BLAYDON are within a place of overtaking Darlington Mowden Park in National League One after returning to winning ways at Crow Trees.

The Tynesiders cleverly outpointed Loughborough Students 27-23 to end a run of four straight defeats to head in the right direction again.

Blaydon’s victory, coupled with Mowden’s 34-19 reversal at in-form Hartpury College, means both North-East clubs are placed together in mid-table in National League One.

The home side were 17-10 up at the break even though they had struggled initially, with Loughborough taking the lead through a Thomas James penalty and the first of two Jack Ponns tries.

But after 22 minutes Tom Jeffries started the comeback with the first of four Blaydon tries. That was followed by Harry Bate and Nathan Bailey tries, laying the foundations for a solid win.

Toby Bain’s try, after Loughborough had pulled another back, ensured Blaydon secured a four try bonus.

Blaydon boss Micky Ward said: “We are hoping it is a turning point. We were in the relegation battle, really, but hopefully this win has pulled us out of it. We have that little bit of breathing space now.”

Mowden were left deflated and disappointed by their defeat at sixth-placed Hartpury which brought an end to their four-match winning run.

The Darlington club’s decent start to the season has been built on a powerful set of forwards and they made life hard for Hartpury. But the hosts rocked the visitors with three tries in six minutes after the first arrived in the 18th minute.

Mowden trailed 28-0 at the break but did pull one back shortly after the restart when Andrew Cox touched down after a successful scrum.

Further tries from Tom Kill and Lewis Johnston proved too little too late and coach Danny Brown will look for an immediate response at fifth-placed Fylde this Saturday.

Tries were few and far between as Northern climbed three points clear of West Hartlepool in North One East.

Despite West feeling like they dominated things, it was Northern who emerged as the winners in a low scoring 9-3 mid-table tussle which has left the Hartlepool team just three points above the relegation zone.

Three kicks from fly-half Donal Collins effectively won it for Northern, while Zac Southern pulled one back for West.

Stockton had no answer to Guisborough’s promotion charge in Durham and Northumberland One as the visitors ran out 29-0 winners to lead by one point at the top of the division from Morpeth.

Durham City stay in the hunt in third place after their match with Darlington did not go ahead.

There was also a really surprising home defeat for Middlesbrough to the team propping up Yorkshire Division One, North Ribblesdale.

North Ribb, still eight points adrift at the foot of the table, came up with a performance that knocked the stuffing out of fifth-place Middlesbrough. Despite a dramatic finish, the Teessiders lost 13-17.