DARLINGTON Mowden Park’s fourth successive win lifted them to fourth place in National Two North as they romped to a 42-27 victory at Huddersfield.

Mowden capitalised on good conditions to score five tries and fly half Grant Connon converted four and added three penalties.

He opened the scoring after Mowden kept possession for the first ten minutes, then outstanding prop Ralph Appleby made the first of several battering runs in midfield. Centre Cameron Mitchell took the ball on and sent full back Richie Young over.

A mix-up under a high ball allowed Huddersfield to score before Connon chipped over their flat defence to set up a try for winger Chris McTurk, whose pace was a constant threat.

Mowden wasted several more chances before the hosts put together some good play and scored again to trail by only a point.

No 8 Danny Dixon got on the end of a move to score Mowden’s third and after an exchange of penalties they led 25-20 at half-time.

Ten minutes after the restart McTurk raced down the right and passed inside for fellow winger Max Connon to score, then Mowden sent on Junior Fagalilo and Rory Duff and both made an impact.

After Fagalilo took a scrum against the head centre Chris Peace beat two men and floated an inside pass for Duff to go under the posts.

Near the end a penalty try was awarded against Mowden for offending twice in a series of rucks and mauls near the line. Connon’s third penalty completed the scoring at the death.

Westoe suffered their fifth straight defeat when they lost 47-17 at home to Preston Grasshoppers, who scored four tries in the first 11 minutes.

Hooker Richie Thirkell crossed for Westoe, but it became 40-5 by half-time. Fly half David Haswell and lock John Younghusband scored Westoe’s second half tries.

Blaydon slipped a point below Tynedale in National One after losing 41-23 at Blackheath, who took over second spot from Cinderford.

Tynedale led Cinderford 36- 13 at Corbridge but they had used all their replacements and when they went down to 14 men the visitors scored three tries in injury time to escape with two bonus points at 36-30.

Full back Peter Moralee scored two of Tynedale’s six tries, others coming from wingers Alan Rogers and Peter Cole, centre Jack Harrison and flanker Sam Reynolds.

After catching the 8am train from Newcastle, Blaydon made a good start at Blackheath and after dominating possession for ten minutes they were rewarded by a penalty from Andrew Baggett, who enjoyed a 100 per cent kicking record for the third successive week.

But when an attack broke down Blackheath counter-attacked to score a converted try.

Although two more Baggett penalties kept Blaydon in it, the hosts’ prolific fly half, Rory Teague, scored a converted try just before halftime for a 22-9 lead.

Blaydon paid for defensive lapses in midfield as they slipped further behind against a good side who recycled the ball better and always had runners on either side.

Blaydon scored two late tries, Jason Smithson touching down a catch-and-drive before the tireless Chris Wearmouth finished a move in which he was involved three times.

Middlesbrough, Durham City and Darlington are in the bottom four in North One East after Boro slipped to a 31- 18 home defeat by Beverley.

The visitors had their usual bevy of Pacific Isalnders and proved too strong for Boro in the backs, although the return of Simon O’Farrell at fly half made a difference.

Jack Bircham kicked a penalty and added a good conversion when winger Josh Evans scored to give Boro a 10-0 lead after six minutes.

But the visitors soon got on top and led 17-13 at half-time then added two converted tries before O’Farrell broke from halfway to score.

Durham City’s points difference reads minus 170 after a 46-0 defeat at Morpeth, but Darlington’s is minus 276 following another thrashing at Old Crossleyans.

Again they competed up front but with nine backs unavailable the youngsters who had to fill in were torn apart as the hosts converted a 24-7 interval lead into a 71-7 win.

Mark Baldwin scored and converted Darlington’s try.

In D and N One Stockton slipped to their first defeat at second-placed Alnwick, beaten 23-13 while losing No 8 Martin Dixon to a red card and lock Steve Taylor plus centre Martin Howe through injury.

Alnwick’s speedy backs gave them a 23-0 half time lead before Taylor scored a try by Taylor, converted by Jeremy Good, who also kicked two penalties.