Darlington Under 14s entertained Billingham in the First Round of the County Cup and they made light work of a difficult task. Playing on pitch four the visitors had the advantage of the considerable slope during the first half, keeping in touch at half-time was going to be important if Darlington were going to win. They actually produced their best rugby running up the hill and went into the break 19-5 up. Matthew Lister opened the scoring after only three minutes when he tracked David MacFall on his powerful diagonal run, off-loading perfectly for Lister to race into the corner. Rory Clegg converted from wide on the touch line. Billingham however came straight back from the restart and forced Darlington back into their own 22. Darlington failing to clear before the visitors scored.

Darlington spoiled a Billingham line-out and the ball was hacked on, eventually Darlington secured the ball and No.10 Clegg found MacFall in space to his left and he ran in to take the score to 12-5. Just before the half-time whistle Darlington scored the try of the match. From a scrum close to half-way Paul Smith got clean ball away to Clegg, setting off to run right he passed to Gregg Davies who was taking up an opposite diagonal run, he however in a set move passed it back to Clegg who had continued his run opening up the Billingham defence. Joining from full-back Mat Lister still had 20metres to go but his speed and a good step beat his man and he made it in under the posts.

It was ten minutes into the second half before Darlington managed to turn the slope advantage into points. Rory Clegg eventually crossed the line following a good drive that was held up over the line but Clegg found a big enough gap to get there himself from the resulting scrum. Matty Hall then crossed the line twice in two minutes the first time he failed to ground the ball but he made amends moments later and Clegg's conversion took the score to 31-5. Billingham's spirit kept them going and added a try of their own and conversion but MacFall ran another one in for Darlington before the final whistle. Score at full time was Darlington 36 Billingham 12.

Mowden Park

Mowden Park U15's clash with Darlington in the County Cup saw Mowden ended in defeat. The Mowden Pack showed real potential throughout, winning a large percentage of the ball and making ground, but their lack of strength in mid-field left Darlington with plenty of opportunity for their backs to steal the ball and make good use of a well-drilled back row, and running in five tries in the first half. The only try for the Mowden squad came from Patrick Saunders after a strong run down the wing.

Despite an early try in the second half by Darlington, Mowden Park went on to dominate in the forwards for the remainder of the match. There is certainly better to come once the team gels and the communication between forwards and backs is established. Mowden can take heart from their performance and be sure that their next meeting with Darlington will bring a very different outcome.

Darlington Mowden Park under 13s were in action against Stockton u13s.

Highlights of this game were a hugely impressive hat trick of tries by the mightily impressive Paul Marwood, an exciting fight back by a gutsy Stockton side and the fact that Mowden were able to rotate a squad of 26 players into the game without causing disruption.

The game was played at Hummersknott School and Mowden playing down the slope started strongly. When a ruck formed on Stockton's 22m line, it was Paul Marwood who reacted first, picking the ball up and bursting through several tackles to score under the posts.

Tom Catterick converted for 7 -0.

Mowden continued to dominate, and a well worked move on the right resulted in a great try for Tom Catterick, who kicked ahead, ran past a static defence and collected to score under the posts. Michael Harris easily slotted the conversion for 14-0.

Directly from the re-start Paul Marwood collected the ball and ran the length of the field, shrugging off challenge after challenge to score in the corner.

Despite a good effort by Tom Catterick, the conversion attempt was narrowly missed so Mowden led 19 -0 at the half time whistle.

Stockton seemed to have been rejuvenated in the second half and dominated for long spells, so it was no surprise when David Beacroft, playing well at number 8 broke from the back of the scrum on the half way line and raced away to score. The conversion was missed.

With the score at 19- 5 in Mowden's favour, Stockton continued to press and David Fawcett broke from a maul 5m out to close the gap to 19-10.

The turning point in the game came when, after further pressure, a Stockton flanker broke from the half way line and, with no- one between him and the touchline, seemed odds-on to score.

However, Mowden's flanker, George Alley who had been tackling tirelessly all match, showed remarkable pace in chasing him down, and a superbly timed tackle ensured that the danger was over.Mowden responded excellently to this, and there followed a highly entertaining period,with some lovely passing moves by Mowden, which were matched by determined Stockton defending. The result was finally secured by Mowden , however when Tom Oldham broke from the back of the scrum and offloaded to Paul Marwood who completed a splendid hat trick, powering through for the line.This had been an excellent game and the standard both of play and of behaviour was a credit to the lads from both teams. Final Score 24 -10