THE last time these sides met Darlington won an absolutely cracking game 33-19 in the 2001 Durham Cup final. Both teams have supposedly moved on since then, the result being that Saturday's Powergen Cup tie was the sort of dour, scrappy affair which will do nothing to increase modest attendances.

Of Blaydon's four tries the first was a pushover which succeeded at the fourth attempt and the other three resulted from Darlington mistakes, while both the visitors' tries came from mauls.

Blaydon have had a huge summer revamp; Darlington have been preoccupied with sorting out their management after losing money for the last two years and have been unable to strengthen the playing side.

They have been slow starters for the last few seasons and have yet to make an impact in this competition.

They will need to absorb a few lessons before the visit of Waterloo in Saturday's opening National Three North match, when Blaydon will face a sterner test at Darlington Mowden Park.

It is asking a lot of Ali Carter to step up to national level after several seasons of second team rugby, and Phil Lancaster replaced him at half-time as Darlington struggled in the tight.

Given hardly any good ball to work with, scrum half Robbie Stewart was unable to get the backs moving, and there was scarcely a threequarter move worthy of note from either side.

Blaydon have a new Director of Rugby in Nick Gandy and a Rugby Development Manager in Chris Nunn in charge of their cast of thousands, and in his programme notes Nunn promised: "We will be playing a far more attractive game than in recent years."

There was no sign of it here as it will obviously take time to bed in so many newcomers in a team in which Dave Guthrie, captain for the tenth season, remains the only constant factor.

Props Dan Harper and Paul Winter remain from last season and with the highly-rated George Donoghue returning they will pick from strength in that department.

Brian Juliff has been recruited to head a five-man coaching panel and most notable among the new players are hooker Sam Walton from Harlequins, flanker Matt Cook from Bedford, former England Under 19 wing Simon Barber, and full back Dan Clappison from Otley.

Clappison hardly touched the ball, whereas Dave Haswell suffered an unhappy time at full back for Darlington after being switched there when his brother, Graham, damaged a hamstring in the warm-up.

From such ominous beginnings, Darlington began brightly and their early pressure would have brought a try had winger Frankie Coulson been able to gather Paul Lee's chip to the corner.

A Dalrymple penalty put Blaydon ahead, but Darlington took the lead when they drove a maul ten metres and prop Dan Miller scored, Craig Lee adding the conversion.

Darlington were looking vulnerable under the high ball and it was after Haswell was caught in possession that they were put under the pressure which ended with Blaydon's pushover try. It was credited to Cook, who looked a useful acquisition.

Dalrymple converted and added a penalty to make it 13-7 at half-time, although the half ended with a powerful break by Darlington centre Tosh McIntee.

Careless restarts cost Darlington on the resumption, with a poor drop-out allowing Blaydon to apply pressure in the right corner and they moved the ball out for centre Peter Kilburn to burst on to a short pass and go under the posts.

A Craig Lee penalty reduced the gap to 20-10, but then he hung on when he had an overlap on halfway and the resulting turnover led to a penalty try.

Blaydon kicked to the right corner, where Barber was impeded by Haswell, but the decision looked a little harsh.

That was the killer blow. Although Stewart got the touchdown when Darlington drove over from a Richard Snowball line-out take, and Lee added another penalty, the deficit was too great and Blaydon had the last word.

Their final try resulted from a poor pass by Paul Lee's ankles and Blaydon hacked on for replacement flanker Richard Armstrong to score.

Result: Blaydon 34, Darlington 18.