BETHESDA survived a late comeback from hosts Bro Ffestinog to claim a semi-final spot in the Conwy Land Rover North Wales Cup with a hard-earned 19-12 win.

The visitors were boosted by the return of fly half Mathew Parry, who controlled the game throughout, and thoroughly deserved his Man of the Match award.

Bro dominated the first 15 minutes, with full back Ian Roberts failing to convert a penalty kick early on, and back rowers Dewi James and Huw Parry combined well down the flank, only for the final pass to lock Osian Jones to go out of play.

Bethesda then missed a chance to take the lead through a Gethin Long penalty, but his effort from 30m also failed to split the posts.

After absorbing all the pressure, the momentum started to shift, and Bethesda started to dominate. Centre Carwyn Williams took a quick tap penalty from deep inside Bro’s 22 - the play went one way then the other through numerous phases, but Bro’s defence held firm.

The deadlock in this tight affair was broken on 25 minutes. Bro were penalised for offside and Long slotted over the penalty from 38m.

Another penalty miss by Long was soon followed by a successful one as Bro were penalised for holding on.

From the re-start, with minutes left of the half, Bro were awarded a scrum on Bethesda’s 22. No 8 James’ powerful run was stopped by a try saving tackle within meters of the try line, but Bro recycled quickly and full back Roberts crashed over, but failed to add the conversion from out wide.

Only minutes into the second period Bro were penalised once more for offside - Long went for the posts, but failed to convert from 52m.

A break by the visitors’ right wing Llion Lloyd took Bro by surprise and chipped over the oncoming defence towards the try line, but Bro’s Mathew Hayden won the race to the ball and the hosts were able to clear.

Another successful Long penalty, however, kept the visitors score ticking over.

Bethesda’s try came following a break from Parry inside his own 22, when he passed to centre Alwyn Roberts who raced up field through some poor tackling before offloading to flanker Arwyn Griffiths to score, and Long added the extras.

Another Parry break, this time combining with scrum half Darren Mark took Bethesda into the 22, but Bro ripped possession, won turn over ball and cleared.

Long added another penalty for the visitors to extend his side’s lead to 14 points.

Bro fought back and from a lineout on Bethesda’s 22 they mauled towards the line. James’ inside pass put lock Dylan Daniels through to score. Roberts converted.

With the their tails up, Bro were camped deep inside Bethesda’s 22, but the final frantic 10 minutes brought no other score and it was the visitors who were awarded another penalty, which Long failed to convert, but his side held on for the win.