Teignmouth's new year renaissance continued on a blustery day at Bitton Park, as for the second time in the past month a Cornish side were put to the sword.

However, this was no repeat of the pre-Christmas fiasco when the Teigns thrashed a 13-man Roselands side, for Stithians, who earlier in the season narrowly won the first match between the sides, arrived with a full complement of players.

There was an emotional beginning to the afternoon's proceedings when a minute's silence was observed for former player Andy Tooley, who had died the previous week.

As so often happens in such circumstances, both teams seemed somewhat affected by this tribute, and the early skirmishes were error-stewn and messy.

The mood was lightened somewhat in the 13th minute, when one of the more bizarre interruptions to a sporting event took place.

A young swan, clearly disorientated by the strong wind, landed on the pitch, and found itself among the Stithians' backs. Clearly not yet an accomplished flyer, the bird had to be shepherded off the pitch by most of the 30 players, causing much merriment from the spectators outside the clubhouse.

After this bit of comedy, the Teigns settled better and started to make more of their possession.

Driven forward by scrum-half Stef Walker, whose distribution all afternoon was both quick and accurate, the backs took advantage of the forwards' ability to win the ball, and wingers Will Sowden and Duncan McGinn (twice) scored in the corner after flowing passing moves.

The wind made kicking – especially from the touchline – difficult, so it was no surprise that full back Matt Moses failed to convert any of these tries, but in the second minute of injury time he popped over a simpler penalty to leave the half-time score 18-0.

While in the first half the visitors had had the benefit of the wind and had used it whenever they won possession to kick the ball back to the Teigns' 22, in the second half it was the home side who were able to use this advantage.

It was good to see that they were much less negative in the way they used the conditions, preferring to keep the ball in hand whenever possible and benefitting from Stithians' inability to kick themselves to safety.

The first 30 minutes of the second half saw Teignmouth run in four further tries at fairly regular intervals.

McGinn completed his hat-trick, while Sowden scored a second, and fly-half Bury and replacement winger Callum Couch joined in the fun.

Such was the dominance of the home team that all of these tries were scored under the posts, allowing Moses to ignore the wind and convert all four.

Once the seventh try had been scored, the visitors came to life and the last ten minutes were spent almost exclusively in Teignmouth's 22.

The home defence survived by a mixture of fair means and foul – on another day referee Mr Avenall may have been less patient with the succession of penalties given away by the home side and could have awarded a penalty try, but he chose to be lenient and a clean sheet was secured.

The talk in the clubhouse after the match was of satisfaction at a performance where six of the seven tries were scored by wingers, and of an accomplished effort by Walker.

Much optimism was expressed that a corner really has been turned and that relegation is now less of a threat than it seemed at the end of November.

It remains to be seen whether this impetus can be continued tomorrow, when Teignmouth are away to another Cornish side, Hayle.