Bishop Auckland: After three successive defeats, Bishop Auckland RUFC first 15 returned to winning ways on Saturday with a deserved 34-24 victory away to West Hartlepool Amateurs RFC in the Durham and Northumberland third division.

A much improved performance was largely due to Bishops winning their own set scrums. The return of Paul Mapes at hooker and the performances of props Ajmair Singh and Danny Ross enabled Bishops to dominate at the set pieces. With 18-year old second row Richard Dodds also commanding the line out, Bishops were set for a much-needed win.

It was the home side who took an early lead with a penalty. Strong attacking play by the Auckland forwards and backs set up a lineout five metres from the home side's try line. Dodds took cleanly and prop Singh drove over for the try. Full back Peter Sayer converted for the extra points.

Sloppy defence led to Hartlepool regaining the lead with a converted try. More strong attacking play, led by forwards Dave Walker and Peter Gallone, caught the Hartlepool backs offside and Sayer levelled with a penalty.

Strong runs from Walker, Gallone and Allan Leyfield set up a ruck on the opposition's ten-metre line. Scrum half Kelvin Simpson fed fly half Jimmy Atkinson, another of Bishops' 18 year olds, who side-stepped his opponent and left the defence standing with his electrifying pace to score a superb individual try, the conversion added by Sayer.

From a scrum on the half way line, Simpson broke blind and passed to full back Sayer who was tackled just short of the opposition line. No. 8 Peter Gallone bravely secured and recycled the ball for Atkinson to score his second try. Sayer completed the conversion to stretch the Auckland lead to 24-10.

Poor tackling again allowed the home fly half to score a try which was converted to make it 24-17 at half time.

From the restart, Bishops forced Hartlepool towards their own line with a string of attacks. Pressure by the Auckland scrum made the home side fumble the ball over their own try line, allowing Bishops centre Ed Dufton to pounce on the loose ball and score.

An injury to prop Danny Ross allowed another 18-year old, Lee Atkinson, to come on for his first team debut. Bishops extended their lead when the forwards again secured good possession from the loose, allowing the backs time and space to pass the ball along the line for left wing Simon Blanch to score in the corner.

The home side made the final result more respectable with a late try and conversion.

Darlington Mowden Park 3rds 6 Middlesbrough 3rds 8

A weakened Mowden put up a spirited show but gave away too many penalties, which allowed Boro to keep them on their back foot.

Boro went ahead after five minutes with an unconverted try but kicked only one of the penalties awarded to them, Stuart Edwardson converting both penalties given to Mowden within kicking distance.

Darlington Mowden Park RFC

Under-16s

A cold clear Sunday morning saw Percy Park establish an early advantage from an overlap before Mowden Park found their rhythm. From that point, the match looked likely to swing back to Mowden, but despite good sustained pressure and tries for Chris Dodd and John Strickland, another defensive error left a half time score of 12-10 to Percy Park. The second half saw further errors allow a speedy, tight-knit Percy Park over twice more, and the home team was able to spoil enough ball to deny Mowden Park further scores. A tense well-balanced game was marred towards the end by some rough play in the ruck, and Percy Park were slightly flattered by the final score of 22-10