Darlington Mowden Park 51 Blaydon 11

WHAT a cracker from Mowden Park. Their pace and fluency saw them take a sleigh ride to the sweetest of revenge for April's 34-6 defeat at Blaydon.

A sixth successive win lifted Mowden to eighth in National One and its emphatic nature in front of 1,175 fans underlined that they are improving every week.

Had they not preceded this run by losing by one point at home to leaders Richmond they might even be contemplating catching them.

But the gap of 18 points at the halfway stage looks just too big to bridge for a team whose transformation since losing the first home game against Henley has been remarkable.

For all their strength in the set piece, Blaydon remain locked in a relegation fight. They would be well advised to ask their former player, Paul Gustard, to pass on some of the expertise which has landed him the job of England defence coach.

Slick as Mowden were, it was little short of humiliating for Blaydon to concede eight tries, six of them in the second half. All but one were run in from at least 20 metres, evading despairing tackles.

In last month's home match against Hull Ionians right winger Peter Homan scored four tries. This time the traffic went to the other flank and Jake Henry bagged a hat-trick.

Blaydon were strong in the scrum and won all their line-out ball, otherwise they were outclassed. If their experienced forwards thought they could draw Mowden into an attritional battle they were given a rude awakening in the first minute.

The increasingly impressive Tom Jubb burst through the middle of the first ruck and galloped 20 metres, then fellow lock Rob Conquest also displayed an athleticism Blaydon couldn't hope to match.

It was not in Mowden's interests to get involved in the usual intensity of derby combat, although their greater physicality since last season was evident in dust-ups towards the end of each half.

After the first the referee sent both captains to the bin, which might have been a problem for Mowden as their only concern at the moment is injury to three props.

But there were only two scrums during the time Gareth Nesbit had to be replaced by Talite Vaioleti and Mowden extended their lead when Blaydon shot themselves in the foot at the start of the second half.

At 17-6 the visitors might have felt they could get back into it, but Jubb charged down an attempted clearance and was left with the simple task of sending Henry over.

With the contest effectively over Blaydon tried to play some rugby, but that was never going to work because Mowden were so much slicker. They also forced numerous turn-overs.

Garry Law could afford a relative off-day with the boot, landing four of the eight conversions to add to a second-minute penalty. He is now the division's leading scorer with 143 points.

Mowden's first half tries resulted from first Henry then flanker Ali Bone cutting inside from the left wing and racing to the posts.

Two Andrew Baggett penalties kept Blaydon afloat, but their only try came when they trailed 39-6, Jason Smithson crashing over from a line-out.

Mowden sent Simon Uzokwe on for the last 25 minutes but his try-scoring wasn't needed, although he did put in a powerful burst to set up fellow replacement Ben Frankland.

The pick of the tries came from Australian full back Jake Woodhouse, whose sheer pace took him outside his marker on a blistering run from his own half.

Lively scrum half Bruno Bravo nipped over for a try, Conquest side-stepped two tacklers on his way to the line and Henry finally zig-zagged over for his hat-trick. It was truly a performance with all the trimmings.