RICHARD Snowball will lead out Darlington at home to Dudley Kingswinford today determined that the club he has grown up with will go on to prosper in national league rugby.

Both their seasons in National Three North have been spent fighting relegation, but with three of the next four games at home to fellow strugglers, they have the chance to move clear of trouble.

Snowball, a lock who has attracted attention from Harrogate, will be captain in the absence of fly half Paul Lee with a broken hand.

"Snowy is a superb player and a good leader," said player-coach Craig Lee.

"We are looking to build a team around our home-grown front five plus back row men Michael Taylor and Andy Carphin, who will be back next season.

"All those lads who have come up together, including Rob Stewart, want to play national league rugby and it's also important financially for the club that we stay up.

"We have not been able to put two wins together this season and that's what we need to do now. We have to get on a roll and we are looking to win three of the next four games and also get something out of the trip to Blaydon.

"We have done well out of the new bonus points system and if we get to three tries in these games we'll be going flat out for the fourth."

Darlington occupy the third relegation spot but will hope to climb clear of Rugby in the next two weeks as the Midlanders play the top two. They entertain Macclesfield today and visit Halifax next week.

After that they have Dudley and Blaydon at home, which are the only games they can be confident of winning, and Bedford and Darlington away.

Lee will switch to take his brother's place at fly half, with newcomer Neil Howe coming in at centre, although there is also the option to play the other centre, Ben Snook, at fly half if a kicking game is required.

There was some doubt about the match going ahead on Thursday night as melting snow had left the pitch waterlogged.

With Blaydon's home match against Halifax also in doubt, league officials began applying pressure for early decisions to be made with the possibility that Halifax would stage their home match against Darlington, which was postponed last week.

The uphsot was that Blaydon called in a referee at noon yesterday and with snow still on the pitch the match was postponed. It cannot now go ahead until May 7.

Darlington Mowden Park's worst fears were realised yesterday with props Ian Keeligan and Danny Brown both ruling themselves out of the trip to Bedford Athletic.

Keeligan's back problem has worsened, while Brown is unavailable, so the patched-up front row will see Tasi Tuhana switch to prop with Irishman Mick Martin hooking. The other prop will be Peni Fakalelu, with two youngsters providing cover on the bench in James Knox and Mark Darlington.

Food poisoning has ruled out Fosita Tanginoa and has also struck Michael Georgiou, although he will be pressed into service on the bench.

With Matt Holmes out with a neck injury, Kelekolio Paino makes his first appearance of the season at No 6, while Matt Howland returns to partner Tom Lauriston at centre, with Iain Dixon reverting to full back.

Peter Phelan and former Barnard Castle School boy Michael Breen are on the wings, with Gareth Kerr expected to be available from next week.

At the lower levels no league matches were scheduled for today, but some have been rearranged, including West Hartlepool's trip to Huddersfield and Horden's home match against Alnwick.

Despite their defeat at Hartlepool Rovers last week, Huddersfield can still finish top of North Two East if they win their home game against leaders Westoe.

West hand a debut on the wing to Jamie Hauxwell, who has joined from Stockton.

They also bring in Michael Geritz at prop with Mark Cholmondeley dropping to the bench alongside Andrew Davies as Carl Miller and Phil Henderson are paired at lock.

* Westoe travelled to London yesterday for their Powergen Intermediate Cup semi-final against Staines banking on team spirit to see them through against their hosts' collection of former stars.

Two who originally made their names as sevens specialists, Chris Sheasby and Fijian Waisele Serevi, are in the Staines squad, along with two other former Premiership players, Nick Greenstock and Phil White-Cooper.

But their reputations mean little to Westoe's uncompromising player-coach Richard Arnold, who has been helped in preparing the side by his ex-Newcastle teammate Joe Shaw. Westoe beat Staines' London North Two rivals Shelford in Cambridgeshire in their quarter-final and Shaw said: "I don't think they gave us the respect we deserve.

"We have a strong team spirit and no-one wants to win this competition more than we do."

Shelford recently drew at Staines, who have had five successive home ties in the Intermediate Cup and won their quarter-final 31-3 against Selby, who are a level below both today's combatants in Yorkshire One.

The other semi-final is between Morley, who are a level higher in North One, and their Gloucestershire hosts Cinderford.

* Durham Under 20s have brought in Hartlepool Rovers' Chris Sainty at fly half for tomorrow's match against Northumberland at Tynedale. They also hand a debut to West Hartlepool TDSOB prop Adam Howard.

* Stockton have arranged a home friendly today against Old Brodleians (3pm), but have yet to hear from Westoe about arranging a date for their delayed Durham Cup first round tie.