The four week enforced break appears to have been the tonic Malton and Norton needed to get them back into winning mode.

Winning 32-11 at Bradford Salem in almost perfect conditions Malton produced the level of performance everyone knows they are capable of but have struggled to find earlier in the season.

Salem, always a danger on their own ground, opened well, their large pack dominating against Malton's lightweight eight, and took the lead after seven minutes when a Malton player was deemed to have failed to release the ball following a tackle.

Former Bradford Bulls RL player Joe Simpson had no problem in converting the penalty.

Malton began to come to terms with the bigger Bradford side and tried at every opportunity to use their superior backs.

The tactic proved successful when they broke from loose play, near to halfway, to send winger Ian Cooke on a run to the line.

Despite being tackled close to the line he was able to get himself over in the corner to get the touchdown. His conversion kick from the touchline sailed between the posts.

The home side still had some fight and used the touchlines well to gain good field positions.

From a line-out five metres from the Malton line scrappy ball was fed back to fly half Chris Creber when the better option would have been for the pack to keep it themselves.

His hurried clearing kick was charged down and a Salem forward was on hand to drop on the ball to score his side's try.

Malton finished the half on the up but were unable to score the points to give them the lead.

After a ten minute sparring session at the start of the second period the game changed completely as Malton turned on the gas.

Firstly, from deep in their own 22 metre area they turned over possession and Cooke fed No8 forward James McKay, who then ran the length of the pitch to touch down in the corner with his pursuers in his wake.

Next up was a good three-quarters score which saw Matt Richmond add to his growing number of tries.

This was closely followed, after a solitary Salem penalty, by another try which was scored by winger Liam Cowton and resulted from some quick and decisive play in the backs.

Then came the best try of the game. Malton won possession near halfway and Jon Newsome, who was a thorn in Salem's side all afternoon, fed Creber. He looped with David Webster before handing on to Richmond, who showed pace and power to carve through the home defence to bag his second score of the game.

At this stage Salem were chasing shadows.

From the restart the Malton pack showed their own ball handling skills with a series of 'drive and pop' runs which totally bemused Salem and was deserving of a score.

However, it was not to be and Salem managed to clear their lines and have a purple patch of their own in the Malton 22 metre area

The Malton defence held well and eventually turned over possession for Newsome to feed Ian Mansell who made good ground before passing on to Creber who drew his man before passing on to Carl Rushworth in a five on one situation.

With the smell of the line in his nostrils and with no intention of parting with the ball Rushworth stormed over to complete a very good afternoon for the Malton camp.

Special mention should be made of the performance of young flanker Andy Mitchell, who covered every inch of ground and tackled as though his life depended on it. There were many other fine individual performances but this was primarily a team effort.

This is surely a good omen before next week's Yorkshire Shield clash at Settle with North Ribblesdale. A coach will be leaving the clubhouse at 10.45am and spectators are welcome.

Updated: 12:31 Monday, January 14, 2002