Darlington are back on the promotion trail in North One after sneaking an 18-15 win at West Park St Helens, while other results went in their favour.

At the other end of the table, Middlesbrough eased their relegation worries with an excellent 25-20 win at Sheffield.

Darlington are now third, and with the top two losing they are not far adrift. After three narrow defeats, it was almost another example of failing to hang on to a lead, but after seeing 15-5 become 15-15 skipper David Glendenning landed a penalty from the left touchline with seven minutes left.

Although West Park broke out once, Darlington held their nerve and spent most of the closing minutes in their hosts' half.

Scrum half Rob Stewart broke from his own half after 20 minutes and when his pass to Frankie Coulson was deliberately knocked on Darlington drove on from the penalty before slick work by the Lee brothers, Paul and Craig, sent Glendenning on an angled run to the line.

He converted and added a penalty, but on the restart Darlington lost the ball and the home scrum half raced over from 22 metres, making it 10-5 at half-time.

It soon became 15-5 when Paul Lee took a quick free-kick, broke up the middle and looped a long pass for Coulson to score.

A couple of late cry-offs had left Darlington without a backs replacement, so when Simon White went off with an achilles injury flanker Martin Howe went to centre. A failed clearance allowed West Park to score on the left and things looked ominous when they scored again. But they were penalised for obstruction at the restart and were punished by Glendenning.

Boro turned an early 3-0 deficit into a 25-3 lead at half-time before Sheffield applied pressure and twice drove over from line-outs.

But with hooker Richard Horton outstanding, Boro held on for a valuable away win.

Their first try came from a scrum just inside their own half, when Jon Wrigley broke and put Andy Mickewright over.

Then lock Mark Stephenson scored before winger Wes Henry picked up in his own 22 and raced 80 metres to go under the posts.

Ian Wilson added two conversions and a penalty but most of the penalties went to Sheffield in the second half as Boro battled well to hold on.

The bottom two clubs in National Three North, West Hartlepool and Sandal, meet at West next Saturday after being cut further adrift when Bedford Athletic ended Scunthorpe's run of five wins. While West lost 42-27 at Tynedale, Sandal went down 27-10 at home to Blaydon, who moved back into fifth place.

After going behind to a penalty, Blaydon's only try of the first half resulted from a break by scrum half Andy Foreman, who put winger Paul Alexander over.

Veteran Graeme Spearman, playing at full back, had a big hand in the next two tries, Foreman touching down his ninth of the season before winger James O'Malley scored near the posts. James Lofthouse converted all three tries and added two penalties. The first of three very good tries by scrum half David Tighe gave West a 15-10 lead after 34 minutes at Tynedale, but it became 42-15 before Tighe scored his other two in the last ten minutes.

Skipper Brett Cullinane also scored for West in an even first half, while Michael Walton kicked a penalty and two conversions.

Fly half John Fletcher, back after injury, sent centre Paul Boston under the posts just before the break for the Tynedale try which changed the game.

Full back Alan Moses dummied over on the resumption, then came a penalty try before Fletcher scored himself.

Stockton moved up three places into mid-table in North Two East, ahead of visitors Westoe on points difference, after a 9-3 win courtesy of three Dave Turner penalties.

Two of them were from near halfway as Stockton built a 9-0 lead, despite Westoe having plenty of possession.

Magnus Leask had a good game at scrum half for the visitors, but Stockton defended well, with centre Steve Thornton to the fore.

Redcar remain third after a 35-22 home win against Morpeth, but Alnwick narrowly failed to do them a favour as they lost 16-15 at home to leaders Huddersfield.

In Durham and Northumberland Division One Horden hung on to top spot with a 29-26 win at home to Ryton.

Durham City lost 14-11 at Gateshead, for whom centre Andy Grey scored two converted tries on his debut to open a 14-0 lead. City pressure brought a try by hooker Michael Hay plus two penalties by Jon Bland, but it was not enough.

In the all-Hartlepool battle Rovers won 11-6 at TDSOB. Phil Hall kicked a penalty then had a hand in setting up a try for Kevin Stephenson as Rovers dominated the first 25 minutes. Tech came back with two penalties by James Masshedar, but Hall's second penalty after 44 minutes made sure for Rovers.

The Bells tolled as Northallerton's improvement continued with a 14-14 draw at Ripon in Yorkshire Two. Jason Bell scored for Ripon and Matt Bell for the visitors, for whom Ed Bulman added three penalties.