Playing into the strong wind in the first half we were trailing by just five points going into the break when a Stu Waites clearance was held back by the elements. If it had gone into touch that would have been the whistle, but enterprising home full back Mike Hawley ran the ball back and Penrith forced a penalty which gave them a more acceptable 13-5 lead at the break.
That spurred them on and they immediately took the game to West on the restart scoring two tries after breaks from their own half - mainly thanks to poor first up tackling. We had fancied our chances with the wind behind us, but suddenly with 44 minutes on the clock we were 25-5 down.
There proved to be no way back as we huffed and puffed in their twenty two but our pick and drive was thwarted time after time and, on the day, we didn't have much else in our armoury.
We were missing several players due to work commitments with Stephen Stockdale a late cry off. Chris Atkins started in the back row with Alex Barker drafted in on the bench.
We actually played quite well and sensibly into the wind, camping on the Penrith line at the start but an Andrew Foreman knock on as he went for the line eased the pressure for the home side.
They went ahead with a penalty from enetrprising fly half Wood on 10 minutes followed by a converted try when centre James Eellar burst through on 17 minutes.
We came back with a Greg Edwards try after Wood was sin-binned for a deliberate knock on after 24 minutes and it looked like we had literally weathered the storm.
But we hadn't bargained for those two killer tries after the break. Hawley scored the first after coming into the line and racing through a gap, and then winger Phil Fell scored after Wood burst through and drew the tackler. He managed one of the conversions into the gale.
From then on it was mainly West who had the territory, but it was Penrith who got the next score wth ten minutes left. A high clearance kick hung in the wind and it was Fell who got his hands to the ball and he was able to send in Ellar for his second.
Adam Coates finally got a touchdown, after lots of pressure on the home line, but it was too little too late.
To add to the woes there were more injury problems witb Luke Watson suffering a neck injury, and Stu Waites having to be carried off [one- handed] by Gez after suffering an ankle injury almost on the final whistle. All in all not a good day.
Penrith: M Hawley, P Fell, J Ellar, s Kerridge, E Swale, S Wood, P Newton, J Thornton, I McDowell, C Price, Dawson, B Barton, G Hodgson, R Johnson, M raine. reps: G Carr, P Gardham, J Fell.
West Andrew Cheslin, Scott Butcher, Peter Hodgson, Luke Watson, Greg Edwards Hodgson, Stu Waites, Andrew Foreman, Anth Carr, Andrew Dixon, Adam Coates, Ross Andrew Davies, Tom Dixon, Dan Boatman [c], Chris Atkins, Jon Boatman, Reps: Ross Wood, Craig Swales, Alex Barker.