Darlington

Darlington men's first team recorded their tenth successive league victory of the season, with a 2-0 away win over Tynemouth seconds in North East League, Division Two.

Darlington dominated much the game and would have recorded a greater winning margin if they had converted their chances in front of goal. Tynemouth soaked up much of the first-half pressure and some good defending prevented Darlington from gaining the upper hand early on. It was not until the 30th minute that clever play from Wilson and Handley resulted in Phil Hardie scoring from short range. Tynemouth continued to press but were prevented from scoring by Darlington goalkeeper Elliot Boyle.

The second Darlington goal came from a short corner midway through the second half. Instead of using the direct strike from the short corner, Alderson decided to take the ball left and produced a reverse stick flick which went past the diving Tynemouth keeper into the roof of the net. The second goal took the pressure off the Darlington. However, Tynemouth had other thoughts. In the dying minutes of the game Tynemouth's celebrations were cut short when an unstoppable shot heading into the left hand corner of the net was saved by defender Nick Wright who flung himself across the goal and managed to get his stick to the ball to direct it wide.

At the mid-way point of the season, Darlington have played 11, won 10 and lost one. Darlington are at home to Wilton tomorrow, the only team to have beaten them this season.

Darlington seconds suffered a 7-4 defeat against Hild Bede College in Division Three.

In a tough game, Darlington were outplayed in the first few minutes and trailed 3-0 after 20 minutes but fought back with two excellent strikes from the edge of the D by Thomson and Gough to leave them trailing 3-2 at half-time. In the second period Bede increase their goal tally to four early on. Two goals from captain Jason Mulroy brought Darlington level but Hild Bede were in no mood to allow victory to slip from their grasp and replied with three goals in the last five minutes of the half. Fabian Polonius completed his hat-trick and helped Hild Bede to a well deserved win. Darlington can take heart from their competitive performance against a young well organised student side.

Darlington thirds suffered their heaviest defeat of the season losing 5-0 away to Tynedale, in Division Six. The loss can be attributed to the fact that many of the youngsters playing in the team had never played hockey on grass before.

Darlington Ladies gained a 2-0 win over Hartlepool Caledonian in the Durham Cup to earn a semi-final place. Darlington attacked from the opening whistle and after a few minutes were one ahead with a goal from right wing Helen Dixon. This was followed shortly afterwards by a left-wing cross which was jabbed past the Caledonian keeper by youngster Mickey Kieboom. In the second half Caledonian set up a more attacking game but couldn't add to their total.

In the North East League, Darlington Ladies seconds lost 6-1 at home to Wolsingham and in a friendly Darlington seconds defeated Pioxide 4-1 with goals from Longstaff 2, Kieboom and Hunter