AFTER winning five of their 95 league games under the coaching of John Stabler, West Hartlepool waited until his retirement at the end of this season had been made official to spring a surprise result.

The 40-year-old fly half deserves the credit he has been given for simply keeping the club alive, but how he must wish his players had responded earlier as they did in the 33-25 home win against Chester.

It was only their second win in North One and it came against a team pushing for promotion, doing Darlington a huge favour after handing them a 42-0 win the previous week.

Needing three wins from five games to have a chance of escaping the bottom two, Stabler finally restored himself to kicking duties after David Tighe had missed twice during a dominant opening first 15 minutes.

Stabler converted four of the five tries, one from the touchline, and was grateful to see his opposite number miss twice with West leading 26-25.

They sealed victory with a try after 78 minutes by Phil Gilbraith, who had replaced centre Allan Milne only two minutes earlier.

With the forwards again battling gallantly, this time the backs found form with Milne and two-try Jamie Connolly combining well at centre.

Playing into the wind, West were 6-0 down before skipper John Painter was driven over, but then Chester hacked downfield and when a maul was pulled down just short of the line a penalty try was awarded, allowing them to lead 13-7 at half-time.

Milne set up Connolly, who brushed off two tackles to score his first, only for Chester to come straight back with a try.

Connolly then powered over again before a blind side break and well-timed pass from Tighe sent winger Tommy Barff sprinting in at the corner.

Chester came back with another try, but a good kick by Tighe set up the position for West to earn their reward.

Cash-strapped Blaydon suddenly find themselves on the fringe of a relegation battle in National Three North after squandering a 21-3 lead at home to lowly Bedford Athletic.

The visitors, who are next to the bottom, won 32-26 as Blaydon felt the effects of fielding a weakened side after asking their players to take a six-week pay break.

They had Lee Hogarth at fly half, but there seemed to be no problem as he kicked three penalties and converted one of the two first half tries scored by prop Dan Harper and No 8 Tom McLaren.

But Bedford scored just before half-time and with the wind behind them another try soon had the gap down to 21-15.

Veteran winger Graeme Spearman appeared to make it safe for Blaydon with their third try, but in the last ten minutes Bedford scored two converted tries and a penalty.

Tynedale stayed ahead of Mowden Park in fifth place when they ended a poor run by avenging their home defeat by Preston Grasshoppers. They overturned a 12-6 half-time deficit to win 29-19.

Middlesbrough won their home derby against Redcar 20-17 to leave the visitors third from the bottom in North Two East.

Although the match started well enough, it deteriorated into a niggly, forward battle with Redcar shading the yellow card count 3-2. It did little to whet the appetite for the Yorkshire Cup repeat on April 15.

Coach John Dixon managed 50 minutes and No 8 Jim Chapman played well for Boro, who led 9-0 at half-time through three penalties by Mark Foster.

The teams then alternated tries, all coming from front row men following line-outs. Mark Leat and Martyn Challenor scored for Redcar and skipper Richard Horton for Boro and with Foster adding a fourth penalty they led 20-10.

In the last minute Redcar were awarded a penalty try when the Boro back row illegally prevented a pushover. Steve Bryce added the conversion.

Stockton did Redcar a favour by winning 27-11 away to second-bottom Goole. They scored tries through Matty Oates, Pedro Salahshouri, Alan Brown and Simon Crozier, with Simon Moore adding a penalty and a conversion.

Northallerton remain next to the bottom in Yorkshire Two after a 15-6 defeat at third-placed Malton and Norton.

Hartlepool Rovers failed to clinch the home win they needed to cut the four-point gap at the top of Durham and Northumberland One as they drew 10-10 against leaders Northern. Play was dominated by two well-matched packs.

Billingham's improvement continued as they scored four first-half tries in a 29-8 win at Ashington, but they remain next to the bottom as Gosforth won 25-13 at home to Ryton.

* Durham School enjoyed a clean sweep of the county schools finals at Durham City, winning 5-0 and 20-12 against Yarm at under 14 and 15 level before the under 16s beat Barnard Castle 32-20.