Darlington eased through to the semi-finals of the Durham Cup against plucky opponents who were beaten by half-time, when they trailed 12-5 after playing with the wind.

Within 25 minutes it was 35-5, but despite the gap of two divisions West had enough spirit to come back with two converted tries.

Their efforts were typified by former Mowden Park back row man Jon Boatman, who put in a lot of tackles but also missed a few. It was the missed tackles and failure to retain the ball which cost West dear as Darlington scored three soft tries in ten minutes.

Paul Scott took advantage of a rare chance to start by showing himself to be a strong and athletic prop and Darlington sent on three Catterick-based Fijians at various times in the second half.

Although there are registration difficulties with one of them, all look good enough to play a part in the survival battle in National Three North.

They all proved strong in the tackle, although winger Koro Niubalavu's reaction was too violent when 17-year-old Chris Lambert tried to go outside him and he was very lucky not to be yellow carded for his head-high tackle.

Referee Steve Havery also chose to ignore a major dust-up ten minutes from time, when the normally placid home lock Richard Snowball became seriously rattled. With half the forwards involved in the scrap - some prolonging it, others trying to stop it - Havery kept his attention firmly fixed on the remaining West forwards driving Tim Sawyer over for a try.

In the circumstances West lock Andrew Davies was unfortunate to be handed another blot on his disciplinary record, receiving the game's only yellow card for preventing a penalty being quickly taken.

With fly half David Tighe putting in some big clearances downwind, West competed well in the first half after going behind in the 12th minute.

Home half backs Rob Stewart and Paul Lee broke up the blind side and when winger David Kell kicked ahead ten metres from the line he was taken out, persuading Havery to award a penalty try.

West replied with a good attack down the left and scrum half Darren Thomas wriggled over, but after defending well they allowed full back David Glendenning to bounce off two tackles to score following a quickly-taken penalty by Lee.

Darlington were straight on to the attack in the second half and Kell kicked two simple penalties. The second came after West ran a penalty of their own, only to drop the ball, with Scott countering strongly.

Davies was sin-binned at 18-5 and Darlington sent on Phil Qaimura for Neil Howe at centre. The Fijian was immediately involved in a move which ended with Snowball shrugging off two tackles to score from 15 metres.

West ran another penalty from their 22, but Qaimura put in a big tackle and the ball went loose for winger Frankie Coulson to race over. He scored again following a break by Stewart and a 50-point win looked likely.

But West came back with the try which accompanied the fight, and after replacement prop Dan Miller scored Darlington's sixth try from close range they ran the ball on the restart and the lively Lambert intercepted to go under the posts.

Result: Darlington 40 West Hartlepool 19.