Played in the midst of sleeting rain at a very wintry Wade Park, the green and golds ran rough-shot over a Bears outfit minus its most influential figure in captain-coach Terawhiti Cooper, who is back in New Zealand after the passing of a family member.

And his absence was notable.

Adapting to the slippery conditions better than their opposites, CYMS toughed it up the middle with backrower Kyran Bubb the best of the green and golds in a three-try performance that instils the defending premiers as unbeaten throughout 2014.

Bubb, though, very nearly didn’t make it to Wade Park.

“I was ready to forfeit,” Bubb smiled.

“It was pretty cold. I woke up this morning and it was snowing ... I was ready to bin it, but it was good to get the win.”

FOOTY HQ RUGBY LEAGUE: GROUP 10 MATCH REPORTS, VIDEOS AND PHOTO GALLERIES

Although it ended in a 40-point margin, the round four contest didn’t appear likely to head that way from the outset with Blayney digging in over the opening exchanges of the match to keep pace with CYMS in the wet.

Tries to CYMS stars Ben McAlpine, Semisi Katoa, Riley Law and Tim Bassmann were offset somewhat by four-pointers to Bears duo Dane Howarth and Paul Sligar to etch Blayney close at 22-12 after the opening 35 minutes.

But there was no cigar.

Bubb’s first right on half-time, brought about by some brilliant broken field running from CYMS fullback Tim Bassmann, broke the Bears’ back.

McAlpine nailed the conversion, his fourth of the half, to give the hosts a commanding 28-12 lead at the break.

Bubb completed his hat-trick in the second period while McAlpine and Katoa netted braces in a dominant half of footy, with centre Luke Coleman also crossing for a second-half try started by debutant half Tom Stonestreet.

Consolation for the tireless Bears, backrower Leigh Monaghan scored a bustling try from 25 metres out inside the final 10 minutes.

But, but then, it was too little too late.

Blayney fullback Kurt Beahan believes his side’s effort is abundant, but admitted the lack of results is starting to hurt “team morale”.

“TC (Cooper) spoke about that over the last couple of weeks, the effort’s there, we’re putting in ... we’re just falling short. Just the little things. We’re doing the hard yards right, it’s just little mistakes which are hurting,” Beahan said.

Filling in for regular coach Mick Sullivan who was on Western Rams under 18s selection duty in Dubbo on Saturday, Scott Sullivan was happy with the way the green and golds adapted to the wet weather footy philosophy.

“It’s not rocket science. When it’s a bit wetter, everything tightens up a little bit,” Scott said.

“You try and play a lot of the inside balls, a lot of shorter balls and not try and shift too early; play down the middle a little bit.

“When they did that, they played really well and went through the middle and ran those hard lines. Those were the patches of the game where they went really well and we put all of our points on.”

Beahan didn’t believe the abhorrent conditions dented his side’s shot at breaking their 2014 duck, an effort led powerfully by prop Howarth through the middle-third of the field.

“Apparently these sort of conditions are good for Blayney,” Beahan laughed.

“Maybe if it had snowed we would have gone better. I don’t think it had anything to do with it, this is Group 10. It’s an average day for a game.”

ORANGE CYMS 56 (Kyran Bubb 3, Semisi Katoa 2, Ben McAlpine 2, Riley Law, Tim Bassmann, Luke Coleman tries; McAlpine 8 goals) def BLAYNEY BEARS 16 (Dane Howarth, Leigh Monaghan, Paul Sligar tries; Josh Rainbow 2 goals).