Injury-hit Mowden go fourth

Because of injuries, both Mowden and Blaydon had difficulties raising a team and Blaydon's 21-17 home defeat by Tynedale left them on the fringe of the danger zone.

Mowden had to blood two former Barnard Castle School players and winger Matthew Brown kicked the winning penalty five minutes from time.

His former school pal, Joe Clarke, is normally a prop but had to play at No 6, displacing Fosita Tanginoa to the wing as Andy Foreman is among the injured, and Gareth Kerr had to switch inside to centre alongside Tom Lauriston, who hadn't trained for four weeks.

With No 8 Matt Holmes on the casualty list, Paul Evans had to play there and had a tremendous game in a heroic team effort.

Dave Sinclair and lock Ian Robinson both defied injuries to play, and Mowden had only one fit replacement, prop Peni Fakelelu, who had to go on after 50 minutes when Ian Keeligan's back gave way.

In dreadful conditions, Evans used his experience to keep things tight, while open side Matt Wright produced a lively performance.

New Brighton dominated the first ten minutes but had nothing to show for it as they hit the post with a simple penalty.

The first time Mowden escaped their own half they were awarded a penalty, plus an extra ten metres for backchat, and Richard Holbrough took a quick tap and hooker Tasi Tuhana was driven over.

Brown converted, but the hosts came back with a converted try from a line-out drive followed by a penalty which went in off a post to lead 10-7 at half-time.

New Brighton lost a lock with a neck injury, which caused a long delay, and with the wind and rain behind them Mowden were well on top after the break.

Fly half Michael Georgiou levelled the scores with a sweet drop goal from a scrum 25 metres out.

Brown missed two penalties before New Brighton again conceded ten metres for backchat, bringing him within range for the winning kick from 30 metres.

Blaydon had to rule out centre Andy Kahn during the warm-up because of conjunctivitis and will be praying it does not spread through their depleted troops.

It took their casualty list to nine and plans to play Nick Wainwright at scrum half were abandoned, with second team captain Lee Hogarth coming in.

With Fatu Tulaga and Justin Clarke both out, Paul McLaren-Dorrington made his first start at prop and the only good news is that skipper Dave Guthrie is on target to return by Christmas.

But it was no time to moan considering that Tynedale have seen prop Alistair Johnson's career ended by a neck injury and were also without skipper and fly half Phil Belgian.

In front of a big derby crowd, the match was fiercely contested but it was all penalties in the first half as full back Will Massey kicked three to give Tynedale a 9-3 lead.

The outstanding Wainwright intercepted on halfway a minute after the break and raced away to score.

Five minutes later an excellent kick to the corner by Dan Clappison gave Blaydon the chance to drive Ross Duncan over and Clappison's second conversion stretched the lead to 17-9.

But Tynedale came back with two tries and a conversion to snatch the win which took them up to third place ahead of Saturday's visit of Darlington.

Middlesbrough went out of the Powergen Intermediate Cup when they lost their third round tie 24-23 at home to Birkenhead Park after conceding a penalty in front of the posts in the dying seconds.

Boro saw a 10-0 lead become a 21-10 deficit before fighting back bravely to be awarded a penalty try.

Simon Moore converted and added two penalties to put them back in front with five minutes to go, but they were left to rue too many handling errors.

Their opening try had stemmed from a good break by fly half Neil Baggett, with scrum half Peter Wright following up to send back row man Dean Gardner over.

Then Wright finished off an excellent handling move involving most of the team before the visitors kicked penalties either side of two quick tries from forward drives to lead 16-10 at half-time.

They added another try by a prop before Boro began their fightback.

There was also a brave effort by Durham City, who were also denied at the death after threatening to overcome the gap of two divisions at Morley.

A last-minute try, converted by former Wales fly half Colin Stephens, gave Morley a 27-24 win after City had turned a 17-11 half-time deficit into a 24-20 lead.

The only North-East survivors are Westoe, who won 43-12 at home to Penrith, with threequarters Graeme Haswell, Kevin Wilson, Paul Hagan and Jay Boske all scoring tries, while lock Paul Bird and full back Craig Stephenson also touched down.

After conceding over 50 points at Driffield in this competition in both the last two seasons, York were drawn away to the same opponents but did much better before being knocked out 28-21.

They scored tries through Rob Kama and Stu Davies, with Craig Ventress adding a conversion and three penalties.

In the Powergen Junior Vase a try by former Mowden Park player Tony Irwin, now coaching Sunderland and playing at No 8, helped to clinch a 13-12 win at Ripon. Mike Porter added the conversion and two penalties.

Northallerton also won by one point, a last-ditch penalty by Jason Bingley consigning visitors Gateshead to a 16-15 defeat.

With skipper Nathan Cannell out for some time with a knee injury, and vice-captain Paul Dennison plus fly half Brian Tucker unavailable, Northallerton were grateful to have Ben Allerton back after injury plus Ed Bulman available at full back.

Scrum half James Read opened the scoring from a quickly-taken penalty, but they went 12-5 down before fly half Bingley kicked a penalty.

The second try came when Bulman sent winger Ed Pratt over.

Scarborough beat Novos 16-6, while Richmond battled bravely to trail only 3-0 at half-time at Gosforth, but finally lost 39-0.