HIGH-flying Hull arrived in Kirkby Lonsdale with a record boasting 16 wins from 17 games with 647 points for and just 157 against and on the back of an 89-0 thrashing of Kendal.

And they extended their record as they ran out 29-3 winners at Underley Park.

Kirkby had already lost hooker Dan Armistead to injury by the time Hull scored a converted try three minutes later to lead 0-7 with a backs move that started just inside the Hull half and finished under the posts.

But that was it for the Hull backs. The visitors had the majority of possession throughout the game and they ran at Kirkby all day.

But with all that ball their backs could produce only that one try since Kirkby tackled them to a standstill in one of their grittiest performances of the season.

A Mike Fearon penalty from around 45 metres put Kirkby on the board at 3-7.

Armistead resumed from the bench but this only made space for Craig Galbraith who limped off to be replaced by Will Brown.

Hull’s second try came from forward pressure on the Kirkby line, the forwards rumbling over near the corner flag and the touchline conversion was slotted to make it 3-14 on the half hour.

As the half drew to a close with no further score Hull’s loose head prop Dominic Hardman was injured and unable to continue and although that wasn’t really significant at the time it became so later on.

Significant for Kirkby was the emergence off the bench of the new face of Josh Sheridan into the back row, the Aussie’s first touch was to rip the ball off Hull and gain a Kirkby turnover.

His second piece of the action was to be on the end of a high tackle but although the ref stopped play and penalised Hull the yellow card stayed in his pocket, Fearon’s kick at goal was just wide.

Kirkby made a hot start to the second half, under pressure Hull yielded a penalty but Fearon’s kick was again just wide and Kirkby didn’t profit from this 10 minutes period in the visitors twenty two.

Typically Hull played their way into game resorting to high balls and tactical kicking for field position and extended their lead with another try from their forwards, converted to make it 3-21 with seventeen second half minutes on the clock.

And the heavy Hull forwards were at it again five minutes later when a penalty gave them a lineout around ten metres from the line. Kirkby held a number of drives but the pressure eventually told and the visitors secured their bonus point fourth try, the fourth successful conversion from stand off Simon Humberstone extending their lead to 3-28.

And that’s how it finished despite Hull playing the latter stages a man down after a red card for replacement prop Michael Dias.