Shrewsbury 41 Lordswood Dixonians 22

Shrewsbury are keeping their feet firmly rooted to the ground after launching the new Midlands Two West (North) campaign with an impressive 41-22 victory over Lordswood Dixonians.

Coach Keith Fowles was delighted to get off to a winning start at Sundorne Castle, issuing praise to his promising young Colts in particular.

Talented teen Ben Speke won the man of the match award while Oscar Shanahan was a two-try star.

But Fowles insists the hard work has barely begun.

"It was a good start but nothing more than that," he said. "We had a good forwards performance and Ben Speke was excellent, he's done very well to step up from the Colts to this level.

"Dixonians will be one of the less fancied teams in this division though, so we have to try and raise our game even further."

Will Jones scored a hat-trick of tries to add to the pair for Shanahan. Twins Phil and Tim Andrews scored one each, while Mattie Morris kicked three conversions.

Bridgnorth also got off to a winning start, returning from Stourbridge Lions with a 23-5 victory.

Danny Markevics opened the scoring before full-back Will Badell capped a flowing move with the first try of the afternoon.

Centre Warren Harding picked up a difficult pass from Craig Thomas to score in the corner and Markevics then scored a second penalty.

Paul Markevics then picked up a Martin Jones pass for the third try of the day before the Lions finally got on the board with a pushover try of their own late on.

"On this performance, there is still a lot to work on, but a strong, solid pattern of play, based on discipline and organisation is just possibly starting to emerge," said spokesman Geoff Davies.

Ludlow opened their campaign away to last season's runners-up Old Saltleians, and found themselves on the end of a 27-10 defeat.

A tight first half finished 10-10, Will Norton kicking a penalty then converting a Tom Rawlings try.

But the south Shropshire side were slow out of the blocks in the second half to suffer a disappointing defeat.

"We won enough ball but we got turned over at the ruck too often and that cost us dearly," said spokesman Phil Norton.