BLAYDON are unhappy about being asked by Newcastle Falcons to release the son of former Scotland lock Alan Tomes to play for Darlington Mowden Park.

Sean Tomes, like his father a 6ft 7in lock, is in the Newcastle Academy, most of whose players are registered with Mowden as part of the link between the clubs.

He hasn't played in Blaydon's first team, but Director of Rugby Nick Gandy said: "It's the latest in a long line of things which have happened between Darlington and Mowden Park which have not been handled very well.

"We had a meeting with Newcastle and they said they were quite happy for him to come to us. He has never played or trained very much because he's been injured, but then they decided it was better for his development for him to go to Mowden.

"Young players are ambitious and that's fair enough, but when things like this happen and they're moving to a club in the same league I'm not very enamoured by it.

"I'm not that disappointed to lose him as a player, but it's the way things are done which is disappointing."

Blaydon remained three points behind Mowden in fourth place in National Three North after winning 25-12 at home to Macclesfield.

With six backs missing it was hard work for Blaydon, who had to pair Gandy and Dan Clappison at centre.

Gandy made a couple of telling breaks, but it was the extra fitness of their forwards which proved decisive after they had struggled early on.

They scored three tries from rolling mauls through skipper Dave Guthrie, lock Dave Marwick and prop Dan Harper, who had an excellent game.

But they led by only one point with five minutes left, when fly half Richard Windle picked up a loose ball and broke away before sending Gandy over.

Full back David Dalrymple opened Blaydon's account with a good penalty, but is still struggling to regain his early-season kicking form and landed only one of the four conversions.

Darlington's hopes of their first away win quickly vanished as they went 21-0 down at half-time to a Kendal team they beat 27-10 at home.

They drove upfield from the kick-off and flanker Andy Carphin was held up on the line, but their only other chance of a try came at the end, when Paul Lee lost the ball over the line.

With the pitch quickly cutting up, Darlington made a lot of handling errors and Mark Butler kicked their only points on one of their few visits to the home half after 62 minutes.

Kendal's first try came from a maul, then they added two penalties either side of another try, which stemmed from Darlington dropping the ball in midfield. Kendal hacked on to the corner and the winger raced up to score.

Darlington full back Craig Lee was sin-binned after 38 minutes for a technical offence five metres from the line and Kendal scored a try from the penalty.

Lee was lucky not to be shown another card when the referee awarded a penalty try after 68 minutes following a high tackle. The conversion completed the scoring in a dour second half.

Darlington were not happy about the fact that whenever Kendal had a kick at goal a clean ball was made available, but for their own penalty a club official had to wrestle a spare ball off the ball boy.

Darlington remain fifth from the bottom but are only a point ahead of third-bottom Liverpool.

At least Preston Grasshoppers remained firmly in the bottom two when they lost 24-0 in a Tynedale mudbath.

Andrew Murray scored a try and kicked three penalties for Tynedale, with Guy Beaumont and Gary Fleming also touching down.

Morpeth are only two points behind second-placed Middlesbrough in North Two East after winning their rearranged home game against York 53-17.

Morpeth appeared to have gone off the rails after winning their first seven games, but this was their second successive convincing win. Left wing Alan Rogers scored three of the seven tries, while full back David Wall contributed 23 points from a try, six conversions and two penalties.

Northallerton lost their rearranged match at home to Yorkshire Three leaders Castleford 20-13, despite tries from skipper Steve Robinson and scrum half James Read.