THE RFU's attempt to clamp down on abuse of referees by spectators was ignored at two games involving prominent Durham clubs on Saturday.

John Richardson was harangued at Hartlepool Rovers after a last-second try gave West Hartlepool a 17-14 win, while there was also trouble as Stockton hung on to win 23-19 at home to Horden.

Durham secretary Chris McLoughlin said: "It used to be voluntary to sign a support document for referees, but now it's a regulation.

"We can't carry on with this level of abuse of referees. They are told to report it to us. We have abuse officials in our Referees' Society and we are very keen to stamp it out."

In the first league meeting between the top two Hartlepool clubs flanker Jonny Boatman scored the decisive try in a tense and hard-fought game.

The Rovers players were said to have taken defeat much more graciously than some of the fans.

West felt they could have had a penalty try ten minutes from time when Simon Rutherford appeared to deliberately knock the ball forward as the visitors tried to exploit a two-man overlap just short of the line.

Fly half Dave Tighe missed an early penalty for West, but landed an excellent conversion after winger Andy Hare scored in the corner.

Rovers replied with tries by Rutherford and Brian Foreman, both converted by Gareth Foreman to give them a 14-7 half-time lead.

Tighe reduced the gap with a penalty after 58 minutes, but Rovers looked like hanging on under pressure until Tighe sent out a long pass for Boatman to dive over then added the conversion.

All four North-East teams in National Three North lost, with Blaydon suffering a shock home defeat by Macclesfield.

Darlington Mowden Park's 15-3 defeat at Fylde was less of a surprise, although the standard of play was a disappointment, while Tynedale lost their 100 per cent record when they went down 28-7 at New Brighton.

After losing to leaders Halifax, Darlington now find themselves visiting the second-placed club next Saturday as Macclesfield's 18-13 win took them above Tynedale.

Blaydon reported that their Cheshire visitors were well-organised and robust in winning for the first time at Crow Trees.

But Blaydon waited until the 75th minute before they roused themselves to play nine minutes of good rugby, battering away at their visitors throughout the added time.

Their best two players, centre Pete Kilburn and flanker Andy Wright, combined for the latter to score with five minutes of normal time left, but they were unable to add any more points after Grant Henderson's conversion.

Although the pitch was in perfect condition, Blaydon knocked on 13 times and whenever the forwards rolled their opponents back the ball tended to come out on the Macclesfield side.

The visitors scored from a line-out after two minutes and two penalties each made it 13-6 at half-time.

Midway through the second half Macclesfield hacked down the left, won a scrum and moved it out to score on the right.

Kilburn's excellent break set up Blaydon's late try, which was more than either side managed at Fylde, where Mowden failed to add to the Mark Bedworth penalty which gave them an early lead.

They struggled to get out of second gear in a poor game, for which their depleted squad was further reduced before kick-off as No 8 Matt Holmes fell ill and replacement Luke Monument was unable to travel.

South African lock Naude Pretorius was drafted in, with Paul Evans switching to No 8, but Mowden were unable to string passes together and new winger Andrew McNally never received the ball.

He got back well at one point to snuff out the threat of a try, otherwise he had very little to do as Mowden repeatedly knocked on and had a penalty count of 15-3 against them.

The pitch had held up well after the rain and could not be blamed for the rapid deterioration in play after a bright first 20 minutes.

After Bedworth's penalty, Mike Scott quickly replied then struck from 45 metres when Mowden fly half Michael Georgiou was sin-binned for not releasing.

It was 6-3 at half-time, but frequent penalties for zealous rucking prevented Mowden from gaining any momentum as Scott kicked three more penalties for Fylde.

Tynedale's injuries took their toll as they had their share of possession at New Brighton but trailed 22-0 at half-time and conceded two more penalties before scoring a consolation try.

Middlesbrough's match at home to Altrincham Kersal in North One was postponed, while in North Two East Stockton had to hang on for a 23-19 win against Horden after leading 23-7.

The Horden forwards kept going more strongly and scored two tries, while Stockton were also disrupted by switching replacement winger Nicky Poole to scrum half with Rob Green moving to centre.

Poole was on after 15 minutes for Paul Weston, who pulled a hamstring shortly after scoring the first try.

Skipper Alan Brown drove over for the second and a conversion by Jeremy Good had Stockton 12-7 up at half-time.

A try by Poole, plus another conversion and two penalties by Good seemed to have settled it until Horden mounted their stirring fightback.

Redcar could manage only three Gareth Foreman penalties in a 23-9 home defeat by Malton and Norton, who scored three tries.

Big gaps between top and bottom are opening up in Durham and Northumberland Division One, with leaders York winning 80-0 at home to Ashington, while Northern thrashed Acklam 73-10 and Percy Park won 78-7 at home to Hartlepool.