Boro, Stockton safe as Blaydon left to sweat

They lost 19-18, and are three points ahead of Rugby, whose last chance to escape the third relegation spot comes away to bottom club Bedford Athletic in two weeks.

Blaydon can ensure their own survival by winning next Saturday at Kendal, who also need a point to be safe.

After that Blaydon have tough home matches against New Brighton and Halifax, so they are hoping to return to something like full strength and get the job done next week.

Lock Jimmy Houghton will still be missing after being banned for two weeks following his dismissal against Bedford, but four other absentees should be back.

A badly-missed tackle allowed Rugby to score an early try and Blaydon trailed 11-3 before their forwards began to dominate.

After a bullocking run by lock Chris Stewart the ball was laid back for Andy Khan to pick up and dive over. Richard Windle converted and added his second penalty for a 13-11 interval lead.

As in the previous week's match at Darlington, Rugby became over-physical and Blaydon skipper Dave Guthrie was kicked in the head. But it was Blaydon who had a man sin-binned in centre Rob Windle and while he was off Rugby scored in the corner.

With ten minutes left Blaydon had their best spell and after a series of penalties they won a scrum and No 8 Charlie Roe put winger Simon Barber over.

They led 18-16 but were playing into a strong wind and after falling behind they never got back into Rugby's half during 11 minutes of added time.

Cleckheaton are also still in danger as they are a point below Blaydon and their only remaining game is at home to Tynedale. They will fancy winning that as Tynedale have gone off the boil and just managed to scrape a 19-18 win at home to Bedford.

They won a huge amount of ball but could do little with it and fell 18-14 behind until scrum half Ed Holmes made a blind side break for the winning try.

Injury-hit Darlington put on a brave show but were denied a bonus point when hosts New Brighton scored a late converted try to win 21-8.

After securing safety last week, Darlington had to play prop Joe Oselton at lock in his last game before going to play in New Zealand.

He deputised for Richard Snowball, and with Martin Howe also injured Fijian Joe Naga came into the back row and gave a good account of himself, along with fellow flanker Michael Taylor.

Darlington led 3-0 through a David Kell penalty, but went 14-3 down before scrum half Rob Stewart made a superb break to set up a try for lock Matt Dilworth.

Middlesbrough won 34-5 at home to Liverpool St Helens to secure North One safety after getting off to a flying start.

With Peter Wright ruled out by an ankle injury, they gambled by selecting Ali Little at scrum half even though he has missed most of the season.

The visitors got in front of the kicker at the kick-off and from the resultant scrum Little broke away to score under the posts.

Simon Moore converted and went on to land six kicks out of seven, including two from the touchline.

Two penalties made it 13-0 after 16 minutes, but although Boro remained on top Liverpool kept battling and scored a try just before half-time then held out for a further 20 minutes.

Boro finally cut loose after 60 minutes when flanker Ian Bradford scored wide out and two minutes later skipper Gavin Fingland went under the posts. Winger Danny Poole scored the final try in the corner.

It was a family affair as the Brown brothers and the Skirving siblings all scored tries as Stockton clinched safety in North Two East with a 30-26 win at Hartlepool Rovers.

It was tough on home scrum half Gareth Foreman, who had a superb game and scored 21 of his side's points with three tries and three conversions.

But Stockton were always ahead after weathering early pressure for fly half Jeremy Good to convert his own try then scrum half Peter Armstrong sent replacement prop Gary Skirving over for a 12-0 lead.

Foreman's first try was followed by a purple patch for Stockton as Alan Brown and Mark Skirving scored, putting them 22-7 ahead after playing downwind.

But they needed a penalty by Good to keep them ticking over as Foreman engineered the fightback, scoring twice while Alan Brown was in the sin-bin.

The killer blow was Wayne Brown's try after good play at a line-out in the 75th minute, and Rovers' final try, by Mark Power, came too late to deny Stockton.

A week ahead of their Powergen Intermediate Cup final at Twickenham, Westoe achieved their first objective by making sure of the North Two East title with a 58-0 home win against Alnwick.

West Hartlepool are safe after winning 13-11at home to Driffield, but Horden are doomed after losing 21-0 at Sandal, as are Redcar after a 44-5 defeat at Huddersfield.

It was tense for West, who held on under pressure for the last ten minutes after seeing a 13-3 lead whittled down.

They led through a Dave Tighe penalty, then a break by Martin Todd set up a try for Andrew Davies for an 8-3 half-time lead.

A break by Tighe led to a try by Allan Milne, but Driffield hit back with a penalty and turned down several more shots at goal before scoring a try in the corner ten minutes from time. They stayed on top, but West held out.

Morpeth gave themselves a lifeline by winning 11-6 at home to Malton and Norton and could overhaul their visitors on points difference if they win their final match at Horden, when Malton face second-placed Huddersfield.

If Morpeth are the third team relegated, York will probably have to revert form Durham and Northumberland One to Yorkshire One to balance up the numbers.

Although they won 59-3 at home to Acklam, any hope of achieving the promotion play-off place in D and N One disappeared for York when Durham City deservedly beat leaders Percy Park 24-15.

With one game left, the Tynemouth club are one point ahead of City, who must win at relegated Hartlepool in two weeks to be sure of staying ahead of Northern on points difference.