Someone might have to trawl through the club history to see if that breaks any individual records, and while the winning margin probably doesn't, it's certainly our biggest win for many a year. After last week's showing against Team Northumbria the signs were there that our early season confidence was back and today's performance left that in no doubt. We ran in some superb tries with great support play and offloading out of the tackle a feature of almost every score. 

City were disrupted by some late re-arrangements to their line-up but even taking that into account it was a disastrous afternoon for the visitors. Only 24-8 down at the break they had no answers in the second half and even a rolling maul try in injury time didn't give them the last word as we responded immediately with Cheslin's fourth score.
 
Darren Thomas got things rolling with a try on 4 minutes. Quick ball off the top of a lineout was moved to the left where the full back cut through and raced to the line. Cheslin followed that up 2 minutes later with his first try, finishing off a move which saw Stephen Stockdale, Dan Boatman and Gareth Foreman all make good ground.

Gareth Foreman's first score came on 22 minutes before City got themselves back in the game. Obviously having watched Wales' controversial score in the Six Nations last week centre Chris Metcalfe called for a quick throw on half way and sped up the touchline for the try. Thankfully there were no problems with the wrong ball being used for the referee and Durham Society touch judges to deal with, although questions were raised over whether the ball had travelled the required 5 metres.

The try knocked our early confidence and frustration began to show, especially when Lewis Groves added a penalty for the visitors on 35 minutes to close the gap to 17-8. But as the half drew to a close we bounced back, working a short lineout well to Tom Dixon who made a storming run upfield before Gareth Foreman finished off the move with his second try.

It proved to be the turning point in the game as City were blown away in the second half by a constant stream of green and white shirts pouring forward in every attack. Stockdale kept up his good try scoring record with a powerful run in the first first minute of the second period and Adam Larkin finished off a Gareth Foreman break just a minute later.

It was Foreman's turn again to touch down on 47 minutes and then Larkin notched his second moments after the restart. The four try blitz inside 10 minutes of the restart transformed the game from 24-8 to 48-8 and left the visitors in disarray.

A Darren Thomas break up the left flank on 58 minutes started another score finished off by Gareth Foreman, some great offloads keeping the ball alive in the run-up to the try and then Larkin turned provider for fellow winger Cheslin who got his second with 67 minutes gone.

Always dangerous breaking from the base of the scrum, Andrew Foreman made a try for replacement Carl Miller on 70 minutes and got one himself from a close range scrum with 4 minutes of normal time to go. In between those scores Cheslin had completed his hat-trick with an interception of battle-weary fly-half Adam Morton's pass.

Gareth Foreman's fifth score came two minutes from time after replacement full-back Stu Waites had broken up the left wing and that left City to make a rare foray into our 22 for their consolation a minute into injury time.

Still finding more time to play Cheslin completed the afternoon's scoring and despite referee Carl Hall appearing to be about to restart the game, a quick word from Foreman saw him blow the final whistle and put an end to City's misery.

Whilst a one-sided game isn't always the most thrilling to watch it was another important confidence builder and with things so tight at the top, +73 in the points difference column will certainly do no harm.  



West: Thomas (Waites), A Cheslin, Watson, Robinson, Larkin, G Foreman, A Foreman, Coates, A Dixon, Norris, Davies, T Dixon, D Boatman (Holmes), J Boatman, Stockdale (Miller).

Tries: Thomas, A Cheslin 4, G Foreman 5, Stockdale, Larkin 2, Miller, A Foreman 
Cons: G Foreman 8

Durham City: Lowes, Howard, Metcalfe, Smith, Dent, Morton, Groves, Brown, Hay, Parkinson, Whitfield, Showler, Roberts, Hand, Jardine.

Tries: Metcalfe, Showler.
Pen: Groves.

Referee: Carl Hall [Durham Society]