Saturday 16th September '06

Colwyn Bay 2nds 10 - Mold 2nds  31

Bay 2nds first home game was, to coin a phrase, a game of two halves.  Having scored one of six tries in the first half, they scored the only try in the second half which they won five points to three – Mold’s only points being a long range penalty: a strange decision when they were 28 – 5 up but perhaps a sign of respect to an increasingly confident and committed Bay side.

The Bay opened the scoring with an unconverted try from full-back Ben ‘Ginge’ Evans who crashed through from wide out after a slick passing move by the Bay backs.

That was it for the first half however for the Bay.  Until the break it was all one way traffic for a well-organised and skilful Mold side who proceeded to run in five tries two of which were converted.   They were no doubt assisted by some strange refereeing decisions from Laurie Day including the sin-binning of scrum-half Ben Ashworth for a tackle which was high but surely not deliberate or dangerous: the short and slippy Mold wing ducking below the 6’ 3” scrum-half’s covering tackle.  Again two of the Mold’s tries looked very close to being disallowed for double movement which resembled on both occasions  a boisterous baby crawl rather anything else.

Injury to lock Richard Chinery (ribs) meant he had to leave the field further weakened resistance as the young Bay pack fought valiantly but vainly to stem the Mold tide.  Line out ball became a distant memory too as the Bay organisation showed a lack of cohesion betraying too little basic tactical preparation pre-match.

The second half however saw the Bay resurgent.  Some older and heavier heads in the scrum saw the Bay hold their own ball with greater security.  Refereeing continued to be somewhat eccentric as substitutes had to be negotiated on to the pitch.  Greater Bay pressure eventually paid off as a returning and overlapping Ben Ashworth ran in in the corner. Not all good news tho as skipper Bobby Blackwell sustained a collar bone break towards the end of the game which’ll put him out for a week or so and give him some interesting one-handed parachuting practice next weekend.

Man of the match flanker and late substitute Ritchie Evans galvanised the Bay in a very satisfactory  “we did it for Bob” close to the second half.  Next game away at Rhos on the 30^th September.