DARLINGTON Mowden Park have questioned the procedures which allowed their National Three North match at Blaydon to be called off at 10.30am on Saturday.

Blaydon called in local referee John Richardson, who decided that the Crow Trees pitch was 80 per cent unplayable at that stage because of frost.

He rang the official referee, who had just left his home in Hull, to pass on his judgement and the match was promptly postponed.

Mowden's Director of Rugby John Parkinson said: "There is no suggestion that Blaydon have operated outside the rules, but the league secretary has confirmed that the procedures are designed to prevent unnecessary travel.

"We are only 30 miles apart and as the official referee gets his expenses anyway it would have made greater sense for both teams to have awaited his verdict nearer kick-off time."

Mowden were told there would be a pitch inspection at 11.30 and sent team secretary Jim Dyson to witness it. But he arrived at 10.40 to be told the match was off. He felt that the pitch was 30 per cent unplayable, but with the sun out it would have eased by the scheduled kick-off time of 2.15.

Blaydon's Jim Huxley explained: "We told Mowden at 9.10 that the match was in doubt and suggested a noon inspection. They wanted it at 11.30 because that's when they were leaving.

"We had to find a local referee of the required standard and there aren't many of those. The first one we tried had already left for a match at New Brighton, and John Richardson agreed to come down before leaving to referee at Carlisle.

"There was a very hard frost in this area. Winlaton's match was off and the football match at Whickham was abandoned at half-time. We were disappointed our match couldn't be played, but we followed the rules because we have been in this situation before.

"When Tynedale came down last season they refused to play, even though we thought the pitch was playable and so did the referee."

Tynedale recorded their third successive narrow victory when they won 18-15 at Dudley Kingswinford, with full back Will Massey crossing twice to become the league's leading try scorer with eight.

Middlesbrough's struggles continued in North One when they lost 35-3 at Birkenhead Park and are now one of three teams on two points.

The expected return of back row men Richard McRae and Ben Pattison failed to materialise, while David Richardson was ruled out by a thumb injury.

Birkenhead scored four first half tries from catch-and-drives to lead 25-0 and Boro's only reward for an improved performance after the break was a penalty by Simon Moore.

Westoe stayed top of North Two East as player-coach Richard Arnold scored two tries in their 39-13 win at Redcar.

Young Dutch winger J J Boske also continued his regular try scoring as Westoe built on a 9-3 half-time lead established through three of Paul Hagan's five penalties. Graeme Evans and Jamie Connolly touched down for Redcar.

Stockton lost 29-10 at Alnwick after leading 10-5 at half-time through two tries by player-coach Alan Brown. They crossed the line three more times without reward as they showed a big improvement on previous away performances.

Former Sale centre Aidan Phillipson proved Stockton's undoing with a hat-trick of tries in the second half, all from breaks at least 40 metres out. He also set up winger Ian Gray with another break.

In his first outing for Hartlepool Rovers after leaving Mowden Park, Andy Foreman scored two tries in a shock 15-9 win at Malton and Norton. Lock Dave Carroll also scored as the hosts suffered only their third defeat of the season.

As West Hartlepool won 24-23 at home to Sandal, the two Hartlepool clubs are now four points clear of Horden, who remain bottom after losing 27-16 at home to Huddersfield.

Replacement Paul Rudd scored the winning try nine minutes from time for West.

Tim Sawyer scored West's other try on his return from injury, while Sandal touched down three times but failed with the boot.

They missed four penalties, including one in injury time, while Dave Tighe kicked four penalties for West and converted Sawyer's try.