THE heroes of this game had to be the volunteers from the Cross Keys club who turned up at 7am to ensure that the Pandy Park pitch was playable, writes Peter Hughes.

Unfortunately for them it was the visitor who dealt best with the inevitable heavy conditions to secure the win.

The home side took the lead with a third minute penalty from the boot of full-back Josh Prosser but it took less than a minute for the Quins to strike back, charging down a clearance kick in the Keys 22 with flanker Shaun Jones following up to claim the try.

They looked to have claimed a second try three minutes later only for the final pass to be ruled forward.

Quins fly-half Steffan Marshall added three points to his earlier conversion when Keys were penalised in the 10th minute for pulling a player down at the line out.

They conceded another careless penalty in the 20th minute, going off their feet in the ruck and Marshall was on target once again.

Marshall’s boot let him down, however, when in the 35th minute Cross Keys gave up a penalty in front of their posts.

The home side gave them another opportunity two minutes later and this time Marshall was on target, making the half time score 16-3 to the visitors.

The early minutes of the second half saw Cross Keys show more imagination and endeavour than they had displayed in the first half but they were unable to convert it into points until the game approached the hour mark and a break from inside their own half ended with replacement fly-half Nathan Trowbridge touching down in the corner.

The visitors capitalised on their first real try scoring opportunity of the half in the 69th minute, a rolling maul setting up replacement hooker Rhodri Clancy for the touchdown with full-back Aled Thomas adding the conversion.

Cross Keys replacement second row Joe Thomas claimed his side’s second try in the closing minutes of the game but despite a late challenge they were unable to secure a losing bonus point.

Cross Keys: J Prosser; M Powell, L Andrews, P Williams (B Snell 74), B Nightingale, C Shephard (N Trowbridge 55), J Leadbeater (R Pritchard 74), G Carpenter (C Hewlett 40), D Hughes (Z Hewlett 74), R Cornock (S Evans 65), T Lampard (J Thomas 62), S Andrews, J Skinner, S Matthews (capt), A Powell (A Gibson 66).

Tries: N Trowbridge, J Thomas; Pen: J Prosser Carmarthen Quins: A Thomas (D Morgans 75), D Ford, N Reynolds (J Batcup 62). J Price, M Griffiths, S Marshall, A James (I Beynon-Thomas 80+3), G Robinson (N Williams 75), T Myhill (R Clancy 44), J Sebastian (S Thomas 75), L Taylor, H Pugh (capt), S Jones, S Evans, R Bloomfield.

Tries: S Jones, R Clancy; Cons: S Marshall, A Thomas; Pens: S Marshall (3) Keys star man: Leon Andrews