Henry Dewing is North Walsham's new record scorer – at the age of just 21.

The youngster passed James Shanahan's long-standing mark of 627 points during last Saturday's comprehensive 31-10 win at Romford & Gidea Park.

His second conversion of the day set the record – and by the end of match Dewing's tally had risen to an impressive 633.

He set the new mark in just his 77th appearance in the first team while Shanahan took 124 matches, although that was during an era when Walsham were playing their rugby at National League level.

The young scrum-half has been a scoring machine for the Vikings ever since he first broke into the first team as a teenager during the 2010-11 season.

He got his tally moving with 10 points, before subsequent tallies of 131, 273 and 113 took him close to Shanahan's record, which was set over five campaigns between 1995 and 2000.

This season he has already recorded 106 points – and with nine matches still to be played he looks sure to notch up the second best total of his young career, behind only the promotion-winning campaign of 2012-13.

'I was aware that I was getting close to the record and it was a good feeling when I got it,' said Dewing. 'Fortunately it was a fairly straightforward one.

'I actually prefer them from the touchline because it's a much better feeling when they go over!

'The good thing was that my dad (former North Walsham and Holt player Andrew Dewing) was there to see it. In fact I think he was behind the posts when it went over.'

Like previous record-holder Shanahan, Dewing has come through the youth ranks at Scottow and has been the regular kicker for all the teams he has played for, including at Langley School. He puts his success with the boot down to one major factor – hours and hours of hard work.

'I suppose you need some natural ability to do the job, but really it's down to lots of practice,' he said.

'I have worked at it since I was a youngster and it's an ongoing thing. I still do my drills now.

'Hopefully there will be plenty more points to come, including a few more tries, and it would also be nice to get up to 100 caps.'

Dewing is delighted that his record-breaking score came in a victory, Walsham's fourth on the trot in London 1N.

'Things are going really well for the team at the moment,' he said. 'We've finally managed to win a couple of away games, which was important, and now we need to keep it going until the end of the season.

'We have got a tough one next against (leaders) Colchester away but there's a break this weekend, which I think will do us good and will give a chance for a few players to recover from injuries.'

Previous record holder Shanahan left North Walsham at the end of the 1999-2000 season to turn professional.

He played for Bedford Blues, Plymouth, Exeter, Cornish Pirates, Italian side Parma, Cambridge, Old Albanians and again at Plymouth. He won three caps for Barbarians and featured for England XVs against Australia and South Africa. He coached Cambridge University and is currently head coach at Championship side Plymouth Albion as well as the England Counties.