Darlington failed to break their Halifax hoodoo, despite dominating for the first 55 minutes in a West Yorkshire quagmire on Saturday.

They led 10-0 at half-time against the North Division One leaders but lost 19-10 and will probably need to win their eight remaining games to qualify for the promotion play-off spot.

They entertain their main rivals, Hull Ionians, on Saturday and will be without lock Mark Power, who suffered a nasty knee injury, which held the game up for five minutes midway through the first half.

Bryan Dixon switched to lock and with Phil Mott going into the back row Darlington continued to dominate, but could not get the third try which they felt would have been decisive.

As it was, they fell behind with ten minutes left to a controversial penalty try, the conversion from under the posts allowing Halifax to sneak ahead.

Darlington then tried to run from deep and a Halifax replacement intercepted to score another converted try.

The penalty try was awarded after a series of scrums had gone down, and when the ball emerged from the next one Darlington scrum half Rob Stewart tried to pick it up and was adjudged to have prevented his opposite number from scoring.

After giving everything for 60 minutes in testing conditions, Darlington were starting to flag at this point as Halifax repeatedly kicked ahead for their speedy wingers to run on to the ball as it stuck in the mud.

This ploy brought their first try as Frankie Coulson tried to hack the ball away but his opposite number arrived at the same time and got the better of the exchange.

With Stewart and Paul Lee combining well behind a dominant pack, Darlington applied plenty of first half pressure and went ahead after rolling a maul almost to the line before Stewart squeezed over.

After another forward drive Lee fed David Glendenning, who broke away and exploited a two-man overlap with centre Mark Butler putting Marc Potts over.

A further 15 minutes of pressure failed to bring any reward, and although the crosswind had little bearing Darlington paid for not getting enough points on the board.

Darlington Mowden Park stayed fifth in National Division Three North and moved five points clear of next week's hosts, Blaydon, with a 17-16 win at Morley.

Blaydon also had a tight tussle, losing 23-21 at New Brighton when the last kick of the game, a penalty by James Lofthouse, drifted agonisingly wide.

After coming from behind to snatch a one-point victory at the death against West Hartlepool the previous week, this time Mowden hung on after leading 17-0 at half-time.

They took heart from an excellent display by Durham Under 20s player Jonny Boatman at blind side, while Mark Bedworth played well at full back and scrum half Phil Harvey made his comeback from injury in the last 20 minutes.

While it may be too soon after his year's absence to pitch Harvey into the Blaydon battle, Mowden will have no worries about playing Teesside student Richard Holbrough, who again looked lively.

On a muddy pitch Mowden faced the wind in the second half and the gap was down to seven points with 24 minutes left.

But Morley managed only two more penalties and good tackling by the Mowden forwards allowed them to survive heavy pressure in the last five minutes.

It was all Mowden in the first half, but after Kevan Oliphant kicked an early penalty they had to wait until the 30th minute for a try.

Following sustained pressure centre Mick Kent burst through under the posts, then prop James Isaacson broke off a maul to score and Oliphant added his second conversion.

Morley began their fightback with a penalty after 49 minutes and followed it with a converted try. But Mowden's superior try count of 2-1 proved decisive.

Despite playing into the wind, Blaydon thought Lofthouse's 28-metre injury time penalty was a winner as it was heading straight between the posts until a gust of wind took it just wide.

The fly half put them ahead with a penalty in the first minute.

But they played poorly with the wind at their backs and managed only two more penalties until just before the break.

A series of rucks was followed by a break from lock Jason Oakes, who sent centre Jonny Golightly under the posts, Lofthouse's conversion giving Blaydon a 16-10 lead.

But within ten minutes it became 23-16 to New Brighton before Blaydon began to play well. Prop George Donoghue squeezed over in the corner and the coversion narrowly failed, although it was not as close as the final penalty.

West Hartlepool were cast even further adrift when they lost 62-20 at Bedford Athletic, who are third from the bottom but are now nine points clear of West.

Jamie Connolly scored a try, a conversion and a penalty and with Gareth Kerr also touching down West were only 17-15 down just before the break.

Scrum half David Tighe was then held up just short and Bedford broke away to score. Tighe did manage to get over on the resumption, but then Bedford scored six unanswered tries.

Middlesbrough's plight increased in North One when they lost 19-9 at home to West Park St Helens. Despite starting well, they trailed 9-3 at half-time but came back strongly and two more penalties by fly half Andy Dean levelled the scores.

Boro's weakened line-up were unable to sustain the pressure and in the last 20 minutes the visitors scored two tries from good moves.

In North Two East depleted Stockton won 20-10 at home to bottom club Bridlington, who kicked a penalty and scored a converted pushover try to lead 10-3 at half-time.

With the wind behind them Stockton scored two good tries through their wingers, with Dave Turner adding the conversions from the touchline and also landing a penalty.

Hooker Danny Muirhead took several strikes against the head and from one of these scrum half Nicky Poole broke down the right wing to send Simon Crozier over. Joe Green, normally a flanker, scored in the other corner.

Horden continued to battle it out with Ashington for top spot in Durham and Northumberland Division One.

While Ashington virtually ended Durham City's promotion hopes with a 29-8 home win, Horden thrashed Hartlepool Rovers 66-12 after leading 33-0 at half-time.

Full back Paul Bruce scored 31 points, touching down three of the ten tries and converting eight, while Jon Paul, Glen Bowman and Andy Raine scored two tries each.

Acklam continued their march towards promotion in division two when Gavin Kendall and Peter Wallace scored two tries each in a 47-9 home win against Guisborough.

Northallerton skipper Steve Robinson scored two tries in a 12-6 home win against Keighley in Yorkshire Two