RUGBY: Hartlepool Rovers 0 West Hartlepool 66

The traditional rugby clash of the town rivals had been scheduled for the Friarage, but with the West View Road ground waterlogged the game was switched to the King George V Field.

A big crowd braved foul conditions and saw West run in 10 tries as they clocked up a record Boxing Day total.

To Rovers’ credit, there was no lack of effort or tackling but West proved their superiority.

West made a dream start with an Eldon Myers try in the opening seconds, the Royal Navy centre bursting through three tackles to score.

A catalogue of errors gifted West their second score, centre Peter Youll powering over.

A good backs move engineered a Scott Butcher try under the sticks before Liam Bailey got over in the left corner.

There were two forward-orientated touchdowns right at the end of the first half, Owen Bennett getting both from catch and drives.

Gavin Painter landed three conversions and Stuart Waites one to make it 38-0 at the break.

The tackle count from the home defence was high and that was emphasised early in the second period when Dan Boatman looked destined for the seven the try only for sub Kevin Maguire to come out of no where to fell the West skipper.

However, Butcher soon collected his second try from Myers pass and when sub Zac Southern scored in the left corner, the North One East high-fliers had reached the half-century.

There were two tries late on, both from the forwards, from Joe Rafferty and Michael Hogan.

Painter added three conversions and Waites one as West bettered the 63-3 scoreline set in 2006 at Brinkburn.