MARK Bedworth again proved what a talisman he is for Mowden Park as they climbed out of the third relegation spot in National Three North.

The centre scored 13 points on his return from injury, including a slightly fortuitous try, although Mowden were due a bit of luck after their recent misfortunes.

The try was created by new right winger Michael Breen, whose pace made him the most dangerous runner on the field and if Mowden can make more use of him they should stay ahead of Rugby Lions.

The Midlanders only drew at home to Dudley and are now a point behind Mowden, who are level on points with Blaydon.

Mowden had won only one of 11 games during Bedworth's absence but he proved the difference between two evenly-matched sides.

Full back Will Massey had an off-day for Tynedale, missing two penalties he would normally have landed and making a hash of his one conversion attempt.

The sum of Mowden's parts still isn't what it should be and they never looked like securing a bonus point for four tries, but in their position any victory was welcome.

They went ahead after five minutes and were never behind against a side who dominated the scrums but created nothing behind, with young fly half Gavin Beasley having a disappointing game.

Excellent handling by Mowden almost produced an early try in the left corner when prop Danny Brown seemed to have put winger Peter Phelan over.

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

Neither side were very good at fielding restarts and when Mowden failed to collect the first one, the excellent Tynedale No 8 Andrew Murray drove on and Massey kicked a simple penalty.

The visitors dominated the next ten minutes, but Massey pulled another penalty wide then a dangerous attack up the left was snuffed out by a flying tackle by Michael Georgiou.

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 ran round the outside of two men trying to close him down and made 40 metres before passing inside to Bedworth. The centre chipped ahead and won the race to touch down. There was a suspicion that he had not applied sufficient 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 powerless to halt the drive and Holmes touched down.

With 15 minutes left Tynedale were still in the game at 15-11, but Massey hit a post with a straightforward penalty.

The final score came in the 80th minute when Tynedale got in a tangle under a high kick by Shaun Richardson and the visitors conceded a penalty for Bedworth to hit the target from 30 metres.

Result: Darlington Mowden Park 18, Tynedale 11.