DOLGELLAU gave Division One North leaders Nant Conwy an almighty scare as they pushed their illustrious visitors all the way for a 14-9 away win, with the result in the balance up to the final whistle.

The match was switched to the school playing field because of the condition of the Marian pitch, and with both teams missing first team regulars, this added to the tension in highly charged encounter.

With three youth team regulars in their starting XV, Dolgellau went ahead after six minutes when wing Gareth Hughes’ run resulted in a Nant infringement at the breakdown, and stand-off Gerwyn Thomas put over the penalty to make it 3-0.

The Nant response was immediate, however, as a run from No 8 Carwyn Ellis ended with the ball being moved to right hand side, for centre and man of the match Caron Davies to go over for a try.Yet, Dolgellau regained the lead when scrum half Lewis Jones’ sneaking run took play deep into Nant territory, and they were penalised at the break down to give Gerwyn Thomas the opportunity to put Dolgellau deservedly ahead at 6-5.

Dolgellau had the visitors rattled and after half an hour their talisman, No 8 Carwyn Ellis, was penalised for a raised foot going into a tackle. Thomas put over the penalty, to give Dolgellau a 9-5 lead.

Straight from kick-off, Dolgellau were penalised at the maul and centre Caron Davies made it a single point game.

Gerwyn Thomas had the opportunity to stretch Dolgellau’s lead, but his penalty kick in the last seconds of the first half went agonisingly under the cross bar.

Nant then went ahead eight minutes into the second period, with Caron Davies’ second penalty giving them a narrow 9-11 lead - and with the tension mounting Davies stretched their lead to 9-14 with his third penalty after quarter of an hour.

Dolgellau responded with some probing runs from No 8 Rob Lewis and second row Bryn Jones that fully tested Nant, but they could not maintain territory due to lack of ball from a miss-firing lineout.

Going into last 10 minutes of the game, another run from wing Gareth Hughes resulted in a kickable penalty for Dolgellau, but they elected for the line-out, which Nant duly won and cleared.

Nant then closed out the match, but the performances of Dolgellau’s youngsters was something to savour, and both full back Dafydd Roberts and scrum half Lewis Jones did exceptionally well.

Debutant winger, Jake Hinge also had several darting breaks, and hooker Celt Lewis came on to make his debut.