The Drovers had to fight tooth and nail in a rousing local derby before squeezing home to notch up a seventh consecutive win.

It puts them into third place in the SRC table on 44 points and six points behind leaders Ebbw Vale – 34-3 winners over Pontypool - with seven games of the regular season left.

The victory clinched a happy Christmas double over their old rivals, who looked a completely different side from the one that had lost 35-5 at Church Bank the previous Saturday.

Both sides made a handful of changes from the previous week’s encounter, the most significant the return to the starting line-up of Quins skipper Rhodri Davies.

The former Llandovery scrum half had been mysteriously given just a couple of minutes of action at Church Bank but here he played as well as he could against his former club.

He and his team mates defended with huge gusto and determination against waves of Llandovery attacks and although they conceded three tries, they also scored three very good tries of their own.

A feature of the game was the bruising contest between two fine back rows with the home trio of Lewys Millin, Carwyn Tuipolotu and Ben Williams going head to head with Osian Davies, Evan Sheldon - then Nathan Hart - and Stuart Worrall

Big carries, big hits and never flagging running were there for all to relish as part of the thrill of a local derby that was played out ferociously but with little trace of bad temper.

There was little to choose between two sides, ready to attack and counter attack in front of Carmarthen Park’s biggest crowd of the season but the Drovers held their composure to resist a huge home effort.

Coach Gareth Potter took the four points gladly.

“We knew that last week’s result flattered us and expected a tough game from the Quins - which we certainly had,” he said.

“We did not help ourselves with two awful defensive mistakes which Carmarthen took full advantage of but we created plenty of chances despite a hard tackling defence.

“To end up with 10 points over the two Christmas derby games keeps the momentum going before we entertain Newport on Saturday.”

When the Drovers took an early 10-0 lead with a close range try from hooker Taylor Davies, plus a conversion and penalty from full back Jack Maynard, they appeared in control.

They were suddenly knocked out of their stride by a slashing counter attack which ended with flanker Lewys Millin crashing over wide out.

Maynard surprisingly missed a straight 35-metre penalty before a cut out pass from scrum half Lee Rees put ex-Wales centre Adam Warren in under the posts, Maynard converting for a 17-5 lead.

The Drovers were then really caught napping when Rhodri Davies took a very quick tap penalty against a slowly aligning defence to work in another former Llandovery player, centre Gabe McDonald.

With Charlie Titcombe’s conversion, the gap was down to 17-12 at the interval.

A minute into the second half, Llandovery lost possession in midfield to give centre Jac Howells the chance to show his pace to run in a try from 60 metres.

Titcombe converted for the lead and Llandovery invention behind the scrum could not prise open a home defence that tackled ferociously, close in and out wide.

Llandovery lost prop Llyr Green to a nasty dislocated knee but they shrugged off the loss by putting the Quins defence under such pressure that it was forced to concede a close range penalty.

Maynard’s three points brought the narrowest of leads and the Quins then frustrated the visitors by hurling back attacker after attacker on their own line.

It was a close range line-out that finally proved decisive for last year’s Premiership champions, referee Rhys Jones awarding a penalty try as Quins hooker Isaac Young pulled down the rolling maul and earned a yellow card for his troubles.

To their credit, the Quins forced a late mistake which gave Titcombe the chance to get his side a losing bonus point, the very least that his battling side deserved in the tightest derby of recent years.

Tries: L Millin, G Mcdonald, J Howells

Cons: C Titcombe (2)

Pen: C Titcombe

Tries: T Davies, A Warren, pen try

Cons: J Maynard (2)

Pens: J Maynard (2)

I Badham; I Davies, J Howells, G McDonald, L Rees; C Titcombe, R Davies (capt); S O’Connor, I Young, I James, L Taylor, J Helps, L Millin, C Tuipulotu, B Williams

Replacements: R Fawcett S Jones, C Allen, R Bean, K Evans, T Curry, R Lewis, I Gwilliam

J Maynard: J Davies; Adam Warren R Jones, I Phillips; I Hughes, L Rees (capt); D Dallavalle, T Davies, L Green, C Long, J Powell, O Davies, E Sheldon. S Worrall

Replacements: J Hughes, H Thomas, G Hawley, E Scragg, N Hart, J Evans, G MacDonald, S Potter