Darlington Mowden Park will have to wait until next season to confirm that they are now the second best team in the North-East.

Saturday's results again suggested they will be competing with West Hartlepool and Tynedale in National Three North next season.

Mowden's 33-3 home win against Middlesbrough was far more emphatic than North One leaders Blaydon managed against the Teessiders two weeks ago, while West's 18-13 home defeat by Lydney, the team just above them, leaves them four points adrift at the foot of National Two.

Mowden are in good heart for next Saturday's trip to Birmingham and Solihull in the fourth round of the Tetley's Bitter Cup.

With Del Russell slotting in powerfully at No 8, Tony Irwin and Darren McKinnon were able to continue their outstanding form on the flanks.

Scrum half Phil Harvey beavered away behind them, clearly anxious not to be upstaged in his battle with Jon Wrigley.

In the appalling conditions Wrigley's tactic of turning the ball back inside to his back row was initially understandable.

But he was playing into Mowden's hands as, despite the sterling efforts of Boro No 8 Richard McRae the hosts had a decisive edge in this department.

Lock Mark O'Halloran also worked hard for Boro, but Mowden's superior support work and driving on to the ball made them increasingly dominant.

Centre Mark Bedworth scored two tries and almost had a third, being stopped on the line before handing on for Kevin McCallum to touch down.

Winger Matt Howland used his power to shrug off two tackles in a 50-yard run to the line and Irwin burst off a maul to drive over. Kevan Oliphant, whose excellent distribution played a part in three of the tries, added four conversions.

Boro lost speedy winger Wes Henry after five minutes with a hip injury after a nasty collision with Scott Thompson, but they competed well for the first quarter against the elements.

Thompson and Russell made good ground before the ball was moved left for Bedworth's first try, then there was a suspicion of a forward pass before Howland scored three minutes later to make it 12-0 at the break.

Ian Wilson landed a penalty from just inside halfway to give Boro hope, but the referee failed to spot that the restart didn't travel ten metres and Mowden were able to go straight back on the attack.

Irwin's try killed off Boro, and although John Dixon went on to bolster their pack for the last 20 minutes Mowden were now well on top.

Ian James went on for Steve Sanderson and featured in the final try, which stemmed from Russell breaking out of his own half. Prop Dave Sinclair also handled before Oliphant's long pass sent Bedworth over.

Mowden have conceded only 15 points in four league games and have a points difference of 154, compared with Blaydon's 77 from seven games.

They meet at Crow Trees in two weeks, when Blaydon hope to be the less battle-scarred as they take on Ryton in the NPI Cup this week.

They didn't have things all their own way at improving Stockton on Saturday, despite winning 35-17.

New Zealanders Ryan Roberts and John Marriott both raced over from around 30 metres, Roberts converting both, before centre Graham Kell skipped through three tackles to score for Stockton.

Welshman Gareth King got Blaydon's third try but his opposite winger Simon Crozier replied to keep Stockton in the hunt at 19-14 at half-time.

The visitors were in control in the last quarter, however, a penalty by Jeremy Good, to add to his two conversions, being Stockton's only reply as Roberts kicked three penalties and converted a late try by full back Dean Michniewicz.

Former Stockton scrum half David Tighe put West Hartlepool ahead with an early try against Lydney, but the game was lost by the time he scored again in injury time.

Northern are in a similar plight to West. They lost another player in midweek and after crying off from their fixture at Macclesfield they had two points deducted and are now on minus two in North One.

Darlington and Redcar are now the only realistic challengers to North Two East leaders Halifax after both won away from home.

Darlington avenged last season's defeat at Goole with a 15-3 win, but the bigger surprise was improving Redcar's 15-13 triumph at Huddersfield, who slipped to fourth place alongside Alnwick, who lost 16-10 at home to Morpeth.

Darlington defied wind and rain with a lot of good forward drives and tried to run the ball whenever possible against opponents who never looked like scoring other than through James Rhumann's penalty when they were 5-0 down.

The forwards drove on twice before fly half Craig Lee chipped ahead for winger Paul Beattie to put Darlington ahead after ten minutes.

A penalty by David Glendenning, who hit the post with a later effort, made it 8-3 at half-time and with 20 minutes left Darlington drove up the middle and David Andrew darted through a gap on the 22.

He stumbled after rounding the full back but from a yard out he aquaplaned over for the try.

The combination of experience and youth at lock worked well, Richard Snowball having an excellent game while Bryan Dixon lasted the pace until Neil Burnside went on for the last ten minutes.

Durham City's player-sharing arrangement with the university, who also have a link-up with Mowden Park, continued to pay dividends in a 30-22 win at Medicals.

Although the students have been playing mainly in City's seconds, two of them - full back Stuart Keelan and scrum half Ben Roost - scored tries on Saturday.

Wingers Martin Lumley and Welshman Parry Rowlands, a post-graduate student, also touched down as City came back from 14-0 down. Centre Nick Howe added two penalties and two conversions.

Barnard Castle stayed top of Durham and Northumberland division three with a 17-11 win at Bishop Auckland, while Northallerton eased their worries near the foot of Yorkshire Two when they won 10-3 away to bottom club Ilkley