Darlington Mowden Park

Mowden Under-14s were beaten by the narrowest of margins when they visited West Hartlepool on Sunday. They started well with an early chip through West's defence, but were unable to touch down before the dead ball line, but they were rewarded a few minutes later with an unconverted try by Sam Clarke.

This resulted in an offensive attack by West Hartlepool who broke from a line-out and touched down for a try around half way through the first half.

Mowden fought back and finished the first half with another try by Adam Gardener in the last minute of the first half.

West Hartlepool came out fighting in the second half and equalised in the early minutes, but again this was shortlived as Mowden took the lead again with Luke Edwards scoring his first try as the new team captain. Mowden managed to hold the lead until just before the final whistle when West Hartlepool managed to touch down and convert to beat Mowden by two points. Final score West Hartlepool 17, Mowden Park 15.

Having missed their game against Tynedale the previous weekend due to an unplayable pitch, the Under-16s were keen for some competitive rugby. Pleased, therefore, with the upgrading of the Second XV's pitch from quagmire to mudpatch (and thus playable), they resolved to put previous weeks' near misses behind them. The spectators chose the firmer ground of the terraces.

The game, against Stockton, was inevitably won in the rucks and mauls, and it was a succession of peeling mauls that produced the first try after five minutes, with Chris Davies forcing over near the posts, and Mark Zissler scoring the first of his three conversions. From the restart, the ball was worked to Adam Hunt who used his speed to engineer an excellent, and well-supported, 80m dash to score under the posts. The final score of the half came just before the mid-time whistle. A set scrum near the Stockton posts produced quick ball, and new scrum-half Keith Dodds did well to dive over.

The sticky pitch and the slippery ball took their toll in the second half. Stockton resisted bravely and had an uninterrupted period of about ten minutes in Mowden Park's half, but without really threatening to score. The only light in a rather dull 35 minutes came when the ball came out along the three-quarters to Adam Hunt who drew his man and put Andrew Woodend across in the corner. Final score was Darlington Mowden Park 26, Stockton 0.