DESPITE exceeding financial expectations from their well-supported bonfire night on Saturday, Blaydon felt they had been taught a few lessons on and off the field at Cambridge.

As they attempt to adjust to life in National Two, they found themselves playing in front of a big crowd at a well-run, prosperous club and lost 57-12.

Following the previous week's loss of Cameron Johnston with a fractured vertebra, this time they lost their other star winger, leading try scorer Andrew Fenby, after 12 minutes with a head injury.

Although Blaydon were able to compete at close quarters, elsewhere they were outpaced and they lost the match in the second quarter.

They were level at 7-7 after 20 minutes, but clever switches of direction and excellent support work saw the hosts score three tries in eight minutes and at half-time they led 38-7.

Blaydon were on top early on but missed a penalty then an attack broke down and Cambridge went through the middle to score.

Blaydon came straight back with good blind side work by Dominic Shaw and Ralph Smith, setting up winger Mike Sutherland, who broke two tackles to go under the posts.

James Kyle converted, but it was not until the 78th minute that Blaydon scored again, when they kicked a penalty to touch and No 8 Jason Smithson was driven over.

They hope to have skipper Dave Guthrie back for this week's visit of third-placed Blackheath.

Darlington Mowden Park's good run ended with a 40-20 defeat at Bradford and Bingley, which saw them slip two places to sixth in National Three North.

South African lock Naude Pretorius did well in his first game back for Mowden and hooker Shaun Buckley defied his rib injury to enjoy a good first half before making way for Ross Batty.

After leapfrogging their hosts with a fourth successive win last week, Mowden looked capable of closing in on the promotion play-off place when they led 13-5 after 30 minutes. But in the next half hour they conceded a penalty and three soft tries, all converted, to trail 29-13.

There was no way back for Mowden, despite another all-action display from open side flanker Aaron Myers, while another Newcastle Academy man, Charlie Raynor, did well on his first start at full back.

Mowden dominated the opening ten minutes, only to fall behind to a try following a speculative kick. But they nosed ahead through penalties by Jon Benson and Raynor, who struck from halfway, then replacement winger Lawrence Oliver scored on the half hour and Benson converted.

Poor tackling saw the game turn, although Bradford's fourth try resulted from an attempted chip out of defence going straight into an opponent's hands.

Scrum half Andy Foreman gave Mowden hope with a converted try from a quickly-taken penalty on halfway. That reduced the gap to nine points with 18 minutes left, but Bradford scored a fifth try and added two more penalties.

Tynedale lost their 100 per cent record when they went down 22-10 away to improving Rugby Lions, who landed three penalties after seeing a 13-0 lead cut to 13-10 at half-time.

Following tries by winger Ben Duncan and lock Tim Swinson, Tynedale dominated the second half without further reward.

Winger Ross McNeill scored a hat-trick for Middlesbrough as a 41-5 home win against struggling Altrincham-Kersal took them into sixth place in North One.

Lack of size counts against McNeill in tight situations, but he showed how well he can finish given a little space, having a lot to do for his second try in particular.

After Simon Moore gave Boro the lead with an easy penalty, a breakaway try put the visitors ahead. But McNeill's first and a try by skipper Dave Richardson were both converted from the touchline by Moore, then McNeill scored again for a 22-5 interval lead.

Hooker Richard Horton was driven over from a line-out on the resumption and after a flat half hour McNeill completed his treble and scrum half Peter Wright went through the middle and beat the full back to score from 35 metres. Moore added his fourth conversion.

Martin Howe, who had been rested, went on at centre for the last 20 minutes and Lee Rust, back after injury, replaced fly half Paul Lee in the second half.

West Hartlepool made it eight wins from eight in North Two East when they won 16-0 at home to York without reaching recent heights.

They again dominated the scrum but failed to add any tries to first half efforts by Phil Henderson and Andrew Hare, Paul Moss landing two second half penalties.

Durham City remain third after a 24-10 win at Old Crossleyans, despite scrum half Ben Stevenson being unavailable and his brother Arnie injured.

Former skipper Jeff Roberts played at No 9 in his first game back after a summer operation, but was replaced in the second half by coach Mark McCreaddie, who was driven over for the decisive try.

It came late in the game to settle what had been a tense match with the hosts leading 10-3 at half-time following an interception try.

City quickly went ahead with two tries after the interval. After a lot of pressure and two penalties on the line, the referee awarded a penalty try when a home player went into a ruck from the side.

James Walker, who kicked the first half penalty, coverted to level the scores then Howard Johnson broke away when the ball ran loose at the back of a line-out on halfway. He hacked on and eventually gathered the ball to blast over near the posts for Walker to add the second of his three conversions.

Stockton drew an error-strewn game 27-27 at Ryton after fly half Jeremy Good kicked five penalties for a 15-10 interval lead.

The hosts moved ahead through a penalty and a try when Stockton lost control of their line-out ball, but when Ryton dropped the ball in midfield Simon Crozier kicked on to score and Good converted.

At 22-20 ahead Stockton had Ben Cordiner and Mark Skirving sin-binned in separate incidents and with three minutes left Ryton broke through the middle to score a converted try.

In injury time Stockton moved the ball along the line for the first time and winger Matt Taylor scored in the corner, Good's conversion attempt hitting a post.

Redcar's attempts to buy their way out of Yorkshire One continue to prove fruitless, with prop Craig Chapman opting to return to Middlesbrough.

They lost 40-17 at home to Malton and Norton, despite tries from No 8 Neil Young and centre John Pope