DUDLEY Kingswinford got back to winning ways with a bonus point win at Syston.

The visitors scored four excellent tries but in between there were periods of stagnant play which saw them hand the initiative to the home side for a time before they finally shrugged off their lethargy to win in style.

Syston started the season brightly but injuries and availability problems have meant they have been unable to field their best side for the past few weeks. Nevertheless their young side has a lot of talented players and their pack is better than most in the division.

There were several changes to last week’s side. Gareth Bown made his first senior start at fly half for several months after injury, with Jon Higgins moving to full back and Simon Fletcher from full back to left wing in place of the injured Matt Farrington.

In the pack, Dan Shakespeare replaced Stefan Thorp at tight head and James Parkes came in at hooker for his first senior start of the season replacing Luke Greenwood. Ian Langford replaced Shaun Griffiths in the second row with Tui Asi Pito on the open side flank, Pete Knight on the blindside and Tom Bissell at No 8.

Rich Kelley, Shaun Griffiths and Sam Pedley were on the bench.

In a low key first quarter, neither side seemed able to take the initiative with DK in a strangely subdued mood.

The visitors gradually built up a head of steam though and got themselves into potentially scoring positions only to twice lose possession up at the base of the scrum.

DK finally opened their account after 31 minutes when a fine, incisive 40 metre break from Jon Higgins out of the DK 22 saw him put Duncan Chance into space and the pacy wingman skinned the opposition before touching down in the corner.

Simon Fletcher landed a superb conversion from the touchline.

A poor kick off from Syston then saw Tom Weaver seize on the loose ball and put Jordan Brookes away. The elusive scrum half stepped, dodged and weaved through heavy traffic in a 30m run to the posts for a tremendous individual try. Simon Fletcher converted to make the score 14-0 on 32 minutes.

Though they held a healthy lead, DK were unable to make much further headway at the start of the second period.

Seizing on another DK error in midfield, they stormed forward in numbers and when DK were caught short of numbers Syston fly half Ian Smith wrong footed the DK cover to score close in after 50 minutes.

DK then lost discipline as Ian Langford was sin-binned on 52 minutes for blatantly killing the ball.

Re-invigorated, Syston poured forward to lay siege to the DK line with a series of strong attacks culminating in No 8 Adam Nunney crashing over after 53 minutes, Smith’s conversion making it all square at 14-14.

Fletcher gave DK breathing space with a 55th minute penalty to regain a tenuous 14-17 lead.

Then, while still down to 14 players, they scored an outrageous killer try after 59 minutes. A defensive kick from Bown was fumbled by a Syston defender under pressure and as the ball rolled towards the touchline Higgins hared after it and with sublime skill flicked the ball backwards, one handed to the onrushing Tom Bissell who sprinted on and score in the corner.

Syston would not lie down and could well have scored after 61 minutes but for a spilled final pass. As it was DK had the final word after 68 minutes when Higgins again cut through the first line of defence to feed Chance, who flew past the cover on a superb 50 metre break before sending Tom Weaver in for the uncoverted try.