Throughout the game the West pack had their counterparts going backwards at a rate of knots, but we rarely looked like scoring, while the home side’s ambition to get the ball out always posed a threat.

With a number of players already away we were dealt more blows before kick off with Ian Pinchen going down with illness, and Jonny Boatman withdrawing because of family commitments.

In came Like Mallinson at full back, Zac Southern on the wing and Andy Robson in the second row. That allowed Nathan Myers to return to the back row where the average age was just 19 - with 17 year old Sam Miller doing a sterling job at No 8 and scoring our only try.

Anth Carr also suddenly found he had to play the full 80 minutes after returning to training nafter working away.

We had the wind and the slope in the first half, and certainly had plenty of ball and territory.

Stu Waites narrowly missed a penalty from wide on the left after three minutes before Billingham went ahead on ten minute. They made space on the right for second row Paul Dalton to show excellent finishing skills by cutting in from the wing to go over. Peter Evans failed with the conversion.

Zac Southern was thwarted to a cross kick when the ball just went dead before Colin Chelan turned the ball over on the home 22 with an excellent tackle. Sam Miller was following up and he kicked ahead and won the race to the touch down with Waites converting and giving west a half time lead of 7-5.

It wasn’t to last with a kick ahead falling to Chris Hyndman just inside the West half, and he made space to spark a right move which saw three passes before prop Steve Hutchinson finished the move off and Evans making it 12-7.

Billingham went further ahead with a contentious penalty on 63 minutes when both Cheslin's were given offside when play was on the other side of the pitch. Indeed, the offside law seemed to be one which exercised both sets of supporters for a lot of the afternoon.

At 15-7 Billingham had that vital two score gap and West’s heads went down as a couple of forays into the home 22 were thwarted by mistakes and bad decision making.

There was also a blow when Andrew Foreeman had to be carried off after his knee gave way.

So it was little surprise when Billingham finished off with a flourish with tries from Paul Shepherd, Will Turnbull, and a showboating Dan Burns with the final move of the game.

It may be worth noting in future seasons that the two free Saturdays in February are there for games which were cancelled in the darkest winter’s months, and are more than likely to have fixtures. Something which a full strength Billingham obviously appreciated.

Billingham: Peter Evans, Will Turnbull, Anth Hyndman, Chris Hyndman, Craig Shepherd, Joe Evans, Andy Evans, Steve Smith, Dave Reay, Steven Hutchinson, Paul Dalton, Dan Burns, Paul Shepherd, Dave Robinson, Mike Evans. Reps: James, Watson, Dan Ginnery.

West:  Luke Mallinson, Zac Southern, Colin Cheslin, Andrew Cheslin, Tom Armstrong, Stu Waites, Andrew Foreman, Anth Carr,  Andrew Dixon, Adam Coates, Andy Robson, Michael Hogan,  Dan Boatman [capt], Nathan Myers, Sam Miller. Reps:, Ross Wood, Alex Barker, Jay Corbett.

Referee: Paul Fincken