BLAYDON and Darlington tuned up for this week's meeting at Blackwell Meadows by comfortably picking up four-try bonus points on Saturday.

Blaydon's was in the bag after 30 minutes at home to Hull Ionians, but at 30-0 they relaxed and settled for a 37-5 win.

Darlington needed ten minutes to shake off the rust of three weeks' inactivity before bouncing back from 12-0 down to win 48-24 at Cleckheaton.

Blaydon's bonus point stretched their lead over National Three North promotion rivals Nuneaton to three, but their hotline to Mowden Park ended in disappointment with the Midlanders snatching victory.

There were two tries for winger Simon Barber on his return from injury as Blaydon really turned it on for the first half hour. But the forwards had their share of the glory with Dave Whitehead and Justin Clarke both being driven over, while replacement flanker Dave Marwick scored the only second half try at the death.

Centre Sua Segi broke through following a line-out to open the scoring after five minutes, then the ball was moved wide for Barber to touch down.

The two forward tries followed before prop Paul Winter and flanker Paul Brady combined well to put Barber in again.

Hull scored just before half-time then applied a lot of pressure after the break, when Blaydon showed their defensive capabilities.

Fly half Dan Clappison followed Marwick's late try with his second conversion to add to a penalty.

Darlington had hit top form in beating Preston Grasshoppers before the weather intervened and after Saturday's win player-coach Craig Lee said: "We played very well.

"We picked up where we left off once we got going. There was a lot of good interplay between backs and forwards and we can go into our home game against Blaydon with a lot of confidence."

A weakened Darlington side lost 50-8 at Crow Trees in December and they will do well to turn it round against a team determined to win all their remaining games and clinch the promotion play-off place.

Darlington were 14-12 ahead at half-time and scored seven tries, with the rest of the points coming from the boot of full back Lee Davies.

National Three North's leading try scorer, No 8 Alan Brown, grabbed his 21st of the season and five other forwards touched down - prop Joe Oselton, locks Richard Snowball and Stuart Palmer, and flankers Martin Howe and Michael Taylor.

Fly half and skipper Paul Lee scored the other try as Darlington moved level with Preston in fifth place with two games in hand.

Tynedale remain fourth after a 45-15 home win against Leicester Lions. Skipper Phil Belgian broke through for Tynedale's first try then made the second and converted both.

But they allowed a 14-0 lead to become a 15-14 deficit before winger Hamish Smales finished off an excellent move and they dominated the second half. Belgian converted all six tries and added a penalty.

Middlesbrough gave themselves a lifeline in North One, moving above visitors Longton into third bottom place with a 27-7 win.

Full back Simon Moore produced an excellent kicking display, converting the three tries from wide out and adding two penalties.

It was almost half-time before his first penalty opened the scoring, but straight after the interval the ball was moved wide for Andy Micklewright to score.

Shortly afterwards centre Dave Richardson scored a good individual try and Moore's second penalty made it 20-0 after 70 minutes.

Longton then piled on the pressure and scored a converted try, but Boro were rewarded for their good line-out work at the death when lock Chris Palesci scored.

Westoe narrowed the gap on fourth-placed Huddersfield to two points with two games in hand by winning 27-14 at home to the West Yorkshire club.

Boro will be hoping Huddersfield have nothing left to play for when they go there on April 8, but first they have to entertain second-placed West Park St Helens knowing they need at least two wins from three games. The final one is at home to Caldy, who are three points ahead of them. Caldy's only other match is at home to Westoe.

If Boro finish third bottom they will need a better record than the third bottom team in Midlands One, which will be Burton, Kettering or Walsall, all currently on six wins.

Victories for Penrith and Beverley ended Durham City's promotion hopes in North Two East, and they look certain to finish third after a 34-10 home win against relegated Stockton.

The visitors are already planning for next season and their first aim will be improved fitness as they again wilted after battling hard to trail only 17-10 with ten minutes left.

Both Stockton's selected centres cried off, but the resulting combination of Mattie Oates and Tom Jeffery worked well. Oates was returning from a long injury absence and Jeffery showed a lot of promise on his switch from the wing.

Among the other youngsters doing well for Stockton was hooker Dave Moulder, who was driven over to open the scoring.

Stockton dropped the restart and City took command with three tries in 20 minutes from Dan Kyle, Darren McKinnon and Chris Mattison.

Replacement winger Zak Hardy scored for Stockton to make it 17-10 at half-time.

They held their own until James Walker kicked a penalty for City then Kyle kicked ahead and capitalised on a kind bounce to score. Finally Walker added his third conversion to his own try.

Redcar ended their relegation fears in Durham and Northumberland One by winning 25-21 at home to Horden, who now face a tense promotion battle. They are locked together on 34 points with Malton and Norton and Northern.

Malton and Norton play both their rivals, Northern away on April 8 then Horden at home.

* Durham's hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the Under 20s County Championship ended when they lost 25-15 to Northumberland at Sunderland.