DOLGELLAU squeezed home to claim four very hard-earned league points in an 11-7 win against a Teirw Nant side who gave everything to the cause, and caused Dolgellau problems all around the park, all afternoon.

Their defence was impeccably organised and their young forwards were ever alert at the breakdown. However, Dolgellau had the better of the early exchanges.

Winger Jake Hinge had put them ahead with a penalty after 10 minutes of play, when the Nant back line strayed off-side.

Seven minutes later Dolgellau were threatening, and both hooker Celt Lewis and No 8 Dylan Llewelyn threatened the Nant line, but it took a quick miss-pass to find full-back Gareth Hughes to burst through two tacklers to touch down, for his third try of the season, and an 8-0 lead.

Jake Hinge then stretched Dolgellau’s lead to 11-0 going into the second quarter of the match with a 40 metre penalty.

Dolgellau were pressing again when Nant winger Carwyn Owen interrupted Dolgellau’s threequarters and fly hack from near his own line, and he duly chased ahead and came agonisingly close to touching down. The half ended 11-0.

With the Nant forwards marauding across the fringes the usually nimble Dolgellau three-quarters found themselves continually on the back-foot and could not make inroads, and Nant grew in confidence as the match progressed.

They enjoyed their fair share of possession, but they also lacked any fire power up-front, and it took them half an hour to threaten the Dolgellau line. Their moment came with seven minutes remaining.

Encamped on the Dolgellau try line, prop Brychan Dafydd finally squeezed through to touch down. Full-back Gwion Ellis Jones’ conversion from the touchline made it a one score game at 11-7, but time was up without any further incident.