BOTH Darlington clubs will be in National Three North again next season if tomorrow's results go in Mowden Park's favour.

Darlington ensured their own survival last Saturday with a 31-6 home win against Rugby Lions, while Mowden hit top form to win 32-8 at Cleckheaton.

Another win at home to second-placed Macclesfield tomorrow will see Mowden safe, while a victory for Blaydon at Rugby would condemn the Midlanders to the third relegation spot irrespective of other results.

With six points separating them, the worst scenario for Mowden is that Rugby win their two remaining games - the final one is away to bottom club Bedford Athletic - forcing Mowden to win one of their three. In that case it could go to the last match as Mowden have to visit leaders Halifax before finishing off at home to Fylde on April 30.

But on last Saturday's evidence Rugby look doomed as, other than a competitive front five, they were the poorest team to visit Blackwell Meadows this season.

Darlington clinched safety with the last move of the match, which earned the four-try bonus point and took them 11 points clear of Rugby.

Their fourth successive win actually lifted Darlington to seventh place, but it was important to achieve safety now as three of their remaining four games are away to teams above them, starting with New Brighton tomorrow.

Darlington can now concentrate on regaining the county cup and they will be away to Blaydon in the semi-final in a repeat of last season's final.

Blaydon were handed a walkover this week by Horden, but want to ensure their own league safety before arranging the midweek semi.

Having lost away to Rugby in the league and Powergen Cup in September, Darlington had little trouble gaining revenge once they had overcome the visitors' negative tactics.

They came to fight and spoil, resulting in three scraps in the first 15 minutes and regular stoppages for injuries in a dreadful first half which refused to flow.

Things looked slightly ominous for Darlington when, on the stroke of half-time, flanker Martin Howe was harshly sin-binned for handling on the deck under the posts and the visitors reduced the gap to 6-3.

But Darlington scored two tries while they were down to 14 men and Rugby simply weren't good enough to get back into the game.

In another season when they have suffered fewer injuries than most, Darlington lost centres Lee Davies and Craig Lee, plus lock Richard Snowball, but stalwarts like Matt Dilworth and Michael Taylor soldiered on and got the job done, with Taylor scoring the final try.

It stemmed from David Glendenning kicking a penalty to touch via a lucky bounce to the right corner. Taylor soared to catch the throw-in and half the backs piled in to help drive the maul over to the roars of a crowd who knew the significance of the try.

The first punch-up erupted when Rugby centre Matt Goode was penalised for not releasing and they were sent back a further ten metres for disputing it. Goode was sin-binned and David Kell kicked the 35-metre penalty.

After another scrap Glendenning kicked the penalty to touch then, from the line-out, he burst through the middle and was stopped just short, Rugby conceding another penalty for Kell to make it 6-0.

When Snowball then wrapped his arm round an opponent's neck as Darlington drove a maul there was another flare-up, after which visiting lock Simon Hepher retired with a hand injury.

The penalty again went to Darlington and, after a good move up the left, Davies almost put Kell over in the corner.

That was as close as they got to a try in the scrappy first half, but as usual they came out strongly after the interval, immediately capitalising on the dithering of the visitors' young fly half on the restart.

His delayed pass resulted in a knock-on and, after No 8 Del Lewis drove off the scrum, the ball was moved left. When Kell was stopped just short, prop Joe Oselton followed up to drive over.

Four minutes later a similar move with Glendenning in the line allowed Kell to race over in the corner and he added a superb conversion.

When Howe returned he had to go into the centre as Craig Lee was limping off, with Joe Naga taking over in the back row.

Kell added a 40-metre penalty to take his match tally to 16 and his overall total to 171, which makes him the league's fifth highest scorer.

Rugby's second penalty made it 21-6, then with ten minutes left an astute grubber kick by fly half Paul Lee had to be hacked hastily into touch by Rugby's full back.

From the resulting line-out drive, hooker Dan Oselton emerged as the try scorer, and the injury time repeat by Taylor brought relief all round.

Mowden finally played to their potential, with forwards and backs combining in an excellent display at Cleckheaton, who beat them at Yiewsley Drive in the first match of the season.

With prop Danny Brown unavailable, Mowden had Tongan Peni Fakalelu at tight head and had to make a late change when No 8 Matt Holmes pulled out with an ankle injury. Matt Wright came into a reshuffled back row and scored one of the five second-half tries.

Mowden started well, using the backs at every opportunity, and winger Peter Phelan and full back Iain Dixon both had strong runs before Michael Breen was held up on the line.

But they fell behind to a try after 15 minutes when they were caught out by a quick throw-in. The simple conversion was missed and, after dominating for a while, Cleckheaton also fluffed an easy penalty.

Mowden defended well, repelling two catch-and-drive attempts, and when they were awarded their first penalty after 40 minutes Mark Bedworth kicked it from wide out.

With the breeze blowing behind them after the interval, Mowden hit top gear, the first try coming through Phelan after the ball had been recycled six times.

Bedworth converted, but a Cleckheaton penalty reduced the gap to 10-8 after 52 minutes before Mowden hit straight back and took control.

Powerful forward play ended with a 25-metre burst by Fakalelu to set up a try for Jason Smithson, then Wright latched on to a loose pass from ex-British Lion John Bentley to score.

It was all Mowden by this stage and, with the backs producing their best display of the season, centre Tom Lauriston burst through two tackles to score.

Finally Bedworth crashed over from a quickly-taken penalty and added his fourth conversion