GROWING fixture backlogs following Saturday's freeze-up look like throwing the Durham Cup into further turmoil.

The first round matches are scheduled for February 15, but with rearranged league games taking priority some cup ties are unlikely to be fitted in before the semi-final date of April 5.

Holders Darlington face the biggest backlog of four games after the postponement of Driffield's visit and they now face playing a league match every Saturday until mid-April.

Unless their inactivity derails their promotion bid, they could decide that going for national league rugby is a greater priority than completing a hat-trick of county cup wins.

The one consolation was that North One promotion rivals Chester, who they visit this week, suffered a second successive defeat when they went down 24-7 at Macclesfield.

Despite conceding 50 points at Darlington, Macclesfield are now very much back in the frame as they have the points in the bag, standing four ahead of Darlington, who have three games in hand.

The congested schedule in National Three North means Darlington Mowden Park will have to wait until April 5 to fit in Saturday's postponed visit of Liverpool St Helens.

Blaydon's trip to Scunthorpe was also off, denying both Durham clubs a chance to tune up for their clash at Crow Trees this week.

The two Darlington clubs will clearly have to sort out league matters before agreeing a date for their county cup clash at Yiewsley Drive, while there is some doubt about West Hartlepool taking part at all.

They have another game to rearrange as they were unable to host North One leaders Cleckheaton on Saturday, but they had already asked to drop out of the cup.

Having been banned for a year from the Powergen Cups - senior and intermediate - for failing to fulfil their preliminary round tie at Darlington this season, they felt they would be denying another Durham club a national cup place by taking part in the county event.

They have been told this is not the case and urged to go ahead with their first round tie at Westoe.

In one of the few matches to go ahead in the North-East on Saturday, Tynedale's slump continued with a 15-10 home defeat by Dudley Kingswinford, raising Blaydon's hopes of finishing above their neighbours.

Playing with the wind in the second half, Tynedale quickly reduced their 15-point deficit only to lose leading try scorer Paul Boston with a back injury.

Redcar slipped to third from the bottom in North Two East when they lost 24-12 at Alnwick, despite scoring a try after eight minutes.

They were 24-5 down before being awarded a late penalty try, converted by Steve Bryce.

Northallerton slipped back to next to the bottom in Yorkshire Two with a 44-12 defeat at Skipton.

They managed tries by Matt Cornforth and Ian Townsend in reply to seven by the hosts.