A CHORUS of Blaydon Races and the demands of their 150 fans kept Blaydon on the pitch long after they had given division one club Nottingham an almighty fright in the sixth round of the Powergen National Trophy.

Despite facing the wind, Blaydon led 12-6 until the fifth minute of first half injury time, but two yellow cards proved costly and they finally lost 33-17.

"It was a tremendous performance, a fantastic day and a privilege to be there," said secretary Jim Huxley.

"Michael Campbell's dad said he wouldn't have missed it for the world. He left his Belfast home at 3am, caught an early flight from Dublin and saw his son play his heart out and score two tries."

Both tries resulted from superb breaks by centre Martin Shaw, proving he could still perform at a higher level.

Blaydon struggled in the tight but outplayed their hosts in the loose and might have won had they not had flanker Andy Wright and replacement scrum half Nick Williams sin-binned for killing the ball.

While Wright was off Nottingham scored a converted try on the stroke of half-time to lead 13-12, then they scored two tries while Williams was in the bin.

In 18 minutes they had gone from 12-6 down to 33-12 ahead, but Blaydon refused to buckle in the last quarter and scored their third try.

They initially fell behind to a long-range penalty in the second minute, but then rocked Nottingham through their picking and driving, and when a gap appeared Shaw took advantage to send Campbell over in the corner.

Nottingham replied with another penalty, but for the next 30 minutes Blaydon were well on top. They kicked a penalty to the corner and were awarded a penalty try when they drove for the line and the maul was pulled down.

Richard Windle's conversion made it 12-6, but he was replaced by Dan Clappison after 50 minutes with Williams going on for Micky Dungait. It was Williams' first touch of the ball which earned his yellow card.

The game was effectively over by the time he got back on, but ten minutes of Blaydon pressure was rewarded when they drove a maul 30 metres and released the ball for Shaw to send Campbell over.

In a physically demanding game the only casualty was replacement prop Paul McLaren-Dorrington and after a memorable day out Blaydon can now be confident of maintaining their promotion drive in National Three North.

They were knocked off top spot by Preston Grasshoppers gaining a bonus point in their 20-17 defeat at Tynedale, who defended heroically.

Ed Holmes, normally a scrum half, returned on the wing after his four-week ban and scored two tries as Tynedale took a 10-0 lead. Prop Douglas Jupp was sin-binned for the fourth successive match and it was 10-10 at half-time.

Tynedale forged ahead again through a penalty by Will Massey, who then converted centre Ben Duncan's try, but they did well to hang on against a bigger side.

Blaydon have two games in hand on Preston and will be more worried about pre-season promotion favourites Bradford and Bingley, who came back from 10-0 down to win 52-22 at home to Darlington.

One consolation for Darlington was scoring a fourth try to earn a bonus point, the other was that the league's leading try scorer, No 8 Alan Brown, grabbed a brace to take his tally to 14.

But the Bees have two games in hand and showed their power as they romped away after leading 19-17 at half-time.

With their big Pacific Islanders leading the way, they scored two converted tries straight after the break and Darlington's player-coach Craig Lee said: "That changed the game.

"We had competed well and the game plan was working, but the second half was disappointing. They had some big lads and we stood off them a bit too much.

"We also allowed them to capitalise on our mistakes as they scored most of their points from our spilt ball or turnovers.

"Our forwards did well and we matched Bradford in the first half, but we caved in a bit towards the end."

The opening score came when winger Simon Crozier handed off his opposite number to race over, then Brown finished off a series of pick-and-drives.

Bradford came back strongly to take the lead, but Brown made sure the gap was only two points at the break when he took a quick penalty and was driven over, Lee converting.

After Bradford broke away for their two tries in the first five minutes of the second half Darlington came back when winger Frankie Coulson chased a kick, burst through a tackle and was driven over. But the hosts added 19 points without reply.

The two matches in North One - Longton v Middlesbrough and Westoe v West Park St Helens - were both postponed.

Boro were on the bus ready to depart when they got the call that Longton, near Stoke, was frozen. They have another trip next week to Caldy, on the Wirral, and have arranged to visit Stockton on December 27 for the annual Alan Todd Memorial match.

Durham City went to the top of North Two East with a 32-12 home win against Hartlepool Rovers, Hollow Drift standing up well after being under water in the morning.

The City pack took their visitors apart but they will be without skipper Jeff Roberts, another of those going to Dubai, for this week's game away to second-placed Penrith.

Centre Nick Howe scored the first and last of City's five tries, James Walker adding a penalty and two conversions.

After Rovers dropped the kick-off Richard Knowles made a break for Howe to score wide out and it was 10-0 after four minutes when City drove up the middle and scrum half Ben Stevenson linked with Howe to send full back Ralph Smith over.

Just before half-time a five-metre scrum was re-set three times before No 8 Darren McKinnon picked up to score on the blind side, Walker converting.

Three minutes after the break fly half Dan Kyle scored from a five-metre scrum to make it 22-0 before his opposite number, Andy Foreman, replied.

Walker's penalty stretched the lead before a period of Rovers pressure resulted in a penalty try when a maul was pulled down, full back Chris Sainty converting. Howe's angled run following a scrum produced the final try.

West Hartlepool lost 25-22 at home to Driffield, despite winning the try count 4-3 in coach Dave Stubbs' first game back in charge.

They were out-muscled up front and the defence was found wanting, while full back James Masshedar was able to convert only one try and missed a 77th minute penalty which would have earned a draw.

Paul Rudd raced under the posts from halfway following a break by David Tighe for the opening score, but West trailed 15-7 until Darren Thomas sent Dan Boatman over in the corner just before half-time.

West had the wind behind them after the break but quickly conceded a converted try before their superior mauling produced a try for Tim Sawyer.

A penalty stretched Driffield's lead to 25-17 before a punch-up in a game previously played in a good spirit saw a visiting prop sent off and his opposite number, Mark Cholmondeley, took a pass from a tap penalty to complete the scoring in the 71st minute.

Sunderland reached the fifth round of the Junior Vase when their prolific winger Matt Goforth scored two tries in a 27-11 home win against North Ribblesdale.