Darlington Mowden Park took the opening day honours in the battle to be considered the second best team in the North-East.

With the four contestants for that title all playing in National Division Three North, Mowden were the only winners when they triumphed 15-3 at Tynedale.

Blaydon suffered an agonising 25-24 defeat at Morley and West Hartlepool lost 36-17 at Nuneaton.

Mowden produced a very competent performance against a club who again have the worry of foot-and-mouth on their doorstep.

After missing the whole of last season player-coach Dave Mitchell had an excellent game at blind side for Mowden.

His fellow back row man Darren McKinnon and centre Anthony Elwine also played well, while there was a promising debut at scrum half from ex-Northern player Richard Woollam.

Playing with the diagonal wind in the first half Mowden took a 10-0 lead then raised their game and shut out Tynedale, who never threatened until they landed a late penalty when Elwine had been sin-binned for a high tackle.

With the linesmen more involved at this level the hosts also had a flanker yellow carded for stamping and there was little fluency because of the amount of penalties.

Mowden went ahead through a Kevan Oliphant penalty after eight minutes when Mitchell collected a drop-out, a ruck formed and Tynedale were penalised.

After 38 minutes Ian James charged down a kick and hacked on, then Elwine burst through with Mitchell in support and after a pick-up and drive No 8 Aaron Radaelli scored, Oliphant converting.

James went off with a neck injury ten minutes into the second half, so Mitchell switched to lock with former Sunderland player John Boatman going into the back row.

Mowden ran a kickable penalty and McKinnon set up the chance for Elwine to force his way over.

Blaydon recovered well from a poor start at Morley and looked to have secured victory when full back Iain Dixon's second try was followed by two penalties from fly half David Dalrymple.

But they conceded a late penalty for handling in a ruck and Morley ran it to score the winning try in the corner.

Blaydon also scored a first half try through new South African centre Barney Vorster.

West Hartlepool were level at 17-17 midway through the second half at Nuneaton, but then conceded three quick tries.

David Grand, the new signing from Horden, scored the opening try for West, converted by Michael Walton. But they fell 17-7 behind before New Zealander Jamie Connolly went under the posts, showing the strength which once made him a Premiership powerhouse with the club.

Walton converted and added a penalty, but six minutes of slack defence cost West dear.

Middlesbrough went out of the Senior National Cup when they lost 22-14 at home to Hull Ionians, failing to capitalise on forward domination.

They went behind after six minutes when the visiting fly half intercepted on halfway and scored under the posts. He added the conversion and a drop goal to make it 10-0.

Boro came back with two good tries, both converted by Steve Graham, to lead 14-10 at half-time.

First a good passing movement ended with fly half Ashley Parker sending flanker Gavin Fingland under the posts, then an interception resulted in a try for winger Andy Micklewright.

But Hull scored two tries without reply in the second half and will be at home to Westoe in the next round on September 15.

Westoe, who beat Blackburn 64-0 in the first qualifying round, pulled off an even better result with a 16-11 win at Workington, who are unbeaten in league rugby for two years.

Three penalties by Craig Stephenson gave Westoe a 9-0 interval lead after playing downwind and within five minutes the gap was down to 9-6.

But an excellent passing move brought a try for Westoe centre David Fairlamb and they withstood strong late pressure to go through.

Also in the cup, Morpeth beat Ashington 39-5 and are at home to Bedford Athletic in the next round.

Darlington improved on the previous week's cup defeat with a 38-14 win in their friendly against Selby. Full back Mark Butler scored two tries, others coming from brothers Paul and Craig Lee, scrum half Rob Stewart and winger Paul Beattie.

Fly half Ian Drummond scored all Hartlepool Rovers' points in a 19-19 draw against Stockton.

Simon Crozier, Simon Brown and Jamie Brown scored tries for Stockton, with Dave Turner adding two conversions.

l Mowden Park skipper Mick Kent scored both tries and won the Man of the Match award as Teesside Steelers won the Harry Jepson Trophy on Saturday.

They won the Rugby League Conference grand final 12-10 against Coventry Bears at Rugby.

After a tough start, Steelers had a try disallowed before good passing down the right ended with fellow Mowden player John Stewart finding player-coach Kent with a long pass and the winger stormed in from 20 yards.

The other player-coach, Phil Gowing, added the conversion then kicked a penalty after the Bears scored a try. Dean Richie's second try put Coventry 10-8 ahead, but Steelers moved the ball around and Kent went through a gap for the decisive try.