Our ability to keep the ball alive was a major feature of a win which saw Redcar's forwards battle hard for long periods ... but every time we got the ball out wide we looked like we might score.
Darren Thomas got the first after just two minutes racing into the line and taking an Allan Milne pass. Unlucky Paul Miller went off again after five minutes with a knee injury to be replaced by Martin Todd.
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But then we went 10 points ahead when Anth Carr finished off a great forwards drive [above].
Dash had alrady missed another great chance, when he fumbled another pass from Milne, and it was looking like we might run up quite a score. But Redcar re-grouped with their heavy pack forcing us to give away a succession of penalties which ended when Number 8 Mark Polson broke from the back of a maul just a couple of yards out to make it 10-7.
With Paul Beal having to play flanker, the visitors were missing a few regulars but were causing us some problems in the set pieces. Fortunately their try didn't lift them for long as our backs swept straight back up the pitch and Peter Hodgson took a great ball from Milne as he was tackled and raced in from ten metres. Davy had got his range and made it 17-7.
On 35 minutes there was another superb sweeping backs move, started by Toddy when he took a kick in his own half, which almost brought a try for Andrew Hare in the corner. We kept the pressure up. Tim Sawyer made a great break in midfield and drew the defence to send in Allan Milne. Davy again converted to make it 24-7 at half time.
Dash started the second half in the same way he began the first. He finished off a move began by Stuart Benentt on the right wing and, three minutes later, the skipper was at it again breaking up the wing and staring at a 40 metre sprint for the line. Fortunately for him Tim Sawyer was on his shoulder and Stu drew the full back and sent in his fellow back row with Davy converting to make it 36-7.
Redcar rallied and again it was the forwards who provided the pressure. Eventually Paul Beal finished off a maul and Jamie converted to make it 36-14.
The visiting backs had been given a run around, but Matthew Storey gave some evidence of why his nickname is Forrest Gump when he set off on a mazy run on the hour, only to be brought down at the death by Hare. But three minutes later he wasn't to be denied when he set off from the left touchline to beat four tacklers and score the try of the game to make it 36-19.
James Sansom came on for Toddy with the task of marking Storey but that was the end of the Redcar scoring.
Panda got himself on the scoresheet when he finished off a quick blindside break on 75 minutes with Davy converting to make it 43 -19.
It was a scoreline you couldn't argue with and now we have the honour of going to Hull who were last season's runaway winners of N2E and who will, no doubt, have strengthened over the summer. In the meantime we can take lots of positives from this game. Our running style, support play and ability to pop the ball up in the tackle made all the difference.
West: 1 Anth Carr 2. Brett Cullinane 3. Mark Cholmondeley 4 Paul Rudd 5 Carl Miller 6 Tim Sawyer [Will Richardson 75] 7 Henry Tones 8 Stu Bennett capt 9 Davy Tighe 10 Phil Wallis 11Paul Miller [ Martin Todd 5 mins - Jmes Samson 65 mins] 12 Allan Milne 13 Peter Hodgson 14 Andrew Hare 15 Darren Thomas. -- 16 Glynn Dono 17 Phil Gilbraith 18 Will Richardson 19 James Sansom 20 Martin Todd 21 Greg Edwards 22 Paul Rhodes