COLWYN BAY TURN THE TABLES ON BALA

Colwyn Bay avenged last Saturday’s home defeat to Bala with a deserved home victory to take them through to the North Wales Scottish Power Cup quarter finals.

Early Bay pressure met solid Bala defence and honours were even for the first quarter until Bala fought their way into the Bay half and were rewarded with an Ynyr Jones penalty to take a 0-3 lead after 20 minutes.  Shortly afterwards a determined drive by Bay prop Chris Browne sucked in the Bala defence and slick passing by the Bay backs ended with a well taken try in the corner by right wing Ben Evans.  The touchline conversion by full back Patrick Leach put the Bay 7-3 in front at half time.

Bala started the second half strongly with a series of driving mauls but were unable to capitalise against a solid Bay defence.  The Bay scrummage strengthened as the game went on and hooker Sion Thomas took two strikes against the head in quick succession.  With Will Blackwell also competing well on the Bala line outs the Bay backs made good use of this quality possession to put pressure on the Bala line.  A Matt Anwyl penalty increased the Bay lead to 10-3.

A move by the Bay backs on the Bala 22 was marred by a dropped pass but Patrick Leach retrieved the situation with a skilful kick through and pick-up to score a fine solo try taking the score line to 15-3.

Bala refused to give up and came back strongly putting pressure on the Bay line with driving mauls and determined running by their backs.  In the dying minutes an attempted clearance kick was charged down and retrieved by Bala centre Sion Lynch for a try under the Bay posts.  The conversion by Ynyr Jones took the final score to 15-10.

The Bay meet the winners of Dolgellau and Machynlleth in the quarter finals.