WAYNE Reed says he has been encouraged with the way pre-season has gone at Crediton ahead of the new campaign.

The Blagdon player-coach has been impressed with some of the youngsters stepping up from the colts and the way their warm-up games have gone.

Props George Savage (Exmouth) and Paul Thomas (Bideford) have moved on since the end of last season, but Crediton have picked up two more players.

South Molton hooker Phil Holmes has signed up, as has powerful former Barnstaple back-rower Mark Nott.

But Kirton suffered a blow during pre-season when winger Tim Foan badly broke his leg in a trial game against Bude two weeks ago and he may be out until Christmas.

Reed said: "Everything has been really positive, we've got a lot of youngsters coming up from the colts this year and they're looking really good.

"(Former Launceston coach) Chris Brown came up to take a session and he'll be coming back and hopefully we'll have a few guest coaches this year.

"We lost by a point against Tiverton (16-15) on Saturday, but I was really pleased with the run-out.

"We've still got a few players away on holiday, but that's the same for every club at this time of year.

"We have trained hard this summer and we're looking forward to the season."

Crediton start this season away to Totnes, who won promotion as champions of Devon One last season.

They are an unknown quantity to Reed, who simply wants the players to enjoy the campaign.

"I don't know anything about Totnes, but they'll obviously be good as they won promotion," he said. "Hopefully we'll have everybody available this week as the cricket season has finished.

"We just want to keep the boys enjoying their rugby and trying to build the big family atmosphere you need at a junior club."