DARLINGTON Mowden Park bade farewell to skipper Gareth Nesbit after ending their season with a 52-22 home win against relegated Cinderford.

After winning away to the Forest of Dean club in the first match, Mowden lost the next five and were bottom of National One. But they finished sixth and feel they can keep progressing without Nesbit.

“He proved to be a very capable leader and it's a shame to lose a player of his calibre, but we will stay in touch and he will help us with the coaching,” said chairman Mike Keeligan.

“We need a prop to replace him and we have to find some new second rows. The playing budget will be roughly the same. This has been a good season, but we aim to keep on improving.”

A bumper crowd of well over 1,000 turned out for the season's finale and were treated to an entertaining game, helped by the visitors' desire to keep the ball alive.

Cinderford made a careless start and went 17-3 down, but they competed well for the next 40 minutes before conceding five tries in the last 15.

Despite being the game's outstanding player at Blaydon, Rory Duff had to settle for a place on the bench, with Simon Uzokwe being tried at open side.

He scored two tries to take his season's tally to 19, but man of the match was the versatile Callum Mackenzie, who can also play at open side, but went on as a replacement centre midway through the first half.

Livewire scrum half Bruno Bravo was also very influential, playing a big part in three tries, including when he took a penalty near his own line and broke away before sending winger Peter Homan galloping over from 70 metres.

This was one of three first-half tries, the others scored by lock forwards, which were tough on Cinderford.

A visiting forward made progress from a line-out on his 22, then hurled the ball back straight to Seb Ferreira, who had a clear run in.

Then a breakaway from Mowden's 22, with Uzokwe and Bravo exchanging passes, ended with the scrum half's clever chip to the corner giving lock Rob Conquest a farewell try.

When Mackenzie went on for the injured Chris Auld, Tomas Appleton took over the kicking and landed six fairly simple conversions.

Cinderford did not convert any of their first three tries, but had the gap down to 24-15 before Duff and Darren Fearn went on for the last 20 minutes.

The killer try came after a Mackenzie break when Jake Henry came off his wing to burst through the centre.

Full back Jake Woodhouse, Mackenzie and Uzokwe scored the last three.

Middlesbrough must try for a third time to climb out of level seven after losing their promotion play-off 25-17 at home to Malton and Norton.

The result confirmed that Yorkshire One is stronger than its Durham and Northumberland counterpart, with Malton's pack having the edge in a cracking game. Their No 8 Josh Haggie twice forced his way over from five-metre scrums.

Boro reduced a 10-0 deficit through a try by winger Rhys Kilbride, Matthew Todd converting from the touchline before he levelled the scores with a penalty early in the second half.

But Malton went 25-10 ahead before Euan Tremlett used his height to stretch over for Boro and Todd converted with the last kick of the game.

The Darlington trio of Ursula Hardy, Ali Bell and Jess Cheesman were among the scorers as Durham opened their Women's County Championship campaign with a 24-24 draw against Northumberland at Percy Park.

Durham were well on top in the first 20 minutes and a break by Lyndsey Burn sent winger Hardy over. But Northumberland took a 7-5 lead before No 8 Bell scored from a five-metre scrum.

After a strong run by Hardy, Sunderland's Tara Breslin crashed through to score and her conversion made it 17-7 at half-time.

Northumberland came out strongly and two tries brought them level, although the second resulted from an interception deep in their own 22.

Durham pressure resulted in a string of penalties and Cheesman finally took one quickly to score from five metres, only for Northumberland to draw level again with five minutes left.