The villagers drew first blood through an early Jack Pugsley penalty, before Honiton responded with a penalty of their own and a soft try. Fortunately for Withycombe the Honiton kicking from the spot wasn't up to much, so 8-3 it stayed. Those would be the last points Honiton scored as Withycombe's defence woke up and kept a clean sheet for the remaining 68 minutes.

Withycombe drew level on 30 minutes when second row Bicton recruit Zi Alexis scored a try that by next week will surely be a 30-yard screamer, but for now was a close quarters battering. Pugsley missed the conversion but made no mistake five minutes later when Mike Richards scored underneath the posts after breaking from the back of a scrum.

The second half was a story of "what could have been" for both sides. Having missed a couple of shots at goal in the first half, Honiton's luck with the boot didn't improve, and Withycombe can count themselves lucky on the one hand that the score was not a closer affair in the end.

On the other hand, however, the home side had many opportunities to score, but whether it was a bad final pass, a questionable forward pass decision or a dropped ball, something was stopping Withycombe from scoring their first bonus point of the season.

Discipline has been a Withy virtue of late, but today the penalty count was extremely high, and Withies can perhaps count themselves lucky that the referee was not more judicious with the cards. Returning skipper Dave Richards was sent to the sin bin on 60 minutes, as was Aaron Conway on 72, ending the centre's involvement in the game. The saving grace was Withycombe's tackling, so ferocious that Honiton didn't look like scoring a try, and failed to kick any points.

Withycombe started to edge away on 60 minutes when Jack Pugsley put them ten points in front. After a tense period, Withycombe put the game beyond doubt as some clever play from Glenn Channing put Danny Sansom away on the outside from deep, and man of the match Sansom's strong running saw him beat the remaining Honiton defence to score a late try under the posts, Pugsley converting.

The 1st XV travel to Veor next week, site of a stirring 18-16 victory two years ago, whilst the 2nd XV entertain Brixham at Raleigh Park.