West started brightly, and soon put points on the board. Within the opening ten minutes tries from second-row Andy Robson, scrum-half Tom Dougherty and left-wing Luke Austin, with two conversions from Rob Bellerby, had given them what looked like an unassailable lead. Although Mowden battled well they found it difficult to handle the pace of the West attacks, and further tries followed from centres Chris Lambert and Peter Dewhirst, both converted by Bellerby to give West a 33-0 half-time lead.
The second-half was rather scrappier, but West still managed to run in further tries from full-back Bellerby, flanker Stephen Short, and second-row Arun Gupta. His first try for five years made him the 15th player to score a try for West this season. With one more conversion from Bellerby, West finished 50-0 victors.
West will play Durham City or Gateshead Fell, probably the former if the match runs true to form, in the final after Easter. Next week the team travel to the tournament at Ryton in an attempt to qualify as NE & Cumbria’s representatives in the National Cup.
Team: Bellerby, Wager, Lambert, Dewhirst, Austin, Robinson, Dougherty, Forrest, Norris, Greenwell, Robson, Gupta, Barker, Short, Myers, Close, Wood, Painter
West U 17's 50 Mowden Park 0
By Jon Dewhirst - January 31 2005
Despite a mini-injury crisis, West came through their County Cup semi-final comfortably. Michael Murray, Michael Young, Gareth Eddy and Alex Ainsley were all unavailable, Sean Cairns and James Evens had joined Tom Dixon on the injured list, and Ben Richardson was recovering from flu.