BLAYDON have agreed to go along with the county's request to play the Durham Cup final on Wednesday, May 24 after beating Darlington 32-20 in Saturday's semi-final.

Westoe have reached the final without playing a game after Horden cried off, citing a lack of front row players. Handed a first round walkover by Hartlepool Rovers, Horden were the fourth of the eight teams originally involved to pull out.

Darlington beat West Hartlepool in the only first round match to go ahead and fancied their chances against weakened hosts on Saturday.

They were on top early on and were level at 10-10 at half-time with the benefit of the wind to come. But a second long-distance try by Blaydon's prolific winger Andrew Fenby knocked the stuffing out of them.

The top-level squash player used his footwork to side-step every potential tackler on a sensational run from his own half which ended under the posts.

Blaydon's Director of Rugby, Nick Gandy, decided not to risk himself at scrum half, opting instead for Richard Windle, who had to be shown how to put the ball in after Darlington took the first scrum against the head.

They also won all the early lineouts but Blaydon defended well and Darlington had only a Lee Davis penalty to show for their dominance.

The first time Blaydon got the ball fly half Dan Clappison set the backs away in his own 22 and Fenby raced 60 metres to score.

Darlington quickly went back in front when Craig Lee chipped ahead and winger Frankie Coulson capitalised on some defensive hesitation to dribble over and score.

Davis converted, but five minutes before half-time Clappison added a penalty to his earlier conversion.

Darlington used the wind in the second half to find touch in the Blaydon 22, hoping to score from catch-and-drives.

But Blaydon had prepared for this and kept them out, then they went in front when Clappison charged down a kick and from 30 metres followed up to score.

After a lot of pressure Darlington finally created the space for Coulson to score again to make it 15-15, but midway through the half came Fenby's second try.

Clappison converted and Blaydon got on top, lock Paul Clark scoring their fourth try from a catch-and-drive.

Darlington came back when No 8 Alan Brown appeared on the wing to touch down, but when they tried to run out of defence a long, floated pass was intercepted by Dan Graney, who completed the scoring.

Sua Segi, who was switched from centre to No 8 by Blaydon, tackled his heart out and there was also a good performance alongside him from Paul Vinnicombe.