Darlington Mowden Park are the only club outside the national leagues to have reached the last 32 of the Tetley's Bitter Cup.

Although they hope to be in National Division Three North next year, that will still leave them two divisions below their fourth round hosts, Birmingham and Solihull.

The November 4 trip looks likely to be the end of the road for Mowden's cup run, one round earlier than last year's exit at Harlequins, which thrust them into the national spotlight.

But recent form suggests they should at least be capable of giving the Birmingham club a fright, even without skipper Mick Kent.

The winger scored the two late tries which finally broke the resistance of third round visitors North Walsham last Saturday, but will miss four games while he is away on the British Police Rugby League tour of South Africa.

The score was 10-10 with 12 minutes left, but Mowden were comfortable 27-10 winners in the end against the National Three South club from Norfolk.

The visitors had a robust set of forwards and defended stoutly until Kent broke through, possibly helped by the South African referee unsighting the Walsham fly half.

But while the margin was slightly flattering, there was no doubt that Mowden deserved to win as they did most of the second half attacking.

They also thought they had taken an early lead when full back Kevin McCallum followed up a chip to the corner and touched down. But he was ruled to have been in front of the kicker.

Both sides scored converted interception tries in the first half, a visiting flanker racing 70 metres for the first before Kevan Oliphant replied from halfway.

Oliphant had already kicked a penalty and his conversion made it 10-7, but the visitors piled on the pressure in the last five minutes of the first half and levelled the scores with the last kick.

Mowden threatened with a swift attack up the left five minutes after the break, but Walsham came back and were narrowly wide with a drop goal.

With 25 minutes left the visitors had a centre sin-binned after he ran several yards to thump Tony Irwin.

Mowden surprisingly kicked the penalty to the corner when it looked within Oliphant's range, and their attempts to drive over from the line-out were repelled.

They kept the pressure on and after Mark Bedworth was stopped just short, Walsham cleared only for Mowden's irrepressible hooker Tasi Tuhana to launch another attack.

The ball was moved left then right, but when prop Dave Sinclair tried to sell a dummy he slipped and was penalised for not releasing.

After Mowden failed to break through with their opponents down to 14 men for ten minutes, it seemed the game might go to extra time.

But shortly after they sent on Jason Malcolm for the impressive Ian James in the second row, they won a scrum on the left and Kent came off his wing to take a short pass from scrum half Phil Harvey and burst over with barely a hand laid on him.

Oliphant converted then added a penalty from 35 metres to ensure the visitors would have to score twice.

They mounted one threatening attack, only for a marginal forward pass decision to go against them and their chance had gone by the time Mowden moved the ball along the line to give Kent a simple touchdown.

The other winger, Chris Mattison, suffered a calf injury in the warm-up and, with Kent absent, they will be grateful that Matt Howland has returned after being released by Coventry.

Darlington won 24-17 at home to Huddersfield, the club most likely to challenge them for second place behind Halifax in North Two East.

While the leaders stretched away with a 62-0 home win against Goole, Darlington needed a good try from winger Paul Beattie with ten minutes left to subdue big, strong opponents in an exciting game.

Darlington dominated the first few minutes, but the first time they lost the ball Huddersfield kicked to touch, Darlington conceded a penalty and were caught off guard as the visiting scrum half ran in from 25 metres.

They then had to reshuffle the backs when Paul Lee was punched and went off with a closed eye, skipper David Andrew coming off the bench to go on the wing, with Paul's brother Craig switching to fly half and Mark Butler to centre.

Persistent driving at the line brought reward after 40 minutes when flanker John Whitehouse scored, David Glendenning converting to make it 7-7 at half-time.

As in the previous week's defeat by Halifax, a loss of concentration in midfield allowed the visitors to score under the posts, but this time Darlington came back with another series of drives for the line and Huddersfield were penalised three times.

On the third occasion it was felt there was cause for a penalty try, but it didn't matter as Craig Lee stood up in the tackle, handed off his opponent and went under the posts.

Glendenning's conversion levelled the scores again and with 25 minutes left Darlington sent on Bryan Dixon for lock Neil Burnside.

Beattie's decisive try was a brilliant effort from around 65 metres as he came off the opposite wing and burst between the centres to race away with only the full back to beat. He succeeded by chipping ahead and re-gathering the ball to go under the posts.

Glendenning converted and added an excellent penalty, to which Huddersfield quickly replied. But although the visitors continued to press they began to make mistakes and their last chance was snuffed out by a good tackle from Butler on the 22.

Darlington seconds lost 30-29 to Northern in a match which featured good runs from Kieron Thompson and Marc Potts, while newcomer James Diamond, a Barnard Castle school teacher, also caught the eye at centre.

Tony Williams, an early replacement for Mike Thompson at scrum half, was among the try scorers, others coming from Potts, Ben Usher and Tony Taylor. Thompson kicked two conversions and Potts landed a conversion and a penalty.