West Bowling 34, Queensbury 10

A second-half hat-trick from flying wingman Dwaine Nelson enabled West Bowling to overcome a determined Queensbury outfit in an absorbing Jack Senior Memorial Bradford Cup first-round clash at Emsleys Rec.

Bowling made a dream start when full back Gareth Cullington joined the line on their first attack and used a three-man overlap as a foil to cross under the uprights, leaving scrum half Ben Heald to add the simple conversion.

Queensbury shook off the setback through the boot of stand-off Joe Flanagan, who put the hosts under the cosh with his accurate kicking.

Their resolve was rewarded when they took the gamble of taking a tap-and-run from an offside penalty award to send mightily impressive loose forward Tom Hainsworth crashing over the whitewash.

Wingman Scott Swann slotted over the extras to send the combatants into the interval level at 6-6.

Bowling had clearly learned that the kicking game was the key to success, with stand-off Liam Darville propelling the ball over the Queensbury defence at every opportunity, and they were duly compensated when Nelson took advantage of a spill to pounce out wide.

Heald made sure of the extra two points and there was further heartache for the visitors when Darville latched on to a smart offload from second-row forward Richard Lumb to gallop over unopposed.

Centre Jack Dawson hacked on a loose ball to give Nelson the simple task of touching down without a defender in sight, before the speedy wingman claimed his treble with the best try of the match.

Dawson raced 40 metres only to fall into the clutches of Queensbury full back Billy Naylor. A quick play saw Darville produce a stunning pass out of the back door into the arms of Nelson, who dived over by the flag too far out for Heald to convert.

Bowling appeared home and dry at 28-6 but the visitors were far from finished as props Andy Senior and Lee Kelly led by example.

A faint glimmer of hope was rejuvenated when second-row forward Aaron Moore crashed over out wide.

But it was a bridge too far to close and when they threw caution to the wind in a last gallant effort to close the gap, Heald intercepted to race 80 metres to the chalk and added his fifth conversion to end the tie with a convincing tally.