BOTH Darlington clubs are preparing for the semi-finals of the Durham Cup, with the strong likelihood of a repeat of the all-Darlington final of two years ago.

Mowden Park should have the easier task on Tuesday against Westoe, who are two divisions below them in North Two East, while Darlington face West Hartlepool.

That match was also scheduled for Tuesday, but has been postponed for a week due to the Queen Mother's funeral.

Following a fourth successive relegation, West will be playing alongside Darlington in North Division One next season, which means that for the first time for years they do not qualify automatically for the national cup.

They will therefore be anxious to qualify via the county cup and will need to reach the final to make sure of that.

Darlington's player-coaches, Phil Lancaster and Craig Lee, are both former West players and need to get their team back on track after recent disappointments.

They have not been helped by the disjointed nature of their season, which continued last Saturday when Aspatria pulled out of their scheduled league game because of a county cup commitment.

They were due to play the Cumbrians on successive weekends, and while the away match goes ahead tomorrow, the home fixture has yet to be rearranged.

Mowden complete their home programme in National Three North tomorrow with the visit of Scunthorpe and look almost certain to finish fifth after winning 27-15 at West Hartlepool last week.

After being consigned largely to bench duties in recent weeks, prop Ian Keeligan found a new spring in his stride as he scored two of Mowden's four tries.

Not usually seen in open play, he appeared on the wing and at centre to burst through for his tries.

England fly half Jonny Wilkinson was in the crowd, partly to watch his brother Mark, who only got on for the last ten minutes as a replacement for Mowden centre Chris Strong.

West coach John Stabler, who now plays only when forced to do so by lack of numbers, kicked four penalties to give his side a 12-10 interval lead.

But they failed to capitalise on ten minutes of pressure after the break and were 20-12 down before Stabler added a fifth penalty.

Flanker Tim Wilks played well for Mowden, while Richard Mangles was a dominant figure at the line-out and fly half Kevan Oliphant continued his good form against his former club.

After the agony of their one-point defeat at Mowden, West hoped to knock their visitors off their stride with an abrasive approach and there were several off-the-ball incidents.

But Mowden were fully prepared and went ahead after five minutes from a ruck 30 metres out. Richard Holborough, back at scrum half after injury, linked with Oliphant, who fed Mick Kent on the burst.

Kent made ground and when the ball was moved out again Keeligan appeared on the wing and brushed past two tackles to score in the corner.

Stabler landed a penalty for offside, but after 25 minutes Mowden's tactic of using Kent on the burst brought further reward. Oliphant set him up and the burly centre carried two men over the line to score.

Then came three Stabler penalties in the last ten minutes of the half, with Kent being sin-binned for killing the ball prior to the last one.

Mowden found themselves under pressure until Kent returned, but they defended well and started to get on top when West were offside in the back row and Mark Bedworth landed a well-struck penalty.

There was only one point in it until Keeligan popped up again after 60 minutes to finish off a good move and Bedworth converted. A Stabler penalty made it 20-15 five minutes later.

Both teams had a forward sin-binned after a line-out flare-up, then Mowden sent on Del Russell and Danny Brown, who took over from impressive hooker Matt Hall. With ten minutes left Russell scored from a line-out drive and Bedworth again converted