IVYBRIDGE dropped out of the Regional Two South West play-off zone after losing 33-17 away to Crediton, who leap-frogged above them and into fifth place.
However, Ivybridge are only one point off fifth spot and do have a game in hand, which is against winless bottom side Wellington.
On a heavy pitch, the Bridgers led 7-0 at half-time at Blagdon on Saturday, with Owen Alp scoring a try, which Charlie Teague converted.
But after the interval, Crediton scored two quick scores – one a penalty try – to take a 14-7 lead before Teague cut the lead with a penalty.
However, the momentum shifted the home side’s way and they went 33-10 in front, but the Bridgers did finish on a high with a try by debutant Eden Quantock.
“It just wasn’t our day,” said Ivybridge head coach Steve Atkinson afterwards.
“They (Crediton) did really well to slow our ball down.
“We tried to make some adjustments, but it was just one of those games.
“We didn’t really get a lot of go-forward ball all game.
“We dug in a little bit and managed to get a couple of tries, but it is a tough place to go.
“To be honest, I can’t remember the last time we won up there.
“I think both sides had a couple of lads out, so we were quite evenly matched.”
Saltash stay at the foot of Counties One Western West after they were beaten 34-8 at leaders Wiveliscombe.
It was their biggest league defeat of the season, but they had travelled without a host of key players.
Will Morton, Ryan Cruickshanks, Lewis Wells and Lewis Woolaway were among those missing in Somerset, but the club will have been boosted by seeing forwards Fin Jones, Ryan Rayner and Tom Rixson make their comebacks in their second team’s 43-0 home win over Lankelly-Fowey.
With eight games and 40 points still to play for in the league, Saltash will know if they can get all their players fit and available then they will have a chance of moving out of the bottom three.
Saltash felt they should have beaten Wiveliscombe at home, narrowly losing by just a point after missing a late kick to win, but the Somerset side were dominant on their own patch on Saturday.
The game was switched to Wiveliscombe’s training ground with their first team pitch still unplayable.
And the home team took an early lead after four minutes when their pack drove the Ashes back towards their own line and Rory Stone touched down.
Saltash fought back and were awarded a penalty eight minutes later and scrum-half Jack Pritchard kicked the points.
The home side then missed a penalty before a good cross-field handling movement led to their second try on the left wing through Jack Lee which was converted after 20 minutes to make it 12-3.
Saltash received a yellow card and the home side took advantage of their domination and scored two tries courtesy of scrum-half Richard Baker to make it 22-3.
Saltash battled hard to gain some headway and just after a yellow card was shown to a Wiveliscombe player a rare visit into the home 22 at the very end of the first half resulted in centre Greg Eatwell finishing off an enterprising handling movement to score a try close to the posts.
The second period continued in the very muddy conditions with Wiveliscombe controlling the game, but it took until 54 minutes before more sure hands on the wet ball enabled them to cross the Ashes line on the left wing for a Will Thorn touch-down.
Both sides kicked to gain ground in the deteriorating conditions with varying degrees of success and it was with great credit that Saltash held out in defence until the final seconds when following persistent pressure the home team broke through the resilient Ashes and crossed under the posts for a converted try from Stone.
But a strong Saltash II side claimed their first win since the end of November as they beat Lankelly-Fowey 43-0 at home.
The Ashes side included the experienced Ryan Rayner, Tom Rixson, Jason Carroll, Devan Marshall and Colm Rich, alongside some of their youngsters. Fin Jones also made his long-awaited return from a broken and dislocated wrist, while Will Morton also made a cameo appearance from the bench.
Morton scored two tries, with Steve Kelly also bagging a brace. Rayner, Jones and Carroll touched down for their other scores.
OPMs missed out on reaching the quarter-finals of the Counties Two South Plate RFU cup competition after losing 21-12 in extra-time to Perranporth under the floodlights at a wet and misty Cross-in-Hand.
OPMs had moved the match to the Ivybridge artificial pitch to make sure they got the game played after it was twice postponed.
The opening 80 minutes was a poor spectacle, with both teams struggling to put any phases together whatsoever.
There were lots of mistakes and lots of kicking and not many people in attendance would have really wanted another 20 minutes, especially as it was not that easy to see the whole pitch due to the mist.
However, that is what they got after OPMs’ scrum-half Phrankie McNulty was ruled to have scored under the posts with the last play of normal time and Fred Smale added the simple conversion to make it 12-12.
OPMs had led 5-0 at half-time, with Fred Smale scoring a try in the sixth minute after gathering a cross-field kick from Pete Regan.
Perranporth had missed a kick at goal in the opening 40 minutes, but apart from that there was not much to remember about that period, apart from mistakes and both teams failing to find touch with penalties.
OPMs did dominate the scrums the whole match, but they were unable to take advantage of that dominance.
In wet and windy conditions, Smale missed two penalty kicks early in the second half and in the 67th minute, Perranporth went in front for the first time when lock Rewan Matthews touched down from close range from a tap penalty, which Ashley Carter converted.
And in the 75th minute, Perranporth thought they had won the game when they intercepted OPMs on their own line and ran the full length of the field before Keaton Hicks-Willson scored in the right corner.
But deep in injury-time, McNulty took a quick tap penalty himself and dived under the posts. Perranporth’s players felt he had knocked the ball on, but the try was awarded and Smale kicked the conversion.
The referee blew up straight after that kick, leaving both teams facing another 20 minutes.
In extra-time, Perranporth scrum-half Sam Thomas and flanker James Batley really made their marks and the visitors secured four penalties which Carter kicked to book his team a place in the quarter-finals.
Afterwards OPMs head coach James Digweed said: “It was very disappointing.
“The boys do have a lot of heart, but we left 15 points out there in the first half.
“Our scrum was fantastic, but our line-out was dreadful. It is quite bizarre to have such a dominant scrum but then have such a weak line-out for a change.
“It is just disappointing, but the boys worked hard.”
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