Play-off beckons as Mowden tame Lions

9:14am Monday 10th March 2008

DARLINGTON Mowden Park can start making plans for a trip to the south-west for the National Three play-off following Saturdayfs 14-11 win at Leicester Lions.

Of the only two teams in contention in Three South, Penzance- based Mounts Bay remain five points clear of Cinderford, so the Gloucestershire club remains the most likely venue for Mowden.

They overhauled an 11-0 deficit in the last ten minutes at Leicester and with four games left are now three points ahead of the Lions, who have the tougher runin and have failed to win any of their last five games.

Mowden have won eight out of nine, the defeat coming against runaway champions Tynedale, and the latest victory was a triumph for perseverance in the face of adversity.

They had three players sinbinned, two of them for backchat, and the third, flanker Aaron Myers, for punching after he had been hit twice himself.

But on each occasion the hosts failed to take advantage of their extra man and when they received a yellow card of their own in the 70th minute Mowden made them pay.

Superbly led from inside centre by Jamie Connolly, they had battled doggedly to stay in the game and got their reward when back row man Scott Riddell finished a big forward drive.

Replacement fly half Ben Snook converted and from the restart Sean Buckley fielded the ball and it went via his front row colleagues Robbie Kalbraier and Danny Brown to Gareth Kerr.

The winger beat his opposite man and ran from just inside his own half to score under the posts, giving Snook a simple conversion.

In a game played in a diagonal gale Mowden lost Andy Foreman to the sin-bin after only eight minutes and Iain Dixon suffered the same fate after 34 minutes after the Lions scored a try to add to two penalties.

The refereefs interventions prevented Mowden from playing with their usual fluency and pace, but it all came right in the end and Mowden will be confident of winning at home to West Park St Helens and Rugby Lions, and away to bottom three strugglers Macclesfield and Morley.

Depleted Blaydon lost 64-10 at Manchester, where they played for the last half hour with 14 men following an injury after using all their replacements.

Prolific winger Andrew Fenby had to play at full back, where he was replaced at half-time by flanker James Burns, who lasted ten minutes before colliding with a team-mate and suffering a fractured cheekbone.

Both Fenby and flanker Andy Wright had head injuries, and in the reshuffle Selwyn St Bernard switched to centre, allowing Newcastlefs Ross Beattie to make his comeback in the back row.

That was one of the few plus points, the others being the debut on the wing of Newcastle RGS schoolboy Fred Burdon and the fact that physio Nick Williams made a satisfying return at scrum half.

Burdon converted a penalty try when Blaydon enjoyed a good 20-minute spell either side of half-time, otherwise a penalty by Fenby was their only reward.

Middlesbrough, who have a rearranged game at home to Sheffield Tigers this week, need another win to achieve safety in North One after losing 40-14 at Liverpool St Helens.

In atrocious conditions the hosts scored from the kick-off when they robbed Boro of the ball, then added a length-of-thefield try and a pushover to lead 19-0.

Just before half-time Boro were awarded a penalty try when a maul was pulled down, only to have Ben Horton sin-binned when the same thing happened in reverse on the resumption.

The absence of any locks, as well as skipper Dave Richardson, proved too big a handicap for Boro as they struggled to win any ball and conceded two more converted tries.

They finally produced a good move for replacement lock Michael Tebbs to score under the posts.

There is no change at the top of North Two East as West Hartlepool won 18-5 at home to Morpeth and Durham City defied monsoon- like conditions to win 12-0 at Aldwinians.

With a two-week break before the top two meet at Hollow Drift, City have a friendly at Darlington this week and it was the prop who briefly defected to Blackwell Meadows, Mark Cammiss, who scored their first try.

Just before the rain really started to lash down, fly half Arnie Stevenson chipped ahead and the ball was moved through the forwards for Cammiss to go under the posts.

Despite forward dominance, the conditions dictated that City played a very limited game and the only other score came midway through the second half.

City drove Aldwinians back at a scrum ten metres out and flanker Howard Johnson charged down an attempted clearance to score.

West responded quickly to going 5-0 down against Morpeth when fly half Paul Moss kicked to the corner and flanker Dan Boatman finished a line-out drive.

Moss added penalties either side of half-time before sending Jonny Boatman through a gap to score following a rolling maul.

Mossfs conversion completed the scoring.

Billinghamfs 44-3 win at home to Ponteland kept them top of D and N One and ensured the visitors would be relegated. That means Stockton are safe, despite a 25-10 defeat at Horden, who fielded four 18-year-olds but were hugely indebted to veteran lock Steve Black.

Both teams played better into the wind, with Stockton dominating the first half without being able to score.

They trailed to a catch-anddrive try, then in the second half turned their backs expecting a kick at goal, only for Horden to run the penalty and send winger Chris Purvis over.

A Jeremy Good penalty made it 10-3, but Horden added three more tries in the last ten minutes, with the visitors replying through centre Peter Armstrong.

Darlington Mowden Sharks centre Georgina Roberts and clubmate Tamara Taylor played the full 80 minutes, while fly half Katy McLean went on as a replacement as England Women beat Scotland 34-5 to stand one game away from a third consecutive RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam.

Blaydon prop Katy Storie was substituted after 60 minutes.

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