BLAYDON had cause to be grateful that prop Andrew Foster was not required by Newcastle Falcons yesterday as he provided the cornerstone of a much-needed 14-8 win at home to Esher.

It moved Blaydon out of the bottom three in National One as they look forward to the visit this week of more London high-fliers, Rosslyn Park.

Although they led 11-8, Blaydon lost the first half penalty count 10-3, but they turned it round as the visitors' search for the winning score saw them increasingly infringe, giving Brett Connon the chance to land his third penalty.

The only try came after four minutes, when Tom Bramwell ran back a clearance before fellow winger Tom Grimes drew the last defender and sent full back Rhodri Adamson over.

Tynedale also scored an early try, through winger Ben Duncan, but were over-run in the second half as they lost their Two North match at Stourbridge 39-11.

Billingham suffered an agonising last-kick defeat away to third-placed Waterloo in Three North. Peter Evans kicked a penalty, but tries by Adam Radwan, Liam Armstrong and Joe Evans were all unconverted as Waterloo snatched a 20-18 win.

A North-East quartet occupy third to sixth places in North One East after all gained away wins, West Hartlepool leading the way by squeezing home 19-18 at Pocklington.

Morpeth, not always good travellers, joined Percy Park in winning in South Yorkshire with respective triumphs of 19-15 at Dinnington and 22-17 at Wheatley Hills. It was an easier task for Alnwick as they beat struggling Westoe 23-12.

Durham City failed to gain a bonus point from their 24-5 home win against Horden, but stay one point ahead of Middlesbrough at the top of Durham and Northumberland One.

Boro's anxiety to avoid a repeat of their hazardous trip to Consett was rewarded with a 17-15 win.

The journey started in minor snow flurries and ended in icy conditions, but despite a snow-covered pitch Consett were keen to play and Boro went along with it.

Despite the conditions, both sides attempted to move the ball, but defences generally prevailed.

Consett dominated the first half and full back Nick Cook landed three penalties to one by Sam Gaudie for Boro.

With the advantage of the biting wind, it took a while for Boro to get on top as further exchanges of penalties took Consett 15-6 ahead before Gaudie struck twice more to reduce the gap to three.

The Boro defence, marshalled by centres Mike Thornburn and Rob Bellerby, stopped everything Consett came up with and the winning try came after 76 minutes.

From good ruck ball Gaudie threw a wide pass left to Rhys Kilbride, who ran straight before slipping a pass for flanker Liam Wilson to fend off the last defender and score in the corner.

Despite playing into the bitter wind, Stockton opened a 17-0 lead at home to Ryton and went on to win 24-7.

After the visitors dominated the first 15 minutes without reward Stockton hooker Ben Cordiner finished a series of pick-and-drives and more powerful work from the forwards produced two tries towards the end of the half for flanker Martin Dixon.

Ryton were awarded a try despite the scorer not appearing to ground the ball properly and the only score of the second half came when Stockton No 8 Todd Highfield made a break and provided scrum half Jonny Horner with a 20th birthday gift. He scored by the posts for Dan Phinn to add his second conversion.

Darlington produced their most competitive performance of the season but are still without a win after losing 25-20 at home to Hartlepool Rovers.

Skipper Joe Hargreaves finished forward drives for the first and last tries of the first half, but Rovers scored four inbetween through Joe Little, Lee Maddison, James Evens and Adam Smith.

Back after a six-month lay-off, Smith raced in for a second after half-time, but Darlington kept fighting and were rewarded by tries for Mike Tebbs and Colin Rogers.

Barnard Castle continue to lead division two after a 32-5 home win against Winlaton, but Hartlepool remain level on points after thrashing Ashington 60-0.

Rob Stanwix was nominated man of the match for Barney, but he was pushed close by the back row of Andrew Clement, Joe Larder and Andrew Clement.