THE ecstasy of a late match-winning try by Blaydon skipper Keith Laughlin at Cambridge quickly turned to agony when it was discovered that Hull Ionians had pulled off a 30-29 win at Rosslyn Park.

While Blaydon scored six tries in their 43-40 win, Hull did not gain the four-try bonus point. But they are two points ahead of their relegation rivals with two games left, the final one for the Humbersiders being at Mowden Park.

After entertaining Rosslyn Park, Blaydon's final game is at Old Albanians, who lost 73-8 at home to Coventry on Saturday.

Blaydon trailed 40-31 with ten minutes left, but winger Frazer Wilson capped his man of the match display with a good finish before forward pressure allowed Laughlin to score in the 80th minute. His team then hung on to the ball for the three and a half minutes of added time.

Scrum half Ruaridh Dawson showed his class on his return from injury and a first half penalty by fly half Brett Connon proved the difference as both sides converted five of their six tries.

Lock Chris Wearmouth scored first for Blaydon, while backs Ben Stevenson, Ryan Foreman and Tom Grimes also touched down prior to the late brace.

There was also a high-scoring cliff-hanger at Tynedale, who came back from 16 points adrift to grab a 41-40 win against Sheffield Tigers through an Ash Smith penalty in the sixth minute of added time.

A missed last-minute conversion allowed Billingham to hang on for a 22-20 win at Sandal, where tries were scored by Danny Dixon, Elliot Husband and Luke Wilson. The Teessiders remain sixth in Three North, but are only a point behind their hosts.

Durham City's relegation from North One East was confirmed, despite a 43-14 home win against Guisborough, who have also found the step up impossible to sustain.

City will now find it hard to hang on to powerful centre Garry Izomor, who celebrated his call-up to the North Under 20s squad with a hat-trick.

The only club they could overhaul, Dinnington, won 45-19 at home to West Hartlepool, who slipped to third, four points behind Penrith with one game left.

Northern clinched the Durham and Northumberland One title with a 71-21 home win against Hartlepool, who will return to division two.

After a week's break, the promotion play-off place will be decided when Westoe visit Barnard Castle, whose 20-15 defeat at Stockton saw them slip three points behind.

Westoe's stronger pack allowed them to fight back from 18-7 down to seal a 22-18 win at Middlesbrough with a last-minute try.

Boro scored tries through Connor Foley and Tom Symon and felt they had been denied a third by a touch judge who appeared to be the only person who saw a winger put a foot in touch Stockton made a livelier start than Barnard Castle and took the lead with a penalty by full back Dan Phinn, who also converted after prop Tom Nelson finished off a series of forward drives.

Barney were keen to attack out wide and after a deft kick they scored in the corner. A similar move just before half-time brought them level at 10-10.

More forward drives enabled Stockton's replacement scrum half Brian Thwaites to dart over and they stretched the lead to 20 -10 when flanker Charlie Doherty found a gap.

In the dying moments Barney grabbed a vital bonus point when they squeezed over following a quickly-taken penalty.

Redcar clinched the division two title with a 51-12 home win against Darlington and Ponteland look certain to gain promotion at the first attempt after squeezing home 28-25 at Bishop Auckland.