PWLLHELI triumphed 29-15 to lift the Conwy Land Rover North Wales Senior Cup in front of a large crowd at Bangor RFC, but Bala also deserved full credit for their part in an excellent advert for the region.

Bala started stronger in the warm conditions, and dominated most facets of play early on, but even when Pwllheli had a player yellow-carded for a deliberate knock they could not take advantage.

After only one minute they were awarded a kickable penalty which drifted wide.

Bala’s pack was rampant, and worked well with their threatening backs, but the Pwllheli defence showed true resilience.

They were awarded another penalty on 15 minutes but the kick was again missed.

Pwllheli went a man down, but against the run of play their fly half Mathew Parry slotted a neat penalty for a 3-0 lead.

Gradually, Pwllheli edged the way into the game, and were able to generate more momentum and keep their possession.

A key moment came on 24 minutes when a Bala centre was yellow-carded, and they managed to take full advantage with a try from second row Geraint Parry, which Parry successfully converted.

Three minutes later, Pwllheli’s captain and scrum half Nick Butterworth broke a tackle and outpaced the cover to dash 50 metres to score under the posts, and Parry’s conversion opened up a 17-0 lead.

Pwllheli gained increasing possession in the second half, with their line-outs secure and with the nudge in the scrums.

Winning the ball on the right, they made ground before switching the attack left, and series of well timed passes put left wing Robin Hughes Jones in the clear.

He beat two would-be tacklers to cross over for an unconverted try wide out.

Pwllheli brought on second rower Huw Williams, and he made full use of his bulk and power to crash over from close range - and with Parry in fine kicking form, the two points to give Pwllheli a 29-0 lead.

Pwllheli were disrupted by injury, but were fortunate in having a strong bench, which included Youth players William Owen, Ieuan Williams and Iwan Davies.

Bala are a proud and talented side and in the third quarter of the game they raised their performance and began eating into Pwllheli’s lead. They scored their first try, but the conversion was missed.

Two minutes later Pwllheli lost talisman John Pugh and Bala’s pressure was now intense - and they scored two more unconverted tries in the final minutes.

These two fine sides had produced a display which demonstrated what is best about community rugby in north Wales.

The teams meet again on Saturday as Pwllheli travel to Bala for the last league game of this unusually long season in Swalec Division One North.