DARLINGTON Mowden Park were not at their best in winning 27-18 at home to struggling Tynedale on Saturday but will need to be fully up to scratch at Ealing tomorrow.

The Londoners lead National One and are unbeaten at home, but Mowden can taken confidence from having pushed them close in the reverse fixture. They outplayed Ealing in the second half at The Northern Echo Arena, but lost 21-14.

Despite the counter-attraction of the Six Nations Championship, all the hospitality was sold and a crowd of 942 turned up to watch the Tynedale match.

Unfortunately they had to wait until straight after half-time for the game to ignite after a first half stalemate produced a 3-3 scoreline.

The visitors had defended well, but when their attempt to clear the second half restart failed to find touch fly half Grant Connon ran it back from halfway in a superb run to the posts.

Connon must have been in the running for the Man of the Match award, but it went to another elusive runner in full back Henry Robinson, while there was also a notable performance from lock Ben Gledhill.

He has grown in stature since coming into the team in early January, which is just as well as his original second row partner, Rob Conquest, will be out for several weeks with a torn pectoral muscle.

Conquest has been one of the more successful signings from last summer, but another who had made a big impact, prop Matt Shields, has gone to Harlequins and Mowden also appear to have lost hooker Matt Thompson.

They have been swift to draft in front row replacements and two went on from the bench in Darren Fearn, a Scarborough-born former Newcastle Falcons prop, and Lithuanian international Ignas Darkintis. Both are on loan, the 20st Fearn from Sale and Darkintis from Ealing.

The other newcomer, scrum half Sam Stuart, is a permanent signing from Harlequins and showed that he can form an exciting partnership with Connon.

That's probably not good news for the middle of the three Connon brothers, Max, who was Mowden's scrum half for the first two months of the season.

The youngest, 18-year-old Brett, plays for Tynedale and was in direct opposition to Grant. He cancelled out his brother's first half penalty with a very sweet strike from 35 metres.

Brett also struck his conversion attempt well, only to hit an upright, when visiting skipper Andy Buist quickly replied to Mowden's opening try by finishing a catch-and-drive.

Buist and second row partner Glen Young gave Tynedale the edge at the line-out, but injuries have taken their toll and the pace for which they have been known in the backs in recent years was sadly lacking.

They also made too many errors, as in dropping the restart after Buist's try. It gave Mowden a strong attacking position and they moved the ball out for Robinson to send winger Ben Rath over in the right corner.

Brett Connon's second penalty cut the gap to four points before Mowden finally seized control as Gledhill began to pop up in open play. After his surge up the left a deft reverse pass by Garry Law was taken at pace by fellow centre Cameron Mitchell, who shot over.

The bonus point try came when Gledhill again appeared wide on the left and gave a well-timed pass to winger Tom Kill, who showed impressive acceleration in going outside his marker to score from 25 metres. Replacement Tom Hodgson added a fine conversion.

Mowden were out of sight at 27-11 and allowed Tynedale to score a converted try in the final act of the game.

It was a rest day in the lower leagues, but Darlington had a rearranged game away to old rivals Durham City. As the Blackwell Meadows club continues to undergo big changes at committee level no information has been forthcoming about a 64-31 defeat. It leaves Darlington fourth from the bottom of Durham and Northumberland One ahead of tomorrow's visit of Consett.

Northallerton won 41-15 at home to Bramley Phoenix to reach the semi-finals of the Yorkshire Silver Trophy, in which they will face Whitby on a date to be decided.

Man of the Match Alec Porter enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate with his goal-kicking, converting all seven tries and adding two good penalties.

Lee Peake finished off a rolling maul for the opening try after five minutes, but Bramley hit straight back with a well-worked try in the corner.

Another driving maul produced a try for Phil Swall and this time Bramley's attempts to respond were thwarted, partly by the fumbles of their full back.

Joe Terry capitalised with a try under the posts, then Porter added a penalty before the visitors scored a breakaway try to trail 24-10 at half-time.

Rob Green went on for his first appearance of the season and quickly made his mark when he tackled the Bramley fly half, seized the ball and evaded two tackles to score.

The visitors' third try made it 31-15 with 20 minutes left, but North forged further ahead with a penalty from wide out by Porter before Peake grabbed his second try after being set up by Doug Mulholland.

The second team took only 12 players to Middlesbrough and lost 57-7, the points coming from a converted try by Daniel Walley.