Darlington: THE Under-12s side won their age-group County seven-a-side competition at Houghton le Spring, amassing a total of 154 points for against only seven points against.

After emphatically defeating Ryton, West Hartlepool, Westoe and Middlesbrough A' in earlier rounds, Darlington met and defeated Middlesbrough B in the final 21-7. Prop George Bryant was the most consistent player of the day, maintaining the form that has seen him perform well in earlier successes this season.

The Under-11s side also made the final of their competition after victories over Consett, West Hartlepool and Durham City, but could not secure the Cup, going down to a stronger, highly motivated Westoe team by two late converted tries, 0 pts to 14.

The other Mini teams played at Ripon. The Under-7s drew one match seven tries each and lost a second match narrowly by four tries to five for Ripon. Kieran Johnson was the leading scorer, with Sean Gunning, Ellis Horner and Daisy Catterall being the other scorers.

The Under-8s won both of there matches despite Ripon having an exceptionally talented young player in their ranks whose skill and vision, fortunately for Darlington, was not matched by his teammates. The teamwork and organisation of the Darlington side proved to be decisive.

The Under-9s carried on where they had left off at West Hartlepool the previous week by emphatically defeating Ripon seven tries to nil in the first match and by three tries to two in the second. Defensively, Darlington were superb in not allowing Ripon any chance of scoring in the first match and playing highly committed rugby . Liam Riley (3), Cole Hunter (2) and Andrew Lister (2) scored most of the tries in what was a fine team performance.

The Under-10s played a mixed Under-10/Under-11 Ripon team, losing the first game of two 5-10. The second match saw a complete turnaround, however, with the Darlington team scoring a memorable 25-0 victory. Much improved teamwork saw Darlington secure and use the ball to far greater effect in the second game with all players contributing to a tremendous win.

On Sunday, Darlington play against Darlington Mowden Park at Blackwell Meadows.

Darlington Mowden Park

For yet another week, the Under-16s result - a 20-10 defeat at Houghton-le-Spring - failed to represent the quality of their play, or the overall run of the game. After nine minutes of Mowden pressure, a penalty gave Houghton an easy three-point lead. A succession of penalties after a further ten minutes brought Houghton within 7m of the Mowden line, from where they were able to mobilise the heavy artillery to force over.

Mowden launched some promising attacks, but Houghton consistently smothered the ball in rucks, and most of the play moved back and forth between the 22s until soon before half time, when another penalty in front of the posts allowed Houghton the benefit of a 13-0 half-time lead. The game took some time to re-establish itself after the break until missed penalties at each end after some ten minutes galvanised Mowden into action.

Chris Dodd made good ground with one of his powerful penetrating runs. From this launch pad, Mark Zissler was able to chip over the Houghton defence and score in the corner. Mowden again went through a period where all their efforts to obtain clean ball from rucks and mauls were thwarted, while Houghton added a goal to their score. Adam Hunt was finally allowed to show some of his speed, and made an excellent supported run to the corner, leading to a line out.

Richard Parks caught and set, and the ensuing drive allowed new signing Richard Littlefair to ground the try which was to be the final score of the match. Houghton are a good, well trained and disciplined team, but the 20 points to ten scoreline was flattering, and with different official direction the result may well have been closer. Coaches John, Gus and Paul have made great strides with the squad in this transitional year, and it can only be a matter of time before this is translated into better results.