Fixture

This was the first of three games which must be played before the end of the season against the team from Merionydd and in contrast to the slow start to Pwllheli’s game against Llangefni last Saturday, the home team players looked sharp and alert from kick off to the last whistle despite the grim weather and heavy ground conditions. Man of the match Osian Parry Jones outpaced the Bala defenders from mid field to open the scoring with a try with less than two minutes on the clock. Ten minutes later, John Pugh playing on the opposite wing scythed his way through the Bala defence to a touch down and give Parry Jones a simple conversion to make the score 12 – 0. The away team re-grouped and tested the Llyn side’s cover defence for a while and eventually gained a penalty which Owain Aled converted. In the second quarter he failed with a similar but more difficult attempt to leave a 12 – 3 score with half time approaching. Early in the second half, Parry Jones again forced his way through defenders to touch down near the posts and added the extras. Ten minutes later he squeezed his way over the whitewash in the corner for his hat trick after excellent handling and exchanges between himself and his team mates. For the next ten minutes, with some fresh legs upfront for both sides, the home team were in control of play but the Bala defenders held out, giving away occasional penalties which were accurately line kicked by the Pwllheli backs. There were no opportunities to score tries despite the pressure. With tired legs from the heavy ground, Butterworth the captain called upon Parry Jones to go for the posts and he succeeded and increased the lead to 27 – 3 with twelve minutes to go. There was no further score. Not an easy match for either team considering the conditions but the pitch held up well and home team’s bonus point for four tries closed the gap at the top of the table with Nant Conwy, and increased the gap to Bala, who are third - it was a good result for Pwllheli. Pwllheli 2nds played Bala 2nds on the adjacent pitch and managed to score five tries for a creditable 33-0 win in the 2ND XV Premier League.