The Clarence Town Cobras consolidated their second placing by moving four points clear of third placed Stroud on the competition ladder with an 80-10 demolition of fifth placed Thornton/Beresfield on Saturday at Somerset Park.
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The Bears scored the first and last points of the match but in between those two tries Claro ran in 14 tries of their own with hooker Phil Badior racking up a personal tally of 36 points with three tries and 12 goals.
Badior has scored 56 points in his last two matches and in doing so has now scored 192 points for the season with three rounds remaining in the competition proper.
The club has to go back to their 1988 team to compare the efforts of the win when during that season they defeated Cessnock by 76-4 in which Peter Maytom scored three tries and 11 goals and in their 74-10 win over Morpeth his brother Stephen scored four tries and 12 goals for a personal tally of 38 points.
It would be safe to say that Saturday was the first time the Cobras have put together two halves of equal that was satisfying in both attack and defense.
Whaleboat, Melville, Bashford, Badior, Bradley and Hinton all scored first half tries to give Claro a 34-4 lead at halftime.
The pleasing factor as a team was the determination shown to replicate the first half effort by not dropping the intensity in the second half.
To their credit the Cobras ran in another eight tries in that period to finish with a well deserved victory.
It is hard to single out too many individual efforts, although the return of James Melville at five eight certainly added spark and along with Sandy Alison at fullback were always safe and provided an almost faultless kicking game to the side.
The entire Cobras pack was strong and continually broke the opposition line and pulled off several punishing tackles in defense.
Nathan McHugh and Luke Chapman can also be proud of their impact and contribution to the win.
The Cobras need to enjoy the win but quickly realise there is plenty of work still to be done before they complete the season.
That in fact will start this weekend when they travel away to take on competition leaders Kotara at Hudson Park on Saturday at 3pm.
Best forward Ben Bradley, best back James Melville, supporters award Sandy Alison, best benchy Mitch Maytom and players’ player James Melville.
Points: Ben Bradley 3, James Melville 2 and Phil Badior 1.
