Darlington retained the Durham Senior Cup with a thrilling performance of pace and power to sink derby rivals Darlington Mowden Park in the final at Durham City on Saturday.

In back row duo Del Lewis and Martin Howe they had the game's outstanding forwards, but this was an excellent team performance by Darlington, who never allowed Mowden to settle and took full advantage of their opponents' errors to repeat the victory they enjoyed over their neighbours in last season's semi-final.

Darlington had the chance to open the scoring after two minutes, David Glendenning's penalty failing to find the target, and Mowden took the lead after their first attack on seven minutes, Mark Bedworth slotting home a penalty.

That was the signal for Darlington to pour forward and after a series of tap penalties, fly half Paul Lee, who masterminded this victory with his poise and vision, weaved over underneath the posts, Glendenning adding the conversion to make it 7-3.

It was 12-3 after 25 minutes. Chris Strong was penalised for a late tackle on Simon White, the penalty took Darlington close to Mowden's line and a looped pass put winger Tony Taylor over in the corner.

Darlington suffered a double blow just before the interval when hooker Rob Goddard limped off to be replaced by Dan Ostleton at the same time as prop Phil Lancaster was sin-binned for stamping, winger Frankie Coulson making way for substitute prop John Coulby.

But far from upsetting their rhythm, the reshuffle inspired 14-man Darlington's best period, when they effectively put the game beyond Mowden's reach.

A surging move saw Howe held up close to the line, Glendenning slotting home a penalty given for a Mowden infringement earlier in the move.

And minutes later it was 22-3, Lewis leading the charge and prop Dan Miller bursting over from short range, Glendenning adding the conversion.

With Lancaster and Coulson restored to the action and Mark Butler on for Taylor, there was no respite for rattled Mowden, and when second row Richard Snowball's surging run was halted by an excellent tackle by Bedworth, Coulson was on hand to score the try, Glendenning converting to make it 29-3.

Things looked desperate for Mowden as second row Ian James was sin-binned for persistent offending at the ruck.

But, just like Darlington before them, the 14 men were inspired and with substitute back row man Del Russell coming to the fore, they forced their opponents into costly errors.

Darlington were in control but allowed Mowdent to swiftly turn defence into attack and scrum half Richard Holbrough crossed for an unconverted try to make it 29-8 after 55 minutes.

Five minutes and a missed Glendenning penalty later, Mowden were right back in the game.

A Darlington attack again broke down when an attempted kick though rebounded off a Mowden player and fly half Kevin Oliphant brilliantly scooped up the ball to outstrip the defence and score, Bedworth kicking the difficult conversion to make it 29-15.

But with Mowden throwing everyone forward, Butler made a tremendous break from well inside his own half and when he was eventually tackled by Steve Jones, scrum half Rob Stewart was on hand to score the try.

At 34-15 Darlington were home and dry, though Mowden had the last say when they were awarded a penalty try on the whistle, Bedworth converting.

After collecting the trophy, Glendenning said: "I thought we played most of the rugby and deserved to win but they are a tough side and took advantage of our mistakes to get themselves back in the game.

"Kevin Oliphant said before the game they couldn't allow our middle six room to play and he was right because they were magnificent."

Oliphant said: "In last season's semi-final they had a 20-minute period when they scored a lot of points and they did the same. We honestly thought we were in with a chance when we pulled back the two tries but the Butler break-away was the killer blow."