It eventually took two-and-a-half hours for the game to be completed as there was a 12 minute injury delay at the end when Drovers centre Ryan Evans received treatment after being knocked unconscious.
The lights went out as the clock reached 40 minutes and referee Ben Whitehouse was forced to abandon the last scrum of the first half to let the electricians to get to work on the blown fuse. Once the problem had been fixed, Whitehouse gave both sides a 10 minute warm up period before re-starting the game 30 minutes late.
The Quins took the lead after five minutes when Steff Marshall put in an inch-perfect cross-kick to allow Dylan Morgans to run onto the ball and score in the corner. The home side then lost flanker Ellis Lloyd to the sin-bin for a late tackle on Jack Maynard.
Two minutes later the Llandovery outside half kicked a penalty off the home 22 before the Quins hit back with an Aled Thomas penalty from 30 metres to complete the first-half scoring.
Maynard punished a high tackle six minutes after the re-start to cut the gap to two points and then saw flanker Stuart Worrall pounce for a try after his drop shot was charged down and bounced back off the post pad. Maynard added the conversion and then a drop goal.
The battle to avoid relegation from the Principality Premiership will be uppermost in the minds of players, coaches and fans in the final round of matches of 2018 on Saturday.
While reigning champions Merthyr will go marching into the New Year on top of the table if they can continue their winning ways at Bargoed today the majority of the teams in action will be looking to find a way to climb out of the bottom four.
With the league being reduced from 16 to 12 teams next season, along with drastically reduced funding, the bottom four sides will be relegated to the Championship. Neath look odds on to be one of those teams having won only one match to date this season.
They are bottom with a mere nine points, while Bargoed are just ahead of them on 17. They have managed three wins to date, as have Cross Keys, who are six points ahead of them.
While Bargoed host the champions, Keys welcome arch-rivals Newport to Pandy Park for another testing afternoon. Keys have won only once in their past 12 matches and are in desperate need of points.
A host of injury problems haven’t helped the Keys cause and skipper Damian Welch has been forced to switch from the second row to the back row to cover for the loss of Ieuan Jones. In the front row, Corey Hewlett comes in to replace Gary Carpenter at loose head prop.
Dragons outside half Jacob Botica replaces Jason Tovey, who will be at No 10 for the Dragons against the Ospreys on Sunday. Llywarch Ap Myrddin plays on permit from Cardiff against his former side.
Bedwas are hovering just above Keys on the same number of points (23),while Llanelli are currently occupying the fourth automatic relegation on 24 points. They head to St Helen’s for a classic west Wales derby against Swansea.
The All Whites have picked up of late and will go into the game as favourites having won four of their last five outings. They will have seven Ospreys players in their starting XV and a further two on the bench, while Llanelli will have seven Scarlets in their run-on team, including South African full back Clayton Blommetjies.
Swansea are outside the danger zone at the moment, with Bridgend in 12th place. The team that finishes there will meet the winners of the Championship in a play-off for the final place in next season’s re-vamped Premiership.
The Ravens will head north to meet RGC 1404 on the back of a 78-5 home over Neath last weekend. Wales Under 20 star Cai Evans helped himself to 33 points in that game and will be hoping to be on song again at Eirias Park.
The Gogs were beaten 31-17 at home by Swansea last weekend and will be seeking to bounce back in a bid to remain in the top half of the table.
TEAMS
Bargoed v Merthyr
Bargoed: Jordan Purcell; Duane Dyer, Jordan Howells, Darren Humphries, Ashley Norton; Josh Prosser, James Leadbeater; John Lavender, Lewys Lippiett, Alex Gardner-Key, Louis Blacker (captain), Bryce Morgan, Callum Davies, Adam Powell
Reps: Calum Jones, Barney Nightingale, Grant Rogers, Rhys Buckley, Keagan Bale, Geraint Edmunds, Rhys Morgan
Merthyr: Matt Jarvis; J Williams, Josh Martin, Adam Thomas, Jay Baker; Gareth Davies, Justin James; James Howe, Rhys Williams, Louis Jones, Paddy MacBride, Craig Locke (captain), Jake Thomas, Jack Perkins, Phil Rees
Reps: Matt Dwyer, Nathan Trevett, Rhys James, Hemi Barnes, Sam Evans, Adam Hoskins, Richard Powell, Arran Pinches
Cross Keys v Newport
Cross Keys: Will Kelly; Llywarch Ap Myrddin, Srdan Majkic, Dylan Fidler, Wes Cunliffe; Jacob Botica, Owain Leonard; Corey Hewlett, Ellis Shipp, Richard Cornock, Harvey Reader, Scott Andrews, Damian Welch (captain), Tom Lampard, Garin Price
Reps: Rhydian Jenkins, Gary Carpenter, Scott Evans, Joe Thomas, Will Griffiths, Carwyn Penny, Rory Budina, Corey Nicholls
Newport: David Richards; Harri Lang, Chay Smith, Geraint O’Driscoll, Elliot Frewen, Matt O’Brien, Tom Lucas; Dan Preece, Will Evans, Tom Piper, Joe Bartlett, Josh Skinner, Rhys Jenkins, Kyle Tayler, Mathew Reed
Reps: Henry Palmer, Lewis Smout, Nick Thomas, Huw Taylor, Chris Williams, Geraint Watkin, Haydn Simons, Andy Evans
RGC 1404 v Bridgend
RGC: Dion Jones; Iolo Evans, Tom Hughes, Danny Cross, Karl Martin; Billy McBryde, Efan Jones; Curtis Reynolds, Evan Yardley (captain), Sam Wainwright, Bryn Jones, Andrew Williams, Beau Williams, Mei Parry, Tim Grey
Reps: George Roberts, Joe Simpson, Robin Williams, Ilan Rowlands, Dan Owen, Cameron Davies, John Jones
Bridgend (from): Backs: Cai Evans, Aaron Grabham, Ashley Evans, Dewi Cross, Stuart Floyd Ellis, Morgan Jones, Nathan Edwards (captain), Dylan Moss, Jamie Murphy, Ryan Evans, Chris Williams, Connor Tantum
Forwards: Jordan Collier, Adam O’Driscoll, Tom Morgan, Aled Evans, Owain Lloyd, Ben Jones, Jack Pope, Shaun O’Rourke, Iestyn Merriman, Owen Thomas, Owen Jordan, Cai Lewis, Ollie Evans, Rhodri Apsee
Swansea v Llanelli
Swansea: R Rhys Williams; Ryan Griffiths, Tom Williams, Jedd Evans, Ben Cambriani; J Rhys Williams, Matthew Aubrey; Rhys Davies, Paul John, Mitchell Walsh, Jay Williams, Will Griffiths, Morgan Morris, Callum Bowden, Jon Fox (captain)
Reps: Ifan Phillips, Tom Sloane, Greg Cunliffe, Sam Kiley, Will Jones, Chris Morgans, Kieran Charles, Gareth Rees
Llanelli: Clayton Blommitjies; Tom Rogers, Ryan Davies, Jonny Lewis, Kalum Evans; Steff Hughes, Declan Smith; Rhys Fawcett, Taylor Davies, Ryan Thomas, Chris Long, Ashleigh Hyndman, Ellis Thomas, Nathan Hart (captain), Joe Miles
Reps: Rhys Cherry, Rhys Thomas, Liam Tobias, Jake Baker, Joel James, Gareth George, Oliver Reyland, Ashley Sutton
