow start - literally - as the Wellington players were held up in holiday traffic and the kick-off did not occur until just before 3.30pm.

Then ensued a scrappy passage of play as both teams tried to shake themselves out of their summer inactivity, but over-exuberance meant that there were a series of penalties awarded which broke up the continuity of play. Only one of the penalties led to a score and this was a straight kick at goal by flyhalf Mark Parsons who opened Wellington's account and put the visitors in the lead 0-3 after 10 minutes.

From then on Falmouth grew in stature as the forwards took command of the lineouts through Grant Nicholls and Andrew Lancaster and secured quick, controlled ball from the scrums. A score seemed sure to come as Falmouth applied consistent pressure on the Wellington line and eventually from a lineout Liam Chapple, at flyhalf, popped a neat pass to Danny Trick on the burst and the centre ran in at the post for Steve Larkins to convert.

Falmouth were immediately looking for more as the pack, with new prop Lee Binmore showing up well, took play back to the Wellington 22 metre area. Here they executed a near-perfect catch and drive from a lineout for Grant Nicholls to touch down and extend Falmouth's advantage to 12-3 at the interval.

At the restart Falmouth were quickly on the attack again and stretched the Wellington defence as everyone probed to increase the score. However, Falmouth failed to retain possession when the ball was dropped and Wellington broke out with some delightful handling to send flanker James Hawkins over for Parsons to add the extras and they were back in the game at 12-10.

There was now all to play for and both teams tried for the match-winning score as time slipped away. Steve Larkins steadied the Falmouth "ship" with a well-struck penalty goal to increase the gap to five points before he put in a long, elusive run from fullback to send skipper Kelvin Dagg in for an excellent try to make the score 22-10 with Larkins' conversion.

Falmouth now seemed to have done enough but they crowned a very encouraging first league game with a try by winger Shawn May who was put clear by some timely passing along the three-quarter line. Shawn had 50 metres to go when he received the ball and he had the energy and skill to outpace the covering defence and dive over in the corner.

This was a good performance by Falmouth and the team will be keen to build on this on Saturday next when they entertain Bideford in a match sponsored by Hawkins Motors of Chacewater.

Bideford defeated Liskeard-Looe 13-5 last Saturday in their league game and Falmouth will remember the close games of last season. This will be a good test for Falmouth who must be looking to win another home league fixture.

The game which kicks off at 3 pm will be preceded by the "A" team Merit Table match against St Ives, sponsored by the Observatory Guest House and 60one, starting at 1.30pm and will be followed by the Colts playing Camborne Colts at 5.00 pm. It should be an entertaining day of rugby.

In last week's article about caps being presented to Falmouth, Peter Gilson, who handed them over to the club said the caps came from a Betty Andrew, who is the daugthter of the owner of the caps. She is now 80 plus and lives in Exeter and was clearing out and about to throw them away which is how Peter came by them.