Flying High

What a change in the weather in the past twelve hours. When we went to bed last night it was rodding it down. We woke up this morning to a glorious sun rise and not a cloud in the sky. This was just as well as we were planning on going to Sardis Road today for Pontypridd v Swansea.

Whilst we were away in Madeira Ponty continued on their winning ways beating Bridgend in a topsy turvy match (I knew it was topsy turvy as I was getting regular text messages whilst on top of a mountain in a jeep) and hammering Neath 15 - 64 down at the Gnoll. We were back at home against a team at the foot of the table so we were quite confident.

Whilst driving across the top of Pencoedcae on the way to Sardis Road we chased a Sparrowhawk up the lane that was trying to flush small birds from the hedgerow. It flew parallel to the hedgerow for about fifty feet just ahead of the car before perching on a fence post. It was quite breath-taking ... alas it was the only really breath-taking moment of the afternoon.

Pontypridd run out comfortable winners 29-3 in the end, scoring the four tries required for a bonus point, but it was the oddest game I have seen in a while! Pontypridd scored seventeen of their points in a four minute spell after twenty minutes; they had hardly touched the ball until then. That set the tone for the match. Swansea continued to have the ball, get to our twenty two, cough up possession in every means possible, and then Ponty would get down the other end of the pitch and come away with points.

This all made for a low number of photos from the game as the play was continually the other end of the pitch. It was also a photographer's nightmare. Pontypridd played in black; Swansea played in white and the pitch was half in shade and half bathed in sunshine. I don't think I have that many to share when I edit them! This is still a good 'un though. I did have a practice run as we scored two almost identical tries within minutes of each other.

So there we are, not the most thrilling of games, but job done against a determined side, our 100% record maintained, and we are still flying high at the top of the table!