BLAYDON were grateful to Tynedale for doing them a huge favour on Saturday but will be in no mood for seasonal offerings when their neighbours come calling this week.

A 13-3 win at Hull Ionians took Blaydon seven points clear at the halfway stage in National Three North as second-placed Rugby Lions lost 34-17 at Tynedale.

As Blaydon have already been to Rugby and to Corbridge they have every reason for confidence and hope to have skipper Dave Guthrie and full back Ralph Smith back for the derby.

Although Pat Segi returned to the back row, there were other absentees on Saturday, allowing Tongan winger Sami Soanoe to make a try-scoring debut.

With Justin Clarke and Marcus Cockburn injured, Blaydon also had former Gateshead Thunder player Selwyn St Bernard, normally a back row man, on the bench as front row cover and he made a big impact when going on for ten minutes when Chris Stewart was sin-binned.

That was just after half-time, by which stage Blaydon were well on top after going 3-0 down and surviving two scares when Hull had tries disallowed.

It took 20 minutes for Blaydon to apply real pressure and when the back row caught the home fly half in possession Richard Windle picked up and fed Martin Shaw, who sent winger Mike Sutherland over.

Windle added an easy penalty for an 8-3 half-time lead, and Soanoe's try came when the ball was moved out after a penalty to the corner and a half break by No 8 Peter Altona.

Tynedale had skipper Phil Belgian back after injury and he contributed 14 points as his side forged ahead after trailing 10-7 at the interval to Rugby.

Belgian kicked two penalties and converted all four tries, scored by Hamish Smales (2), Ben Duncan and Jamie Murray.

Darlington moved up to seventh place, two points behind Mowden Park, with a 30-29 win away to bottom club Orrell.

It was the second successive league match in which Darlington have squeezed home by one point, although it took a late try by Orrell to make it so tight.

After last week's disappointing cup performance at Clifton, Darlington trailed 14-10 at the break but scored straight afterwards then forged ahead.

They battled hard for the win with brothers Dan and Joe Oselton doing well in the front row, while Chris Barber had a good game at full back.

The new centre pairing of Lee Davis and Alex Lineton shared the kicked duties in the absence of Charlie Raynor. But they were unable to find the target as all six tries were scored wide out, two of them by No 8 Alan Brown.

One of those was from a scrum and the other from a driving maul, while flanker Michael Taylor, prop Lee Hoggart and fly half Craig Lee also scored from close range.

The other try stemmed from a move which started on Orrell's ten-metre line and was finished by winger Lee Richardson following a half break by Barber.

Mowden Park are still seeking their first away win after losing 16-10 at Leicester Lions, where the forwards more than matched their hosts but were let down by the backs.

Their only try came after 11 minutes, when excellent work by hooker Shaun Buckley was followed by good handling, which was finished off by full back Anthony Mellalieu, whose conversion put them 7-3 ahead.

They trailed 11-7 at half-time then dominated after the interval but had only a Mellalieu penalty to show for it as chances went begging.

The killer blow came after 63 minutes when Leicester scored a catch-and-drive try, but Mowden still had chances to win, only to be let down by poor decision-making in the backs.

The one spell in which the hosts were really dominant came midway through the first half and ended with Mowden flanker Ben Lonsdale being sin-binned in the 29th minute. Leicester kicked the penalty to the corner then scored from a five-metre scrum.

Mowden sent on their replacements in the last 15 minutes and switched Peter Phelan from the wing to scrum half. But although things improved they couldn't get across the line

Durham City lost 24-5 away to North Two East's bottom club, Percy Park, who played with a lot of spirit and clinched their second win with two interception tries in the last seven minutes.

They had led 10-5 for most of the second half, despite having a man advantage after City's Stuart Smithson was sent off just before half-time.

He was initially yellow-carded for querying whether the referee was within his rights to march City back more than 20 metres for disputing a penalty. As the protests continued they were eventually sent back 40 metres and Smithson was dismissed.

Playing downwind in the first half, City led after 25 minutes through a catch-and-drive try finished off by Darren McKinnon. But they were 7-5 down by the interval.

Hartlepool Rovers lost 15-10 at Old Crossleyans, where they trailed 8-0 before Gareth Foreman scored to reduce the gap to three points at half-time. The hosts pulled clear with a converted try and for all their late pressure Rovers managed only one further try.

Stockton continued their improvement in D and N One when they won 15-7 at Ryton, although they were unable to pull clear of second-bottom Redcar as the seasiders won 17-13 at home to Alnwick.

After playing the Alan Todd Memorial match at Middlesbrough on December 30, Stockton's next league game is at home to Redcar on January 6.

They will hope to be back at full strength then, although notable performers among Saturday's replacements were 47-year-old prop Ian Fleetham and 19-year-old flanker Sam Toulson.

Stockton led through a try by Tom Armstrong following a good run by winger Tom Jeffery, but it was 7-7 at half-time.

They regained the lead when a high kick to the left corner by Jeremy Good set up a try for Jeffery and with 20 minutes left Good added a penalty to his first half conversion.