VICTORIES for both Darlington clubs last Saturday provided a huge boost for their survival hopes in National Three North.

The win was more vital for Mowden Park, their 18-11 triumph at home to Tynedale lifting them out of the third relegation spot.

They are one point ahead of Rugby Lions, who have only three games left, one fewer than Mowden.

Darlington can do Mowden a big favour by winning at home to Rugby tomorrow week, a victory which would also clinch their own safety after their 26-7 win at Blaydon last week.

As the only club to have progressed through the first round of the Durham Cup, Darlington have tomorrow off while the other ties are played, including Mowden's home match against Hartlepool Rovers.

Blaydon play Horden in the cup, but assuming they win they will not wish to stage their home semi-final against Darlington until they are safe from relegation.

That may not be for some time as they are on the same points as Mowden and their crucial game is likely to be the one at Rugby on April 9.

Mowden received a big lift from the welcome return of goal-kicker Mark Bedworth, who scored 13 of their points against Tynedale.

They had managed only one win out of 11 games during his absence with hamstring and pelvic injuries and, while there was some doubt about whether he grounded the ball properly for his try, Mowden were due a slice of luck.

The try was created by new right winger Michael Breen, a former Barnard Castle School boy, whose pace made him the most dangerous runner on the field.

Everything had conspired against Mowden in recent weeks, but this was their day and they were further helped in an even contest by Tynedale kicker Will Massey having an off-day.

He is the league's third highest points scorer, but he missed two relatively easy penalties and made a hash of his one conversion attempt.

Mowden went ahead after five minutes and were never behind against a side who dominated the scrums, but displayed precious little creativity.

Excellent long passes by fly half Martin Shaw and Bedworth almost produced an early try in the left corner when prop Danny Brown seemed to have put winger Peter Phelan over.

Tynedale kept him out, but Mowden scored in the same corner shortly afterwards when they drove a maul and moved the ball out on the blind side and lock Kelekolio Paino sent flanker Jason Smithson over.

Mowden failed to collect the restart and Tynedale No 8 Andrew Murray drove on, forcing Mowden to concede a penalty, which Massey landed.

The visitors dominated the next ten minutes, but Massey pulled another penalty wide then a high-speed attack up the left was halted by a flying tackle by full back Michael Georgiou. He was ticked off by the referee as the tackle was deemed dangerous, but after kicking the penalty to touch in the corner, Tynedale failed to make use of their line-out possession.

Bedworth relieved the pressure with a big clearance and when Mowden ran a penalty on halfway, Breen had the first chance to show his impressive pace.

He then burst down the middle and hooker Tasi Tuhana almost drove to the line before Tynedale were penalised for a deliberate knock-on under the posts and Bedworth made it 8-3 at half-time.

Tynedale had the chance to take control on the resumption as Massey kicked another easy penalty then the scrum dominance became more pronounced when Smithson was sin-binned. But just before he returned Mowden scored the crucial try.

A Tynedale kick into the Mowden half was fielded by Breen, who appeared to have nowhere to go with two men closing in on him. But his instant acceleration took him round the outside of them and he raced 40 metres up the right wing before passing inside to Bedworth.

The centre chipped ahead over the line and won the race to touch down. He seemed to have bounced the ball rather than applying the necessary downward pressure, but he was awarded the try and added the conversion.

Tynedale came back with a strong attack up the right through scrum half Ed Holmes and winger Ben Duncan and, when they were awarded a penalty five metres short, they opted for a scrum.

Even though Mowden were back to full strength they were driven back and Holmes touched down to make it 15-11 with 15 minutes left.

Massey hit a post with a straightforward penalty seven minutes later and Mowden got the final score in the 80th minute.

Tynedale got in a tangle under a high kick by scrum half Shaun Richardson and the visitors conceded a penalty for Bedworth to hit the target from 30 metres.

Darlington went behind to a converted try in the seventh minute at Blaydon, who drove over from a five-metre scrum.

But Darlington came straight back and were 20-7 ahead by half-time before David Kell landed two out of three second-half penalty attempts for a personal tally of 16 points.

Skipper Paul Lee was influential on his return after a broken finger and, after leaving prop Joe Oselton on the bench in recent weeks, Darlington opted for his extra bulk until they sent on Paul Scott for the last ten minutes.

Scrum half Rob Stewart made good use of the ball, while full back David Glendenning and winger Frankie Coulson again played well.

Darlington hit back quickly after Blaydon's try and, after several phases, fly half Lee chipped through and centre Ben Snook gathered the ball and raced 40 metres to score.

Kell converted and added penalties after 19 and 26 minutes before Lee again kicked through and flanker Martin Howe looked likely to score.

The ball bounced unkindly for him and he over-ran it, but the defence went with him and Glendenning picked up to score from five metres, Kell again converting.

The second half was dour in comparison, with Blaydon applying a lot of pressure but making too many handling errors to break down a well-organised defence.

Kell punished them by finding the target after 60 and 80 minutes and Darlington will fancy their chances of a repeat win in the county cup semi-final.