DEPLETED Dartmouth dropped down from eighth to ninth in the Devon One standings after going down 88-21 away to table-topping Torquay Athletic.

Even with a full-strength side on duty it would have been a challenge for Dartmouth to keep the unbeaten Tics quiet for long. And so it turned out.

Morgan Alcock completed a first-half try hat-trick for the Tics, who were over the horizon at 55-0 up by the break.

Matt Butler crossed twice in the first half and claimed a hat-trick try after the interval. Eight more tries were shared between Lewis Harben (2), Jamie Blatchford, Josh Macken (2). Ben Sharples, Jonny Brown and Lewis Crocker, who also booted eight conversions.

Dartmouth’s try scorers were Lewis Sharam (2) and Jake Bridgwood. Kieran Wells kicked the goals.

Steve Atkins, the Dartmouth president and a former player, said just getting a side out and finishing with 15 men on the pitch was an achievement.

“We had a lot of unavailabilities, so much so we only had 12 on Thursday night,” said Atkins.

“By Friday afternoon we were up to 14 – and made it 15 when Declan Hammond was talked into playing when he was in the pub that night!

“Because we had no replacements, no one could go off and we finished with a few limping around.”

Atkins said the positive aspect of the game was its impact on the cohesion of the team.

“We had blokes that had barely played helping us out, so you would expect it to be tough at first,” said Atkins.

“In the second half we made it much harder for Torquay – and scored three tries of our own.

“Games like this are always great for team building, especially when you come back the way we did.”