MIDDLESBROUGH'S hopes of avoiding relegation from North Division One received a double boost on Saturday.

They won 20-11 at home to Driffield and there was good news in the division above, where Sandal won 37-35 at Walsall to ease fears of two North teams being relegated.

Aspatria are definitely coming down, but Sandal are now above Bedford Athletic and Walsall, and if one of those goes down to Midlands One it should have a beneficial knock-on effect for North One.

Boro still need to win their rearranged game at Stockton on Saturday and beat Bradford and Bingley at home the following week to feel safe.

With open side Gavin Fingland leading the way, Boro's defence was excellent against a side who had more than their share of the ball.

Full back Andy Micklewright scored the first and third tries for Boro, while second team skipper Mark Hatfield, drafted in at blind side, got the second after several drives for the line.

It was backs-to-the-wall when Boro led 12-11 in the third quarter, but then Andy Baggett kicked a penalty and winger Jon Malcolm pinched the ball on his own 22 and Micklewright ran half the length of the field to score.

Boro, who are at home to Hull in the second round of the Yorkshire Cup on Wednesday (6.30), expect to have Irishmen Richard McRae and Wes Henry back next week.

Stockton pulled off a second successive victory, winning 14-7 away to Hull Ionians, who are struggling to put out a side at the moment.

Stockton have left it too late, but they are unlikely to want to do Middlesbrough any favours and the derby should be as keenly-contested as ever.

Despite being without back row big guns Alan Brown and Brett Wildridge, Stockton more than held their own up front with locks Keith Etherington and Mark Skirving doing well, while Joe Green had a good game at open side.

Hull had a prop yellow carded for punching early on and he was sent off in the second half, by which Stockton were in control.

They led 8-0 after facing the wind in the first half, through a Jeremy Good penalty and a try by Simon Crozier following a powerful counter-attack by full back Dave Turner.

Good added two more penalties before Stockton's defence was breached with five minutes to go for Hull's only points.

Having cried off two weeks ago, Hull have been told they must visit Mowden Park next Saturday and it promises to be a much easier task for the leaders than in their 6-3 win at third-placed Sheffield.

With their skipper Jon Adams, a former Sandal flanker, providing a strong lead Sheffield succeeded in disrupting Mowden and the line was hardly threatened by either side.

The best chance came when Mick Kent broke through following a scrum. He might have scored himself but looked for support and Shaun Cassidy knocked on.

Facing a strong wind in the first half, Mowden were happy to be level at 3-3 after falling behind in the 15th minute.

Kevan Oliphant kicked the equalising penalty and added a second with 20 minutes to go, despite struggling for more than half the match with a dead leg.

Mowden had a clear territorial advantage in the second half, but in a game full of knock-ons and off-sides they rarely looked like stretching their lead.

Blaydon stayed on Mowden's heels and tuned up for Saturday's trip to Twickenham with a 40-31 win at Bradford and Bingley.

Full back Gareth King was the star as he scored two tries and landed a late drop goal as the hosts threatened to fight back.

Playing into the wind, Blaydon trailed throughout the first half but surged ahead with tries by flanker Tim Russell, King and winger Jake Hirst. Fly half David Dalrymple, who had dummied through for a first-half try, added the goal points, while flanker Jon Dye was outstanding up front.

With their match against Alnwick not expected to be played, Darlington completed their North Two East programme with a 34-5 win at Bridlington.

Without a recognised hooker, they lost a couple of strikes against the head and couldn't hit their men at the line-out, but were rarely troubled by a side who put all 15 men into a maul three times in the second half.

Darlington scored after ten minutes when Paul Lee broke through on a counter-attack and winger Paul Beattie scored.

A free-kick was moved down the left and when the ball was recycled it went right for the other winger, Marc Potts, to score.

Bridlington scored after kicking a penalty to the corner, but David Glendenning replied with a penalty and on the restart he came into the line and accelerated away to slide over. His third conversion made it 24-5 at half-time.

After 35 minutes of stalemate Darlington ran two free-kicks to send Potts over, then Simon White, who had come on for Mark Butler, launched a good move from his own half. Martin Howe was also involved before Craig Lee got the touchdown.

Foot-and-mouth is disrupting an exciting climax in Durham and Northumberland Division Three, where two points covers the top four teams.

Ponteland, who are now playing again, won 21-7 at home to Seghill to enhance their promotion chances, while rivals Guisborough, Barnard Castle and Seaton Carew were unable to play.

Darlington's Craig Lee has had to withdraw from his first experience of captaining the Durham County team today because of Fire Service duties.

His place at fly half is taken by Winlaton's Mark Elliott for the match against Leicestershire at Syston.

Paul Williamson (TDSOB) and Ian Parnaby (Westoe) have withdrawn from the bench and are replaced by Andrew Arnell (Hartlepool Rovers) and Sean Curtin (Westoe).

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