BLAYDON tuned up for Saturday's visit to Darlington Mowden Park by recording their second win from six games in National Division Three North.

They remain third from the bottom, but after an encouraging display against leaders Nuneaton the previous week the 28-20 win at home to Liverpool St Helens provided further evidence of improvement.

Three Mowden players left for Blaydon last season but one has since returned, along with four others, and powerful winger James Tyrrell could make his debut against his former club.

If it proves to be a heated affair, Saturday's experience against a fiery Liverpool pack will stand Blaydon in good stead.

They succeeded in subduing their visitors and led 20-8 15 minutes into the second half, only for Dan Harper to be sin-binned for obstruction.

The forward battle intensified and a couple of missed tackles allowed Liverpool to score a converted try and reduce the gap to five points.

But Harper's return steadied the ship and he was driven over from 15 metres for a late try after Sean Hannah kicked a 40-metre penalty.

It was a deserved win, but Blaydon had to come back from 5-0 down, despite dominating early on. Impressive back row man Tom McLaren was driven over from a line-out and a Hannah penalty put Blaydon ahead.

Three minutes after the interval Chris Nunn's powerful run set up a try for Colin Duncan and Hannah converted, giving Blaydon the cushion they needed to survive Harper's yellow card.

Tynedale moved above Liverpool into third place when they won 57-22 at home to Hull Ionians, with Paul Boston scoring three of their eight tries.

It was 36-3 at half-time, but Tynedale lost their grip as they conceded three tries and saw their lead reduced to 14 points with 20 minutes left. But they came back strongly with three more tries of their own. Phil Belgian landed seven conversions and a penalty.

A result which would have been unthinkable a few years ago saw West Hartlepool crash 51-12 at Cleckheaton in North One.

Former British Lion John Bentley was among the scorers as the hosts touched down four times in the last ten minutes.

There was some hope for West when they reduced a 17-0 half-time deficit with a try by prop Carl Robinson, converted by Jamie Connolly. But their only other score came in the last minute from winger Tommy Barff.

It was also a bad day for Hartlepool clubs in the second round of the Powergen Intermediate Cup. Horden were handed a walkover by West Hartlepool TDSOB, while Hartlepool lost 67-24 at Westoe and Rovers went down 9-8 at Ripon.

Winger Phil Hardisty scored three of Westoe's 11 tries, while fly half Phil Bolam ran 60 yards for the final score and added his sixth conversion.

Rovers dominated the first 20 minutes at Ripon and led through a Michael Walton penalty. David Malyn struck either side of half-time to put Ripon ahead before a strong drive by the Rovers pack brought the game's only try for Stuart Langston.

But it was not converted, allowing Malyn to secure victory with his third penalty after 69 minutes.

Middlesbrough welcomed back former skipper Jim Chapman in the friendly at Acklam Park, but lost 34-10 to Darlington.

Chapman, a former Yorkshire No 8, was a great Boro stalwart until trying his luck for a few years with Otley. More recently he has played for Wensleydale.

With a visit to North One leaders Morley coming up on Saturday, Darlington player-coach Phil Lancaster decided not to risk his back, so Jim Dickinson filled in while Dave Inman played at lock for Paul Radford, who was ill.

There was a promising debut at centre for Tosh McIntee, who typified Darlington's strong defence, especially when they were under pressure at the end of the first half.

David Andrew impressed at scrum half in his first full senior outing since breaking an arm in the first match of last season.

The packs were quite well matched, but Darlington had the superior backs and Paul Lee twice dummied through weak tackling to score under the posts. He then suffered a groin injury and was replaced by his brother Craig.

Boro went ahead after five minutes through a try by winger Ben Poole following a good pass by full back Mark Foster.

Lee's first try was converted by Kieron Thompson to put Darlington ahead and after 25 minutes McIntee broke from his own half and passed inside to Dave Haswell, whose long pass sent winger Frankie Coulson over. Shortly after half-time Coulson scored again when he rounded his man.