AN injury to Jonny Golightly proved the turning point as Darlington Mowden Park's brave attempt to reach the Powergen Cup third round for the fourth successive season ended at Kendal.

They were leading 19-12 when the fly half went off with a knee injury after 60 minutes and finally lost 32-26.

With Kevan Oliphant out with a similar injury, this was Golightly's big chance to stake his claim to be the regular fly half and he was having an excellent game.

Mowden had just changed their props in the hope that fresh legs would sustain their effort after Danny Brown and Dave Sinclair had played their hearts out alongside hooker Chris Strong, who had another good game.

But they were unable to prevent a strong finish by the Division Two club, who moved into a 32-19 lead before Mowden scored at the death.

Golightly moved the ball out and looped round to create the overlap and score the first try.

Mowden then defended well during 15 minutes of Kendal pressure, but the hosts made sure they came away with something as the fly half dropped a goal.

He did it again four minutes before half-time, when Sinclair put him under pressure but he simply switched to his left foot.

Trailing 9-5, Mowden came out strongly in the second half with Richard Holbrough racing down the middle to score after Golightly took a quick penalty.

Mark Bedworth converted and was again on target after winger Steve Jones finished a good move to stretch the lead to 19-9 in the 55th minute.

Kendal began their fightback with a penalty just before Mowden made changes, with former Middlesbrough and Yorkshire Under 20s player Andy Dean going on for Golightly. They also sent on Darren McKinnon and Owen Hopley.

With the pressure mounting, Kendal landed another penalty then took the lead in the 68th minute with a try, followed by a knife-twisting controversial score.

The referee awarded a five-metre scrum when it should have been a drop-out and Kendal scored from it, adding the conversion then a penalty to put them out of sight.

Kelekolio Paino, deputising at No 8 for rib injury victim Aaron Redaelli, scored Mowden's injury time try, which Bedworth converted with a drop kick.

Tynedale also went out of the cup when they lost 37-32 at home to Waterloo after three tries by New Zealander Shaun Auld gave the hosts a 25-13 interval lead.

Darlington moved up to fifth place in North Division One with a 30-24 win at Driffield, where good attacking and defence by both sides was spoilt by the number of turnovers.

Martin Howe and Dan Osleton were the pick of the Darlington forwards, the latter showing up well in open play and coping well with a switch to prop when Phil Lancaster went off with a back injury.

The other player-coach, Craig Lee, also retired with a foot injury in the second half, but this may have worked in Darlington's favour as they finally found a goal-kicker in replacement Kieron Thompson.

The scores were level at 17-17 midway through the second half, but Thompson converted winger Paul Beattie's second try then landed two good penalties.

Joe Osleton crawled through a pile of players for Darlington's first try in between a penalty and a drop goal for Driffield.

After 25 minutes centre Mark Butler went through the middle to score for Darlington and Craig Lee converted before another penalty cut the lead to 12-9 at half-time.

Driffield made a strong start to the second half and went ahead with a try, but the conversion attempt was disallowed because the goal-kicker, who had been warned once, took too long over it.

Beattie's tries after 55 and 61 minutes came either side of a Driffield penalty. For the first the ball was moved out and the winger went round his marker to score, then he charged down a clearance and won the race to touch down.

There was another converted Driffield try in between Thompson's two penalties.

In North Two East leaders Bradford and Bingley won 116-3 at home to Scarborough and it already seems as though they and Sheffield will have little competition for the top two places.

Westoe moved into fourth spot with an 11-8 win at Stockton, who thought they had snatched a draw through an injury time penalty by Dave Turner.

The linesmen disagreed over the full back's 20-metre kick and the referee ruled it had drifted wide.

Coming in when a pre-match reshuffle saw Simon Moore go to scrum half and Lee Richardson to fly half, Turner had kicked one 40-metre penalty and was certain he had succeeded with the final one.

Stockton held sway up front, but Westoe's defence proved excellent and two penalties by Craig Stephenson put them 6-0 up.

Winger Simon Crozier scored a try to cut the gap to one point, but Westoe scored the only time they got near the line in the second half after two Stockton players went to tackle the same man.

Middlesbrough lost 27-18 at Hull, while Redcar won 45-13 at home to Alnwick. Hooker Martyn Challenor scored three tries, others coming from Paul Beal, fly half Matt Hemingway and centre Fabien Busson.

Horden lost 27-8 at Morpeth, where they were 20-0 down before they managed a penalty and a try late in the game.

Hartlepool Rovers made it four wins from four in Durham and Northumberland Division One with a 35-17 victory at Billingham, and Hartlepool stay alongside them after winning 29-12 at home to Gosforth.

New coach Kevin Westgarth started at No 8 for Gosforth, who led 7-0 until Hartlepool scored two tries late in the first half and impressive scrum half Gareth Foreman touched down his second after the break.

Richmond failed to maintain their recent scoring spree in D and N division three, but battled to a 13-3 home win against Wearside with skipper Mark Layfield kicking two penalties and converting a try by centre Andy Jordan.