Hendon brushed away the cobwebs after a month’s break by scoring six tries in a 43-8 victory away against West London and extending their lead at the top of Herts/Middlesex Division Two.

Full-back Arwel Roberts touched down twice and Adam Johnson, Mike Evans-Jones, Brian O’Regan and Roddy Walsh also crossed the whitewash as the away team banked a bonus point which took them one point clear of second-placed Saracens Amateurs.

It took just five minutes for Hendon’s forwards to push their hosts into their own 22 and win a scrum, and fly-half Evans-Jones freed winger Johnson, who sliced through the defence to score, with captain Cian Hynes converting.

The Dons spent 10 minutes on the back foot, but centre Toby Ikwueke excelled as West London were kept at bay – and Evans-Jones then ran the ball out from the 10m line, dummied twice and touched down at the other end, with Hynes adding the extras again.

West London responded with a penalty but, just before the break, Paul Geraghty charged down a kick and passed to Evans-Jones, who kicked through and found Roberts, with the full-back sliding over the line to put Hendon 19-3 up.

John McCarthy was sin-binned two minutes after the interval and the hosts took advantage by driving over from a maul to narrow the gap to 19-8, but that was as close as they got.

Hynes slotted over three points and then took a quick penalty to send O’Regan over the line and secure the bonus point before adding the conversion to stretch the lead to 28-9.

Then, in the last five minutes, Roberts added his second try and a team move was finished off by front-row forward Walsh, with Hynes scoring one more conversion to take his own tally to 13 points.

Hendon are set for a tougher test this weekend as they visit third-placed Watford, who scored 114 points away against bottom side Ickenham on Saturday.