Darlington outplayed

The Yorkshire club generally had the edge as these two clubs climbed the leagues together, but for the first time a gulf was evident as Halifax scored after three minutes and were 28-7 ahead at half-time.

Although skipper Paul Lee will still be missing, Darlington will hope to strengthen the side for Saturday's visit of Blaydon, who have gone off the boil recently.

After starting the season with a Powergen Cup win in a poor game at home to Darlington, Blaydon went from strength to strength but have now lost five of their last seven games.

They trailed 16-15 at home to Tynedale when an injury time drop goal attempt by fly half Richard Windle was charged down just outside the 22 and the visitors swept away to score a converted try for a flattering 23-15 win.

After dominating at Kendal the previous week and losing by two points it was a similar story for Blaydon, whose injuries forced them to partner Nick Gandy and Dan Clappison at centre.

Despite their forward dominance they couldn't score a try and full back David Dalrymple kicked five penalties out of seven.

Apart from the breakaway try at the death by centre Barry Hills, Tynedale never looked like crossing the line either, other than when No 8 Jamie Murray broke away up the blind side to score from 40 metres when his side were trailing 9-3 with 20 minutes left.

After that the lead changed hands four times as Dalrymple and Phil Belgian exchanged penalties, and in the end everything hinged on that drop goal.

Darlington held their own in the scrums but conceded two converted tries in the first ten minutes at Halifax, initially falling for a ploy in which the fly half hit his centres with long passes while the full back came through on a dummy run.

Injuries forced Mark Butler to play at centre and although he tackled relentlessly his speedy opposite number led the hosts' seven-try spree.

Lock Richard Snowball also did well for Darlington, and scrum half Rob Stewart made several breaks, including one from his own half which led to a try.

He linked with flanker Matt Dilworth, who fed Del Lewis at pace and the No 8 shrugged off three tackles on a 30-metre run to the line. Butler's conversion made it 14-7, but Halifax added two more converted tries before the interval and scored their fifth ten minutes afterwards.

A break by Snowball in midfield set up Darlington's second try, which was well taken by winger Ben Snook, who added the conversion from wide out.

Halifax added two more tries while Darlington's replacement centre, Leigh Johnson, was in the sin-bin for holding on.

It was a sad day for the two North-East survivors in the fourth round of the Powergen Intermediate Cup as Middlesbrough and Horden both sent depleted sides on tough assignments and lost heavily.

Boro went down 65-3 at Bradford and Bingley while Horden's trek to Herefordshire resulted in a 55-0 defeat by Luctonians.

Already without skipper Gavin Fingland, Boro lost three backs in the first ten minutes and as they had to replace two of them with forwards they were at the mercy of the speedy home threequarters.

Lee Davies kicked an early penalty for Boro then went off with a neck injury, swiftly followed by fly half Ali Little (shoulder) and centre Lee Richardson (knee).

The region's only joy in the Junior Vase was at Novos as they beat Seaton Carew 23-22, while Ponteland lost 25-5 at Grimsby and Northallerton's match at home to Sheffield Tigers was postponed.

The Referees' Society had apparently told the appointed official that Northallerton's scheduled friendly against Yarm was off but omitted to tell him he would be required for the Vase match.

Calls to his home were greeted by an answering machine and it will now be left in the hands of Twickenham to decide when the match will be played.

Normal rules are for it to go ahead on the first available date, which is December 27, and while Northallerton would be very happy with that the Tigers have apparently indicated that half their team would be unavailable.