NARBERTH 48 pts
PEMBROKE DOCK QUINS 15
Narberth gained their expected victory over Pembroke Dock Quins at Heywood Lane on Wednesday night to bring the Pembrokeshire Knock Out Cup back to their Lewis Lloyd clubhouse after an absence of five years.
In a rather one-sided climax to Pembrokeshire rugby's Blue Riband tournament, last year's beaten finalists went one better to secure the silverware for the first time since 1996 with a commanding 48-15 win.
The divide between the two clubs was evident from the outset, with the Otters grabbing seven tries to Pembroke Dock's two, although the Quins, appearing in the final for the first time for 10 years, by no means disgraced themselves with their battling performance.
However, they had no answer to the free-flowing pace attack of the Otters and, when they were reduced to 14 men midway through the second half after stand-off Roy Davies received his second yellow card for killing the ball, the writing was on the wall.
Narberth drew first blood with a Julian Howells penalty following some early pressure, but the Quins, ignoring the pervading air of inevitability that seemed to hang over Heywood Lane, looked to make a contest of it, with their pack putting their bodies on the line time and again in an attempt to deny the Otters.
With Jason Jennings dominating the linesout and back row trio of skipper Simon Davies, Andrew Morris and Jamie Bohata probing at every opportunity, the Otters maintained the pressure in the opening 10 minutes, although their attempts to exploit the pace of Steve Hartland and John Whitticombe out wide were stymied by some slipshod handling.
The crunch came when Quins hooker Clark James was yellow carded, putting the already struggling Dock scrum under further pressure.
Davies was driven over from a close range set-piece, but the Otters' captain was judged not to have grounded the ball.
Narberth were not to be denied, however, fast hands spinning the ball out open from the back of an advancing scrum for fullback Ifan Jones to join the line at pace and zip over near the posts.
Howells goaled the conversion to put the favourites 10 points up in as many minutes.
Narberth went further in front when skipper Davies burrowed his way over from a close range scrum and Howells added the extras.
The Quins, particularly props Richard McIntyre and captain Ian Osborne, flanker Phil Hughes and number eight Mike Scourfield, were always looking to counter, while centre Gareth Lewis and fullback Gareth Clarke launched a series of attacks from deep, and Hughes and Lewis did give Narberth a scare when they combined well from a lineout, only for Lewis to be beaten in the kick and chase by Hartland.
The Quins were not to be denied, however, lock Mark Lay taking a clean catch at a close range lineout and being driven over for a try.
Lewis sliced his conversion to leave it at 17-5 in Narberth's favour on the half-hour.
That was how the scoreline remained up to the break, although both sides created chances.
Narberth created the lion's share and Davies and scrum-half Scott Penney both came close to improving the scoreline, but unforced errors and silly mistakes, perhaps brought on by a touch of over-confidence, saw them fail to capitalise even when Davies was shown his first yellow card 36 minutes in for killing the ball.
Two quick tries from Narberth at the start of the second half effectively ended the game as a contest, however.
The first was a typical touchdown from Hartland, goaled by Howells, while fullback Jones picked up his second try of the game by using his pace down the line.
Howells failed with the second conversion.
Lewis slotted over a penalty for the Quins to reduce the arrears to 21 points, but Narberth made most of the running in the third quarter, with Davies, Bohata and Morris making plenty of yardage.
Going into the final third, Narberth replaced Morris with Gareth Bennett and hooker Kevin Davies with Richard Emms, and Bennett was quickly in action, probing and darting at every opportunity.
Davies earned his early bath just minutes after returning to the fray from his first yellow card, but the Quins raised their game, with Lewis and Clarke both kicking well from hand to peg the Otters back.
However, when given the space, there was no containing the Otters, Jennings setting Bohata and Bennett off on a drive from a lineout, before possession was recycled out along the line for Jones to nip over for his hat-trick.
Howells banged over the conversion to make it 36-8.
Penney and Whitticombe combined well to carve their way through again for Narberth, but the Otters were unable to recycle at the breakdown in the face of some sterling defensive work by the Quins.
From the resultant scrum inside the Quins five, Narberth tried to work the blind-side, but the pass failed to go to hand.
Clarke seized on the loose ball and, displaying the blistering pace he had already given tantalising glimpses of, ran the length of the field to touch down.
Lewis landed the conversion to reduce to deficit to 21 points.
Narberth hit back virtually from the restart when Jennings again claimed clean lineout ball to send Bennett over for a try which Howells again converted.
Bennett was again to the fore in creating Narberth's seventh and final touchdown when he sucked in the Quins defence from the back of a close range scrum before releasing Hartland who claimed his second try on the overlap.
Howells failed to land the conversion with the last kick of the game.
The KO Cup was presented to Narberth skipper Simon Davies by Mr. David John, of cup final sponsors Classic Kitchens, of Whitland, while hard-working Otters flanker Jamie Bohata was awarded the Pater Jewellers of Pembroke Dock man-of-the-match award.
Narberth: Ifan Jones, John Whitticombe, Aled Davies, Andrew Bowen, Steve Hartland, Julian Howells, Scott Penney, Chris Flattery, Kevin Davies, Rob Jones, Jason Jennings, Bill Ridge, Jamie Bohata, Simon Davies (capt), Andrew Morris.
Pembroke Dock Quins: Gareth Clarke, Gareth Lewis, Darren Gibby, Gareth Lewis, Neil Spencer, Roy Davies, Nigel Edwards, Ian Osborne (capt), Clark James, Richard McIntyre, Mark Lay, Marcus Ball, Phil Hughes, Mike Scourfield, Neil Harries.