Darlington were relieved that a neck injury to lock Michael Taylor turned out not to be serious in their 41-10 defeat away to National Three North leaders Nuneaton. But they have lost scrum half Rob Stewart for a while with a broken arm.

Darlington couldn't get going in the first 20 minutes, which wasn't helped by a long stoppage after Taylor was tipped in a line-out. It is now hoped the injury is nothing worse than whiplash.

Stewart departed midway through the first half to be replaced by David Andrew, who proved his worth as the team rallied and got back into the game.

A try early in the second half by winger Simon Crozier cut the gap to 15-10, but Darlington immediately conceded a try from a quickly-taken penalty while they were still arguing with the referee.

"Some heads then went down," said player-coach Craig Lee. "It was disappointing because we were right back in it.

"We had to bring in Lee Davies at full back, where he did well. Ben Snook had a good game at centre and Crozier was very positive on the wing. Richard Snowball was immense up front, but we might have to make some changes for next week."

Nuneaton's powerful Tongan No 8 ran through some feeble tackling by the Darlington back row as the hosts scored after two minutes and built a 15-3 half-time lead.

Crozier's try came after Snook broke up the left and when the ball came back inside Snowball drove on then Alan Brown found Crozier, who stepped inside the full back to go under the posts.

Snook added the conversion to his first half penalty but had only one other attempt at goal as Darlington slipped one place to sixth.

Middlesbrough missed a chance to climb into the top half of North One when they handed promoted Hull their first win in five games, losing 18-8 at home.

Boro dominated the first half but led only 8-6 and were hardly in the game after the break. They had to rearrange the pack after prop Iso Warsama was sent on to replace injured flanker Gavin Fingland early in the second half.

Nor did it help that Dave Richardson missed two penalties after going on as a replacement for fly half Simon Moore, while all Hull's points came from penalties.

Moore kicked a penalty for Boro and the game's only try was scored by No 8 Richie Barker.

Westoe moved above Boro through a 22-14 win at home to Chester, who fought back from 17-0 down after half an hour to trail by only three until home winger Jay Jay Boske scored in the last minute. Westoe's other points came from two tries by lock Paul Bird and one by centre Kevin Wilson, plus a conversion.

Durham City are third in North Two East after grinding out a 21-8 win at Sheffield, despite the loss of influential back row man Darren McKinnon after half an hour with a knee injury.

City edged the first ten minutes but went 3-0 down before James Walker landed the first of three penalties which put them 9-3 ahead early in the second half.

The first try came when Howard Johnson, McKinnon's replacement, picked up from a scrum in midfield and with the backs lined up on one side the ball went the other way for Walker to step inside and score from 30 metres.

A try by Sheffield's left winger cut the gap to 14-8 with 15 minutes left, but when they missed touch with a clearance kick City ran it back and a big drive up the middle was finished by Grant Thompson powering over, Walker converting.

It was a good day for the Hartlepool clubs. Rovers, the division's leading scorers, took their tally to 175 from six games with a 62-20 home win against Sandal, while West did well to grind out an 8-3 home win against Beverley, who began the day in top spot.

Andrew Lilley led Rovers' spree with a hat-trick, other tries coming from Andy Foreman (2), Simon Rutherford (2), Michael Walton, Jason White and Gareth Foreman, who added six conversions.

Stockton lost 28-11 in miserable conditions at Driffield, where fly half Jeremy Good was a late cry-off with food poisoning and centre Peter Armstrong departed after five minutes following a nasty blow on the head.

Good's replacement, Tom Armstrong, opened the scoring with a penalty but Stockton failed to capitalise when a home lock was sin-binned for foul play midway through the half.

Just before he returned Driffield drove a maul over and after an exchange of penalties they led 8-6 at the interval.

Stockton went to sleep for the next 20 minutes and conceded 20 points. Handling in a ruck brought a penalty, followed by three tries. The first followed five missed tackles, the second resulted from a blind side attack and the third from a cross-kick by the fly half straight into the right winger's hands.

After a Driffield prop was sin-binned with ten minutes left Stockton applied pressure and lock Mark Skirving was driven over.