CROESY travelled to Caerphilly having not played a competitive game for five weeks due to the recent poor weather.

In a team again much changed to the last league game against Newport HSOB, a league debut was handed to Scott Cole, while Scott Copsey made his long awaited return from injury and Rhodri Davies made yet another comeback, having been heard to say never again after the defeat to Abergavenny in November.

The game kicked off in atrocious conditions with driving wind and rain.

Croesy’s first serious attack secured the first points of the game with Caerphilly failing to release after the tackle and Matthew Entwistle kicked the penalty from the Caerphilly 22 just in front of the posts.

Midway through the first half Croesy extended the lead thanks to a second penalty by Matthew Entwistle.

At 6-0 Croesy looked comfortable, however, Jon Stark aggravated his ankle injury and had to be replaced by Stevie Spanswick, causing further disruption.

Caerphilly bounced back in the last 10 minutes of the half with a sustained period of pressure which eventually led to a well taken try by their No 12. Croesy appeared to be heading into half-time with a narrow lead but centre Dan James was caught offside at a ruck on the Croesy 22 and the Caerphilly fullback converted the penalty with the last kick of the half to leave Croesy trailing 8 -6.

In the second half Caerphilly had two further penalties to lead 14-6, and seemed on course to win. However, after a kick and chase close to the Croesy line which Caerphilly felt had resulted in a try, only for it to be disallowed for a second movement, Croesy started to increase their possession of the ball.

With Caerphilly this time straying offside, a long range effort by Matthew Entwistle brought Croesy back to 14-9 and also gave them some impetus.

Shortly after, Caerphilly conceded a series of penalties to allow outside half Haydn Simons to kick Croesy into an attacking lineout. Unfortunately the high wind, which caused havoc in the lineouts throughout, struck again. Back over the line Entwhistle converted his own try to leave Croesy leading 16-14. A relieved Croesy team saw Simons kick the ball into touch and the final whistle blew.

Report by Andrew Mason