FORMER England full back Tim Stimpson is gambling on his fitness in today's National Three North promotion showdown between Nuneaton and Blaydon.

The ex-West Hartlepool and Newcastle player joined Nuneaton from Leeds two months ago, along with former Leicester and England prop Darren Garforth.

It is understood that Stimpson wanted to miss today's game because of a hand injury but planned to play in a testimonial match Leicester have arranged for him tomorrow.

Nuneaton, who have him on contract, were not happy about that so he is in their line-up for a game they must win to prevent Blaydon forging ahead of them in second place.

In an otherwise full-strength line-up, Blaydon have had to select Director of Rugby Nick Gandy at scrum half.

James Kyle, who has recently become first-choice No 9, will be out for two weeks with a leg injury suffered last Saturday, while Nick Williams is playing in a World Cup qualifier for Austria.

Gandy has played most of his rugby on the wing, but has appeared at scrum half and went on there for the last 20 minutes in the Powergen Cup tie at Nottingham.

Blaydon will draw on the memory of that game, in which they matched their Division One opponents until well into the second half, as they tackle one of the biggest games in the club's history.

They have an ex-Nuneaton man in their back row in Paul Brady as Dave Marwick is the one to stand down to accommodate the return of skipper Dave Guthrie.

Darlington were praying for a dry night ahead of the visit of leaders Bradford and Bingley as they were unable to train on their waterlogged Blackwell Meadows pitch on Thursday.

With his brother Paul ruled out by food poisoning, player-coach Craig Lee will play at fly half and said: "Like all the top teams they have a big pack so we want to move them around.

"If we can get people like Stuart Palmer, Michael Taylor and Richard Snowball running at them we have a chance, but we don't want to get drawn into a dogfight up front.

"We played really well in the first half against Preston, so it's disappointing not to have played in the two weeks since.

"Nuneaton were top when they came here and we outplayed them in the first half, but we have to sustain it and move on. Our target has to be to finish fourth."

With Rob Stewart ruled out by his arm injury, Phil Dawson and Ben Snook will be the centre pairing, with Apenai Kororua at full back.

Darlington held Bradford and Bingley until half-time on their own ground, but then the Bees ran in three quick tries and won 52-28.

The absence of Danny Brown, Eni Gisende and Luke Monument from last week's pack will not help Darlington Mowden Park at New Brighton. But they should still be confident against a side who have won only twice all season and have conceded a lot of points recently.

Mowden know that defeat would put them under the sort of pressure they could do without going into a four-match run-in with no easy games.

Neither Middlesbrough nor Westoe have been able to rearrange North One matches for today, with the home games postponed two weeks ago being slotted in on April 1.

Westoe's trip to Longton, which was washed out last week, now looks set to cause a problem as the Stoke-based club have such a backlog that they cannot stage the match until April 29.

That's the day of the Durham Cup final and as Westoe have every chance of getting through they could put a spanner in the works for the second successive year.

After last season's fiasco, Durham are determined that the final will go ahead on the scheduled date, but unless Longton are already relegated, Westoe would risk the wrath of others in North One - possibly Boro - by sending a weakened team.

Westoe need to beat Stockton and Horden to reach the cup final and while April 15 is free, the county are going to have to press for some ties to be played in midweek.