Plucky Darlington meet their Waterloo in defeat

But despite not having a recognised full back or goal-kicker, Craig Lee taking on both roles, Darlington competed well in an entertaining game and led 19-17 with 20 minutes to go.

Although Dan Miller was sin-binned after Darlington conceded a string of penalties, the prop had a fine game, despite his team's struggle in the scrums. They did much better at the line-out and the backs performed creditably.

There were fears of a rout as Waterloo scored after three minutes, but Darlington responded superbly and drove Waterloo back into their own 22, attacking first down the right then strongly to the left.

They continued to press down the left before Lee made it through with enough space to run under the posts. He converted to put Darlington 7-5 ahead after nine minutes.

Winger Frankie Coulson then looked likely to score when he chased a chip through, but the referee pulled play back for a knock-on.

Darlington gifted Waterloo their second try by not retreating quickly enough from a penalty on halfway then failing to tackle a centre who raced through to set up the score.

Another quick try opened up a ten-point lead for Waterloo at half- time, but in the first 15 minutes of the second half Darlington produced some sparkling rugby.

The forwards drove on before strong running from Martin Howe allowed winger Vinnie Patterson to race 20 metres unopposed to the line.

Lee converted then prop Ali Carter finished off after sustained pressure from the forwards.

Waterloo made a rare error when they popped the ball up for Rob Stewart to intercept and break free on halfway. He was caught with ten metres to go and although he offloaded well the ball was lost two metres short.

It proved a turning point as Waterloo made their strength and experience count with four tries in 15 minutes. Darlington's only reply came from a Coulson try five minutes into injury time.

Middlesbrough made it two wins from two in North Two East when they won 31-21 at Northern. Boro were strong in the tight and full back Danny Bishop kicked well to convert all four tries as well as landing a penalty.

Northern overturned a 10-6 half-time deficit to lead 13-10 during the only period they were on top, but Boro hit back with good tries from back row men Mark Hatfield and Gavin Fingland plus scrum half Peter Wright. No 8 Dean Gardner finished off a forward drive in the first half.

Stockton lost again, going down 22-21 at home to Redcar after losing player-coach Alan Brown with a knee injury shortly after he had scored to revive their hopes.

Stockton led 7-0 through a penalty try but allowed Redcar to dominate for 25 minutes from just before half-time and build a 22-7 lead.

John Ryan finished off a Redcar forward drive on the stroke of half-time and Gareth Foreman converted then landed a penalty after the break.

A break by Brown threatened to revive Stockton, but his pass was intercepted by Mark Patterson, who ran 50 metres to score another converted try.

After Brown scored on the blind side from 15 metres, Nicky Walters added an excellent conversion and he was on the mark again after Ian Todd broke through to score. But inbetween Walters missed a simple penalty, which proved costly.

West Hartlepool lost 37-14 away to a bigger and more experienced Hull side.

West were leading 7-6 when they failed to capitalise on 20 minutes of pressure at the end of the first half, when they felt they might have had a penalty try.

They were also annoyed that Hull were allowed to get away with a high tackle on centre Allan Milne as he went for the line. He was left feeling groggy and had to retire.

Skipper Tim Sawyer scored West's try after good mauling and they were finally awarded a penalty try right at the death. David Tighe added the conversions.

Sandal look like being the division's chopping blocks. After their heavy defeat at West, they lost 24-0 at Westoe, for whom winger Paul Hagan kicked a penalty and converted tries by himself, full back Craig Stephenson and No 8 Ally McConway.