110 very long minutes (From Penarth Times)

110 very long minutes

Cowbridge 27

Penarth 30

HERE AGAIN was a game that had everything: good and bad, thrilling and tragic.

Easily the best thing about it was the final score, as the Seasiders broke the 100-try barrier for the league season, while hanging on by three points after the longest game anyone can remember.

They were made to fight as hard as they have all season by a grimly determined Cowbridge outfit that felt sure they could reverse the 32-10 defeat they'd suffered at the Athletic Field only a fortnight earlier.

The hosts started with the usual back division pace and forward guile, while the Seasiders seemed to have everything covered, until the home full-back showed everyone a clean pair of heels and galloped over under the posts.

Penarth had their work cut out as they tried to impose themselves up front, but a lot of hard work led to a try for late arrival Richard Merrett, while a long restart immediately led to confusion in the Seasiders' ranks and the home left wing was over in the corner to restore his side's lead.

The cut and thrust continued up to half-time, with Penarth concentrating on the heavy ordnance and gaining their reward in due course.

A scrum five was driven straight over for a Mike Clare try, with the referee being rather kind to the home scrum half diving in to prevent the score.

At 12-10, the Seasiders were beginning to look comfortable, but that's when things started to deteriorate.

First, a sweeping Cowbridge attack was stopped dead by a superb James Docherty tackle, but the outside-half took a stamp to the head for his trouble and went missing for ten minutes to be patched up.

A Chris Reddicliffe penalty extended the visitors' lead, before they settled down to secure the points with a determined assault in the Cowbridge line.

The first drive was promptly hauled down, but Penarth opted for the line-out once again and there was no stopping Hemi Taylor at the second time of asking.

Having finally got the home pack on the run, the Seasiders suffered a further blow to their chances as Alun Bonello ran a long clearance out of his own 22.

The openside drove into a tackle and, as everyone else rolled away, he was left flat on his back in the middle of the pitch.

An ambulance was called immediately as the player was held motionless and kept warm. Fully 30 minutes later, the game was restarted and Penarth, having had the home pack on the run, had to start the job all over again.

Cowbridge tried to run it from everywhere and disastrously poor tackling from the visitors allowed their outside half to waltz over under the posts, reducing the gap to 17-20.

A clever Chris Reddicliffe chip through looked as if it had resulted in a try, but the Seasiders still had the put-in to a five-metre scrum.

A quick heel and Mike Clare spooned up a short pass to inside centre Andrew Edwards, who scored near the posts.

At 20-27 with 15 minutes still to play, Penarth might have been forgiven for trying to shut up shop, but they were having none of it. A further stray pass let the home outside half in for yet another long-distance try and the gap narrowed again to 22-27, before a devastating Ross Olney tackle stopped a home break-out and yielded another Chris Reddicliffe penalty.

With a minute to go, the Seasiders were still trying to put the game to bed when a box-kick failed to find touch and the home full-back made his way through several ineffectual tackles up the right flank, putting his right wing in at the corner.

After a roller-coaster 110 minutes, Penarth had finally reached their target of 48 points with one game to go and a 12-point lead over their closest rivals.

Now we settle down for the long wait until the critical final game at Bedlinog on Easter Saturday. A win there will almost certainly guarantee promotion.

Penarth:Roberts, Olney (Ball), Reddicliffe, Edwards (c), Crothers, Docherty, Mortimer (Bush), Merrett, Evans, Morgan, Allen, Taylor, Hopkins, Clare, Bonello (Payne).