THE BLAYDON club is buzzing after a lucrative weekend. It began with 2,500 attending their Friday night bonfire, continued with an outstanding Powergen National Trophy win and ended with the usual successful Sunday car boot sale.

By beating the National Division Two high-fliers from Blundellsands, Blaydon guaranteed themselves a £16,800 pay-day in the sixth round, for which the draw will be made today.

"The club is on a real high," said secretary Jim Huxley. "All the players were helping on Friday night, when we even had some Samoans on the gate. It all went so well that it had them in tremendous spirits on Saturday."

Steve Gustard, who played on the wing for the Gosforth team which beat Waterloo in the 1977 final at Twickenham, spent almost an hour instilling into the Blaydon players that they were good enough to win.

They tackled ferociously and fully deserved the victory, despite seeing a 19-0 half-time lead cut by a side reduced to 14 men for the last half-an-hour.

There was some confusion about the sending-off of Waterloo flanker Jon Nugent, stemming from the fact that the referee had to retire after ten minutes with a pulled muscle.

He had already sin-binned Nugent, which was pointed out to replacement referee Derek Blake when he handed the player a second yellow card. Both were for technical offences in a match played in an excellent spirit.

Beginning his comeback from a six-week injury absence on the bench, Blaydon skipper Dave Guthrie spent longer than intended on the pitch.

He had to go on early in the match when lock Dave Whitehead suffered a blood injury, then went back on for the second half after No 8 Ed Thorpe suffered a recurrence of his knee problem.

Guthrie helped the forwards maintain control, but man-of-the-match was flanker Pat Segi as Blaydon reaped the reward for all the practice they have put in to counteract driving mauls.

Waterloo tried that tactic without success and when they found themselves being driven back they conceded a series of penalties.

Full back Michael Campbell was just short following an attack from their own half, but eventually Blaydon kicked a penalty to the corner and prop Justin Clarke was driven over.

Waterloo came back strongly, but they wasted an overlap 20 metres out when a sloppy pass was intercepted by home winger James Kyle, who was never in danger of being caught.

In time added Pat Segi put in a storming run for the line, the ball was quickly recycled and lock Paul Clark dived over. Richard Windle's second conversion making it 19-0.

Waterloo kicked a penalty before Nugent's dismissal and Blaydon failed to take advantage of their extra man, losing several attacking line-outs.

Waterloo scored a converted breakaway try midway through the second half, but were unable to subdue their hosts, who kept on driving them back to march into the last 16 on November 26.

Blaydon 19 - 10 Waterloo