BAY UP AND UNDER NEATH               

COLWYN BAY 41     NEATH ATHLETIC 15 

Colwyn Bay progressed to the second round of the Konica Minolta Cup with a nerve jangling but eventually impressive win against a South Wales side who showed no little skill and much intent throughout. 

With the Bay down 8 points to 15 in the dying minutes of the game, it was only a bullocking run in close to the posts from prop Mark Edwards coolly converted by fly half Ashley James that gave the home side breathing space to go into extra time with renewed vigour. 

It was in this period that superior Bay fitness told and they were able to run in 4 tries to make the result look a lot more emphatic than the chewed fingernails of the home support would have indicated.

The Bay started as they eventually finished with Mark Earl at No 7 being credited with a pushover try in the corner after only two minutes.  The visitors came back well and although the Bay scrum was pushing their opponents off almost every ball, lack of control at the base and some excellent harrying by Neath scrum half Iwan Williams prevented the Bay getting good ball.  Williams himself exposed the Bay defence by dummying past flailing arms of would-be tacklers to equal the scores.  Neath took the lead with a penalty for holding on when Bay No 8 Aled Zackary became isolated.  The Bay performance sagged further when a penalty was missed and Mark Edwards was sin-binned for persistent offending.  The Bay ended the half 5 points to 8 down.

The second half saw little improvement at first from the home side and an early penalty from James did little to aid the Bay cause as scrum half Ben Evans was given the teams second sin-binning for dissent.  The Bay went behind again after 5 minutes when wing Owen Scourfield broke through the Bay backs to run in unopposed from 30 yards.  Fly half Gareth Bale was again successful with the conversion.

Almost 30 minutes of excruciating excitement followed as the Bay pressed and pressed until at last the equalising converted try was scored and as Neath visibly wilted the Bay were able to run in four more tries in extra time from James (who converted three of them) flanker Dave Brown, centre James Thatcher and finally, after some spirited last ditch attacking play from Neath a break away try from 95 yards by Bay full back Sean McDonagh.

Picture By: Steve Lewis