But it was BATE who made the breakthrough with Dmitry Likhtarovich scoring a goal out of the blue, picking up a loose ball 30 yards out and thumping a shot high over the goalkeeper, Tim Howard.
In arguably the biggest trade deadline deal, the Blues picked up goaltender Ryan Miller, who is very capable of keeping them in games they might otherwise find themselves out of.
The Blues picked up a penalty on the half hour which Davies slotted for 16-13.
Blues picked former Wales and British and Irish Lions prop Adam Jones on the bench and they suffered a late blow when Argentine Joaquin Tuculet failed a fitness test.
The audience that had crammed into Big Ed's bar and restaurant sat rapt as Mr. Smither growled and sang country blues, picking polyphonic patterns on a steel-string guitar and stomping his feet on the wood floor to keep time.
Ward's seventh album finds him mixing up the country-blues picking of the title track with a rockabilly-noir portrayal of the musician's life on Me and My Shadow.
This is reasonably promising, particularly since it seems to augur an evening of fervently competitive blues picking, rowdy musical versions of playing the dozens, and the raunchy glee and celebratory melancholy that makes the blues buzz with larger-than-life humanity.
First, he could drive, and had a dark blue pick-up truck.
