West Bowling 16, Queensbury 28 Two second-half tries from wingman Scott Swann put Queensbury en route to victory in the first round of the Ace Insurance BARLA Nat-ional Cup at the Bankfoot Oval.

West Bowling, who started favourites with ground advantage and a previous win in the Premier Division under their belts, suffered an early shock when Bury second-row forward Ash Ryan roared onto a flat pass and crashed over, leaving Swann to add the extras.

The lively visitors inc-reased their advantage further when sprightly scrum half Gregg Marriott threaded a grubber behind the defence and won the race to touch down in the corner.

West’s player-coach Ricky Helliwell joined the fray from the bench and made an immediate impact when he spotted a narrow gap to tunnel under the posts, leaving wingman Ben Heald a simple conversion.

Bowling struck quickly in the second stanza when centre Jason Marshall collected a clever offload from second row forward Richard Lumb to reach the whitewash.

That meant the scores were level at 10-10 but the hosts had to temper their celebrations when Helliwell left the field with a knee injury.

Queensbury were handed a try on a plate when Bowling lost the ball from their own scrum, leaving Swann the simple task of collecting the loose ball and striding over.

He added the conversion himself before parity was restored when Lumb showed his brute strength by taking four defenders over with him at the side of the uprights. Heald was on target with the conversion and it was all to play for at 16-16.

Swann sprinted clear, only to see his effort ruled out for a forward pass, before West’s fortunes nosedived when they ran out of substitutes as the Bury tackling took its toll and the injures accumulated.

Bury packman Brett Marriott spotted a hole on the blindside to plunge over and, when full back Ben Naylor joined the line to make the extra man, his pass found the eager Swann. He sprinted in at the flag to put the visitors in command.

Bury forward Joe Langford and West’s wingman Kyle Moore were dispatched to the sin-bin for attempting to referee the proceedings before the visitors had the last say.

Centre Jack Evison rounded the opposition to cross in the corner.

Queensbury will now host Glasson Rangers from Cum-bria in the next round on February 11.