AT A wet and blustery Reservoir Field on Saturday, November 14, Barry maintained their recent good form beating Treherbert 30 points to 10 and earning a bonus point in the process to move into fifth position in the league.

Playing against the elements and slope in the first half, Barry took the sensible option of keeping ball in hand and were rewarded as early as the fifth minute, when Scott took the opportunity to slot over a penalty for an early lead.

With the visitors also opting to run the ball when possible, an entertaining game ensued obviously littered with unforced errors on both sides but made all the more enjoyable due to the attitude of the players.

With the strong wind at their backs the visitors held territorial advantage and gained some dangerous field positions to bring their backs into play but for the last pass not going to hand could have scored on more than one occasion.

At this stage the home defence had been sound and they continued to counter attack when possible and following a scrum, the ball was fed to White, who spotting the drift raced into the gap to cross from 50 yards out for a fine try, successfully converted by Scott to give them a 10 point lead after 20 minutes.

From the restart the visitors were awarded a penalty close to the posts which was successful.

Attack and counter attack was the order of the day as the half progressed, with chances being missed by both sides as conditions took their toll.

A 70 yard clearance from the visitors once again took near to the Barry line and despite initially winning the ball against the head, Treherbert somehow managed to regain it for the ball to reach the outside half who cleverly beat off the home tacklers to score a fine try with the conversion successful, which brought the scores level.

Barry were having some success in stealing opposition ball at both scrum and lineout giving them the chance to launch attacks and after one such effort broke down the visitors

nearly scored on half-time with Barry finding it difficult to control the greasy ball, only for the visitors to concede a penalty to Barry's relief.

There was however further reward for Barry as their forwards drove upfield forcing the visitors to concede two penalties in succession, giving Scott the chance to give Barry the lead from 40 yards, a chance he duly took.

With Barry to play with the elements in the second half, the three point lead had been earned through a mixture of good tactical awareness combined with a solid defensive effort by the whole team and to switch with any sort of lead was an achievement in itself bearing in mind the elements.

O'Sullivan had replaced the injured Poole prior to half-time for his long awaited comeback from injury.

As expected, it was Barry's turn to have the territory as the second half began, but several attempts to drive over were repelled by some stubborn defence by the visitors.

This defensive effort was to hold out for nearly 15 minutes as they frustrated Barry and it took a clever snipe from Lee close to line to break the deadlock and with the kick successful Barry led by 10 points.

Barry substituted Hadfield and Ring for Taylor and Vidal as they began to run the ball at every opportunity but for some handling errors and a bit of white line fever could have been further ahead.

However it was only a matter of time before they would get a score and it followed a good drive at the scrum which created space on the outside for Scott to feed Provis to go over, the first time he touched the ball after coming on as a substitute.

The kick from wide out failed but gave Barry the lead 25-10 with 12 minutes left.

The pattern of the half remained as the visitors found it difficult to get out of their 22 and were under constant pressure as Barry searched for the try that would earn them a vital bonus point.

Chances came and went, and it was left to nimble footed Hollister who received a tap penalty to force his way through and over the line for a try which went unconverted and ended the scoring and the match.

The game was a credit to both sides who provided the spectators with an entertaining game in difficult conditions.

Next Saturday Barry play away at St Peters, kick off 2.30pm in a difficult League fixture.

Just a reminder that the Christmas Draw takes place on December 5 and they would ask that those selling tickets return the counterfoils to the Club as soon as possible, they can be left at the bar with Carol.