Clayton 33, West Bowling 14 The arrival of second-half substitute Dane Bairstow spurred Clayton to a convincing win in the Premier derby against West Bowling at Lidget Green.

Defence was the order of the day in the early exchanges, with home wingman John Farr collecting two huge bombs in heavy traffic before a flat pass out wide sent his co-wingman Johnny Waddington over in the corner.

Two penalties gave Wests a foothold in the home red zone, providing the platform for a blindside raid that enabled stand-off Sha Basha the chance to level matters before the game settled into an arm wrestle that was finally broken on the stroke of half-time.

Hooker Nathan Hadfield ducked under a challenge to offload to Bowling’s top forward Jonny Summers, who in turn put wingman Phil Monroe on a sprint to the flag.

Only 8-4 behind with the slope now in their favour, it appeared that Clayton would have the upper hand in the second stanza and they received a welcome boost when a Bowling attack broke down, giving wingman Farr the chance to scoop up the loose pass and cruise to the whitewash. Stand-off Danny Belcher made the simple kick to add the extra two.

The arrival of Bairstow added to West’s woes when he collected an inside pass from centre Danny Giles, who had been been hauled down inches short after a 20-metre charge, to cross. That was soon followed by a splendid effort from full back Simon Giles, who joined the line from a scrum to make the extra man.

The hosts now had their tails up and when Bowling’s titanic second-rower Summers was forced to leave the fray with a leg injury, it sounded the death knell for their slim chances of staging a recovery.

A tap-and-run from a penalty saw packman Matt Flanagan breach the defence on a one-to-one, soon followed by another Bairstow special when he put his foot down to race over out wide.

The pocket-sized utility back fully deserved his brace to cap a brilliant second-half performance that left Wests reeling.

Belcher slotted over his fourth conversion before Wests showed their traditional attribute of never throwing in the towel when centre Nathan Marshall stretched out to plant the ball on the whitewash and wingman Ben Heald added the extras from the touchline side.