West won that squally game a year ago (above)  26-18 and did the double  with  32-21 win at Brinkburn on a much calmer January day.

This time around Upper Eden arrive in second place with 18 points,  while West are third with 15, although we have only had  four  rounds of games so far after the  summer drought.

West go into the game following some great team performances - particularly in the absence of top points scorer Jobe Roxby, top try scorer Sam Knight  and  Jake Linighan in the second row.

Linighan is out for a few more weeks but both Knight and Roxby are back in action. After those great team performances as few changes as possible are being made  but Knight does come in for Rob Thorn, who limped off at Hollow Drift last week, while Roxby will be on the bench. Joe Cholmondeley had a great game last week, including scoring the first try but he is carrying a knock .Fortunately, Matt Baggs has recovered from his own injury and will be back at scrum half..

The game will also be a notable one for Peter Youll as he lines up for the for the team for the 200^th time having started his long run in 2008. It would have been more if he hadn’t tried his hand at a higher level for Billingham where he spent four seasons.

It would also have been more if we didn’t have smaller leagues and fewer games each season. As a result Club Chairman Dave Stubbs’ record of playing some  800 games for the club will probably never be beaten.

.After playing  first teams from Rovers, Acklam and Redcar  in recent weeks the Stags head off to Grangefield to take on Stockton’s second team in Counties 2. They will have  a few more younger faces this week courtesy of the fact that a group of more experienced former first team players are sponsoring the first team game. Choosing the sponsors lounge for the pitchh seems a sensible choice this week.