WHILE Darlington Mowden Park had a 1,000 crowd for their first win in National One on Saturday, leaders Ealing attracted fewer than 300 for the visit of Blaydon.

The lack of fans evidently doesn’t matter to the Londoners, who enjoy financial backing from the Trailfinders travel company and have splashed out more than £500,000 on a 4G pitch.

Mowden considered laying a synthetic surface at The Northern Echo Arena but settled for improving the grass and are confident it will allow them to play the fluent rugby which produced a four-try bonus in a 32-24 win against Cinderford.

As the visitors from the Forest of Dean arrived in bottom place, this was a match Mowden had to win, but it was very tight until Garry Law kicked a drop goal and a penalty in the last ten minutes.

A try by winger Callum Mackenzie gave Mowden the lead before Cinderford scored twice. Law had reverted to fly half as Mark Ireland has a broken thumb, allowing Tom Hodgson to come in at inside centre and his clever pass set up one of skipper Cameron Mitchell’s two tries.

No 8 Ollie Hodgson also grabbed his third of the season before half-time, while Mitchell’s second was set up by full back Henry Robinson to stretch the interval lead of 19-17.

Cinderford got the gap down to two points before Law steadied home nerves.

Blaydon lost 36-7 at Ealing, who have 35 full-time professionals and it showed as they ruthlessly capitalised on all mistakes in an otherwise fairly even game. They scored twice from their own half then added third when Blaydon dropped the ball in midfield to lead 19-0 after 16 minutes.

Blaydon got on top for the next 20 minutes and full back Nathan Bailey joined the line to score wide out. Andrew Baggett, who had regained the kicking duties, converted.

Prolific Ealing winger Phil Chesters ran round his marker for his second and a penalty followed to make it 29-7 at half-time. The scoring was completed seven minutes into the second half, after which Blaydon dominated without reward.

Tynedale made it three out of three when they won 20-17 at home to Wharfedale, with 18-year-old fly half Brett Connon kicking two conversions and two penalties in a confident display on his debut.

Sep Visser scored an interception try as Tynedale built a 10-0 lead before having lock Graeme Dunn and centre Ben Frankland sin-binned.

Wharfedale took advantage by getting on top in the scrums and were awarded their third penalty try in two weeks.

Visser set up a try for scrum half Matty Outson after the break and a 40-metre penalty by Connon virtually settled it before Wharfedale scored in the last minute.

Billingham’s good start in National Three North ended when they shipped seven tries in losing 43-19 at home to Sheffield Tigers, who had lost their first two games.

Westoe also lost at home, going down 28-18 against Lymm, who scored 21 points in the second half.

In North One East West Hartlepool roared back from a 19-0 interval deficit at home to Rochdale to win 22-19. The transformation was obvious from the restart and after a long pass was intercepted by Stu Waites the ball was recycled for Andrew Foreman to shrug off a tackle and score under the posts.

Peter Youll rounded the full-back for the second, Waites adding his second conversion, and three minutes later the scores were level as a long kick downfield was fumbled and Adam Coates pounced on a loose ball to score. Waites kicked the winning penalty with eight minutes left.

In the battle of two unbeaten sides in Durham and Northumberland One, Stockton won 28-18 at home to Darlington after Jack Aldus scored two tries in building a 15-6 interval lead.

Jeremy Good added a conversion and a penalty then struck again from 40 metres after the break. Darlington replied with a try, but a period of Stockton pressure resulted in an excellent passing move, finished by Danny Phinn.

Good pierced the defence again to score the bonus point try after 75 minutes and a penalty try came too late for Darlington.

Middlesbrough suffered their second defeat in Yorkshire One after captain Rob Bellerby had to withdraw from the match at Hullensians due to a family illness.

Boro struggled to get out of their own half, mainly through poor ball retention, and after 20 minutes poor defending on the blind side of a ruck allowed Hullensians to drive over for a converted try.

Boro were awarded a series of penalties but weren’t able to capitalise until Jack Bircham found the target in the 35th minute.

Despite set-piece struggles, Boro attacked with more venom and were rewarded when Matthew Helm drove over after a series of rucks and Bircham converted.

That was as good as it got, however, and poor defending allowed Hullensians another converted try before they got the bonus point score with 15 minutes left.