| Sports Reports |
| Monday, 16 January 2012 11:11 |
Wednesday 4th Jan 2012British Colleges Sport Football South West Division 1 Sir Gar College 2 South Devon College 2 This turned out to be an excellent performance from South Devon; Devon started the game poorly and looked like a team that had not played together for a number of weeks…the Christmas break obviously having an effect.
In difficult conditions, both wind & rain made it difficult to produce quality football, Devon failed initially to play to the conditions and were quickly down by two goals. Just prior to half time the team grabbed a lifeline when they snatched a goal in reply through Aaron Walker.
After an honest half time talk with the coaches, Devon came out with a more positive attitude and began to dominate the second half, with Dan Pagett coming on and making a good contribution. Devon’s pressure began to tell and an equaliser came through Jamie Meaden from close range.
Devon continued to take the game to their opponents and a couple of chances were created, but could not be capitalised on. Devon after a hesitant start came away with a deserved point and the effort and commitment shown for the majority of the game was a credit to the players in difficult conditions. Squad J Spriggs (7), A Palmer (8), N Last (9), R White (7), N Warren (6), R Frayne (6), D Ashworth (8), G Yates (7), S Summers (8), A Walker (7), J Meaden (8), B Garnett (7), D Pagett (8), G Routledge (7) Coaches Dave Newton & Darren Gibson Monday 9th Jan 2012British Colleges Sport NCFL Football Cup South Devon College 0 Exeter College 4 South Devon suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Exeter College at Stoke Gabriel’s Broadley Lane ground. Both sides shared the early exchanges with South Devon having the best chance when excellent work by Aaron Walker on the Exeter right flank produced a good cross, only for Sean Summers to head over from 6 yards. South Devon continued to apply pressure, and to an extent stifled Exeter’s wide players who were causing Summers and Warren on the left and Palmer and Pagett on the right problems with their pace and trickery. Exeter’s 1st goal started with South Devon having good possession on their right, which was carelessly given away, allowing Exeter to counter attack.
The ball was transferred to the Exeter right wing in two passes. Warren and Summers failed to stop the cross by Luke Alden into the SDC box, which was converted into the home net by Exeter’s Tom Fowler. The rest of 1st half petered out with both sides finding the playing surface a problem resulting in miscued clearances, and misplaced passes occurring time after time. Second Half
After emphasising the point of making sure each players first contribution in the second half was a positive one, SDCs kick off was passed back towards Ashworth at pace who decided to let it go past him and then a misplaced forward ball was given directly back to the opposition. This set the tone for what was a poor second half performance by South Devon. Exeter created several chances which where fortunately dealt with by the consistent and reliable SDC goal keeper, James Spriggs’ who stifled each effort with either his feet or hands. Spriggs in goal, Ryan Harrison White and Ryan Frayne were the pick of the bunch for SDC when too many players had an off day, and did not compete with their direct opponent. Exeter’s second goal was scored from a corner when Ashworth and Summers reacted slowly to a short corner and the resulting cross was converted into the home net by Exeter’s Howe.
Disappointingly some heads went down after this goal and SDC never looked like getting back into the game as a result. Mistakes by Last and Pagett who both failed to deal with bread and butter balls into the box resulted in a 4 – 0 defeat, after what was a promising 1st half performance by South Devon. Spriggs 8, Palmer 6, Warren 5, White 8, Last 6, Summers 5, Ashworth 5, Yates 5, Pagett 5, Frayne 7, Walker 5.
Coach Alex Watson
Monday 9th Jan 2012 England Schools Basketball South West R2 South Devon College 97 Ivybridge College 57 South Devon resumed their basketball season after the Christmas break with a local fixture against Ivybridge College in the England Basketball schools U19 competition. The first quarter was a tight affair with both teams trading points and this continued through the second quarter, with Culley as ever scoring points and Flanders strong in defence. After the break Devon upped their game and began to pull away from their opponents. Culley was causing more problems for the away side and Hall & Westlake were contributing well.
With Rusell, Hilborne & Hutchins all getting court time; Devon eased home with, in the end a comfortable victory.
Squad B Hilborne, C Hutchins, J Culley, T Hall, J Noble, J Russell, J Westlake, C Caton, M Cheeseworth, S Flanders
Coach George Hatchell
Wednesday 11th Jan 2012British Colleges Sport NCFL Football Yeovil College 2 South Devon College 1 Yeovil claimed the spoils in what was an evenly fought out contest between two very committed teams at Yeovil’s Somerton ground. South Devon reverted to a 4-5-1 formation to try and steady the ship after a disappointing performance against Exeter in the previous game. Neil Last pushed into midfield and Dickerson came in on the left hand side, with Routledge replacing Last in the centre of defence. To everyone’s credit the way the team adapted to the new system was excellent. Early exchanges created few clear cut chances, but the best of those fell to South Devon. Dickerson pressurised the Yeovil full back along with Frayne, allowing him to intercept the ball and race clear down the Yeovil left, the resulting cross/shot went over the bar. This tactic was causing the opposition defence to panic and several other interceptions by Dickerson on the left and Summers on the right gave SDC good possession in the attacking third. Frayne, Dickerson and Summers all had efforts saved by the Yeovil keeper, with Spriggs in the SDC goal left with little to do in remaining minutes of the 1st Half.
Yeovil applied more pressure from the off in the second half, without having any really clear cut chances. White, Routledge, Warren and Palmer looked comfortable at the back and dealt with all that was thrown at them. As the half progressed SDC visibly tired more than Yeovil, and although we can make excuses about having two games in three days, we must ask ourselves whether we are as fit as we can be? With 14 minutes left Yeovil broke the deadlock, a forward ball from Spriggs, broke to a Yeovil midfielder who played a ball over the top of the static SDC defence and into Yeovil’s number 7’s (Herd) feet, who calmly slotted the ball past the advancing Spriggs. With little time left SDC had to throw caution to the wind and gamble. Ashworth had a fantastic chance to equalise when Summers and Walker worked the ball into the box, only for Ashworth to fail to make contact from two yards out.
Further attacks failed to penetrate the Yeovil goal. Yeovil earned a corner on the counter attack with 5 minutes to go, and the reliable Spriggs, for once made a mistake and failed to collect a routine ball into the box, and the game was out of reach at 2-0. Credit where credit is due, the lads never stopped and scored a penalty after White was fouled in the box. Last scored the resulting spot kick at the second opportunity. Two more chances to equalise followed, but all to no avail.
All said and done it was a disappointing defeat, but the positives far outweighed the negatives with regards to the performance. Excellent attitude, commitment and at times some excellent play contributed to an excellently contested college game. SDCs pick of the day was Neil Last. Spriggs 6, Palmer 6, Warren 6, White 6, Routledge 6, Summers 6, Yates 6, Last 8, Ashworth 6, Dickerson 6, Frayne 7, (Walker 6)
Coach Alex Watson Wednesday 11th Jan 2012British Colleges Sport South West Football Division 1 Bodmin College 2 South Devon College 2 South Devon produced a good performance away to Bodmin College, showing a good work rate and endeavour in a hard fought physical game. The effort levels shown were excellent with the only disappointment being the fact that a number of chances that were created were not taken to give Devon the victory.
South Devon took the lead through Justin Denning who took his chance from a left wing cross from close range, however Devon switched off after taking the lead and allowed Bodmin to equalise within a minute. Devon regained the lead when Liam Northcott scored direct from a free kick and Devon really should have put the game to bed with the chances they created, but having failed to do so, they allowed Bodmin to equalise again when they gave away a penalty only 5 minutes from time. The performance was pleasing both for hard work & effort levels and the quality of football shown, particularly by Northcott, George, Garnett & Hassell.
Squad M Tarr, A George, L Jonas, K Hassell, L Tapp, J Denning, B Garnett, S Smith, L Northcot, T Cordoroy, S Troth, P Shaw, B Spriggs
Coach Dave Newton Wednesday 11th Jan 2012British Colleges Sport Netball SW City Academy, Bristol 50 South Devon College 15 South Devon travelled to Bristol to resume their Netball season, having seen an upturn in both results & performances. Having played City Academy already this season and lost in a closely fought contest Devon went up the M5 with high hopes. The Bristol side though were a much stronger proposition on their home turf and they put in a solid performance against their Devon opponents. Devon were always chasing the game and their chances were hampered when team captain Sapphire Hendriksen suffered with illness throughout the game and Hales was feeling the effects of a long layoff through injury.
Despite good performances from Hendriksen, Walker, Clarke & Bull Devon could not exert enough pressure to put Bristol in trouble, and with chances being at a premium scoring was made difficult.
Squad S Walker, S Hendriksen, K Legge, C Clarke, O Anderson, C Bull, N Partridge, L Hales, T Hazel Coach Kate Harper Coming FixturesWednesday 18th Jan 2012 Football 2nd Team v Richard Huish College Football 3rd Team v Kingsbridge Netball v Exeter College Rugby v Exeter College Basketball v Stoke Dameral College |
