HOOKER Sol Moody scored four tries as the Cornish Pirates ended their five-match losing run with victory over Ampthill at Camborne.

The clash was moved to the Recreation Ground – where the Pirates played for four seasons up to 2010 – due to the damage caused by Storm Goretti to the grandstand at the Mennaye Field.

The two sides went into the contest next to each other in the table with the visitors one ahead in ninth, but it was the hosts that started the better even if it took some time for their line-out to function properly.

Conditions were inevitably soft underfoot, but it mattered not when they opened their account with a fine try scored wide out right by wing Arthur Relton. Fly-half Arwel Robson added the extras before the Pirates then created their second try when, following a successful ‘catch and drive’ at the clubhouse corner, it ended with Moody registering his first of the afternoon.

Better was to come for the hosts when Moody broke clear on a drive to the line and showed his pace to score at the posts. Robson, who at times looked understandably annoyed when felt he was tackled late on occasions, pleasingly added the extras.

The ‘Mob’ looked to respond wearing the maroon and gold, and after good work from flanker Ollie Mullarkey – it was Samoan lock Totoa Auvaa who barrelled over for a try converted by fly-half Louis Grimoldby.

A real plus for the Pirates was the play of skipper Alex Everett, who was making a most welcome return from injury. It was he who inspirationally got the Pirates back on the front foot, and it was following another successful ‘catch and drive’, with Moody again perfecting his throw to lock Josh King, that ended with another converted score for the hooker, and with it a four-try bonus-point was in the bag.

To a man the home team had shown they were up for this contest, and before the break, when they led 38-7, further tries were scored by Moody (for his fourth), and centre Chester Ribbons whose effort was converted by Robson.

The Pirates’ start to the second half didn’t go quite so well as firstly, prop Alfie Petch, who helped form part of a fine scrummaging eight, departed injured, and they then lost the services of Robson to the sin-bin.

Ampthill, who had beaten the Pirates 26-21 at Bedfordshire in October, where Saracens’ 19-year-old prodigy Noah Caluori made his mark when scoring two tries for the hosts, to their credit showed admirable determination to get something out of this latest meeting at the Recreation Ground.

Busy about replacement hooker Harrison Dakin scored the Mob’s second try of the match against the now disrupted Cornish side, and after Pirates’ wing Matty Ward crossed for a scintillating try, converted by full-back Iwan Price-Thomas, tries from centre Oscar Wilson and prop Harrison Courtney – his converted by replacement Rory Morgan – gifted former ‘Pirate’ Dave Ward’s side a bonus point.

The Pirates visit Doncaster next Saturday (2.30pm).

CORNISH PIRATES: Price-Thomas, Relton, Ribbons, J Elderkin, Ward; Robson, Hiscocks; Heaney, Moody, Petch; Rice, King; Everett (capt), Forsythe, Agbongbon. Replacements (all used): Pritchard, Young, Andrews, Hallam, Bell, Rigelsford, Sinclair, Cambriani.

Tries: Moody (4), Relton, Ribbons, Ward; Convs: Robson (4), Price-Thomas; Pens: N/A.

Pirates’ man-of-the-match: Sol Moody.