Douglas South put in an accomplished first-half performance to set up a win over Ramsey and keep their Manx Trophy hopes alive.

It was the proverbial game of two halves at Port-e-Chee where the home side racked up 33 unanswered points in the first period, and Ramsey came out of their shell to register two tries in a second-half purple patch.

Douglas South hooker Joe Corkish scored within two minutes of kick-off, converted by Jack Shimmin for a 7-0 lead before the northerners’ got into their stride.

The impressive Harry Corrin and marauding Sam McCord went in for two more Douglas South tries, before the power of Ramsey’s back-rower Jamie Arneil and boot of Dan Richmond began to register.

Ramsey lost number 10, Tom Moffatt, through injury after Douglas South openside Sam Games applied the severest pressure, and the necessary positional re-shuffle didn’t help the visitors.

Influential Douglas South fullback Joshua Duncan was on the end of a counter-attack for 28-0 after Shimmin’s conversion extras, and when Corkish drove through two tackles to clock up a brace on the cusp of half-time, it looked a long afternoon in the trenches for the Ramsey men.

But, midway through the second period it appeared that neither side could score. Defences ruled and chances were missed, until Brandon Atchison burst through the Douglas South defence for a try in the 60th minute.

Ten minutes on and Ramsey’s Peter Frankwick sprinted in for Richmond to convert and bring a sniff of recovery, but Douglas South put on replacements Thomas Coleman and senior debutant Adam Palmer to close the game down and stay on the Manx Trophy heels of Douglas North.

The two Port-e-Chee side go head-to-head this Saturday when the title could be decided. In the other Trophy game Vagabonds clinched their first try bonus point of the campaign with a 29-19 win away to Southern Nomads in Port Erin.

Tom Gascoyne ran in a hat-trick of tries for Vagas and there were also scores from Mark Oldfield and Rob Keelan, plus two conversions from Ryan de la Harpe.

Ben Fry was on target yet again for Nomads, Django Kinley continuing his good form with two and Mark Young added two conversions.

tony wilson-spratt