Turner stars for Darlington

They beat Bedford Athletic 17-16, with Andrew Turner's fourth penalty edging them ahead ten minutes from time.

While the return of flanker Martin Howe and lock Paul Radford made a big difference, there were also encouraging signs that Turner, flanker Michael Taylor and full back David Kell are getting to grips with life at this level. Rob Stewart also had an excellent game at scrum half.

Playing into the wind in the first half, Darlington fell behind after three minutes when a Bedford player went between Howe and Paul Lee to score under the posts.

Turner attempted a long-range penalty, which fell short, but he landed the next one after ten minutes and Darlington were looking good as they dominated the line-out and strung some passes together.

Howe and lock Richard Snowball made the running for a 24th minute try, finished off from five metres by prop Dan Miller.

Bedford kicked two penalties to lead 13-8, but Darlington were still looking confident and when the hosts had a lock sin-binned Turner made it 13-11 at half-time.

With slope and wind advantage things were looking good for Darlington when Bedford were handed another yellow card nine minutes after the break.

But then Darlington prop Paul Shepherd suffered the same fate and Bedford kicked the resulting penalty.

Once they were back to full strength, Darlington began to pile on pressure, forcing Bedford to concede a penalty rather than a try. Turner kicked it and his fourth success shortly afterwards proved decisive.

With next week off as it's a Powergen Cup day, Darlington's next game gives them their fourth long trip of the season to Dudley Kingswinford, who remained bottom without a point when they lost 27-10 at Blaydon.

As the penalty count was 14-5 in Blaydon's favour after a dour and scoreless first 40 minutes, they were a little disappointed that there had been no yellow cards.

But the referee decided to make liberal use of his cards on the restart and sent the Dudley scrum half to the bin after two minutes.

Blaydon, who had scored a converted try in the 41st minute, went 17-0 up during his absence through a penalty by Dan Clappison and a try by centre Luke Wattam.

But they then had two of their own sin-binned for persistent infringement, despite the low penalty count against them. For centre Peter Kilburn it was the first yellow card of his career and he was quickly joined by flanker Paul Vinnicombe.

Dudley took advantage with two tries by their wingers, both unconverted, but once Blaydon were back to full strength they too charge again.

Clappison, who scored the first try, took his tally to 17 by adding another penalty and converting the final try when prop Justin Clark was driven over from a line-out.

Tynedale were leading 21-18 at Fylde when the match was abandoned after prop Alistair Johnson suffered a career-threatening neck injury.

Middlesbrough lost 37-17 at home to West Park St Helens in North One. The visitors had a decisive edge in the back row and they capitalised on Boro's unforced errors.

Boro led after five minutes when fly half Dave Richardson kicked ahead, regathered and sent centre Martin Featherstone over. Richardson converted, but by half-time Boro trailed 24-7.

Young full back Neil Baggett put in some excellent runs and got his side back into the game when he took a quick line-out throw and ran through from halfway to score.

But the visitors stretched away to lead 34-12 before scrum half Peter Wright finished off a drive by the Boro forwards.

In North Two East Stockton lost 25-20 at Sandal. They competed well throughout, but were disrupted by losing forwards Mark Skirving and Wayne Brown, plus centre Mattie Oates through injury.

Winger Simon Crozier scored two tries for Stockton and hooker Danny Muirhead, who took three strikes against the head, finished off a well-worked forward move.

Jeremy Good landed two penalties, the second an excellent effort to make it 15-15 at half-time, but then Stockton conceded two soft tries and despite running their hosts ragged had to wait until the last minute for Crozier's second try.

Redcar are among four teams on six points from three games after their pack dominated the second half at West Hartlepool for a 29-15 win. Since their Powergen Cup defeat by the same opponents, Redcar had been strengthened by the return of skipper Neil Cook and Neil Young at lock, plus Richie Barker at No 8.

Barker had an excellent game, while former West players Paul Beal and Jamie Connolly touched down from mauls. A Barker break created a try for winger Matthew Storey and he scored the last one himself.

West were struggling after losing flankers Jonny Boatman and Henry Tones with ankle injuries in the first five minutes. Tones went back on but was taken to hospital at the end.

Redcar led through Beal's try, converted by Mark Patterson, but Tim Sawyer replied with the first of his two tries to make it 7-5 at half-time.

Connolly stretched the lead before Phil Wallis dropped a goal for West, but Redcar's forward strength held sway.

Northallerton lost their top-of-the-table match in Yorkshire Three 17-5 at Barnsley, who scored two interception tries in the last 20 minutes. It was 5-5 at half-time with skipper Nathan Cannell scoring Northallerton's try, but they were thwarted by good defence.