AFTER beating one club with an illustrious history on Saturday, Darlington Mowden Park will attempt to complete the double against another tomorrow.

Jubilation greeted the 32-25 home win against Coventry in front of a crowd of 1,015 but a key man will be missing at Blackheath after lock Ben Gledhill was sent off for punching late in the game.

The ex-Rugby League man has formed a powerful second row partnership with Rob Conquest since coming into the team at the turn of the year but will now have to serve a suspension.

A possible deputy is Valite Taioleti, who has missed most of the season through injury. If he is not quite ready, Scotland Under 20 player George Hedgley will return.

Mowden just beat the deadline to sign another Scotland Under 20 player, hooker Russell Anderson, from Gala, and he will now compete with Charlie Maddison for a starting place. Mowden will want to get him involved as they assess their options for next season.

Maddison, who was understudy to Matt Thompson until the ex-Falcon left for Ealing last month, has rarely managed to stay on the field for 80 minutes when given starting opportunities and picked up another yellow card on Saturday.

Mowden piled 50 points on Blackheath in November, but the Kent club have rallied since and stand fourth in the table, one place behind Coventry.

Beating old-established clubs like these has to be Mowden's target if they aspire to compete at the top end of National One and Saturday's win was a tremendous team effort, capped by 22 points from the game's outstanding player, Grant Connon.

The fly half's two tries, two penalties and three conversions enabled his team to overcome their scrum difficulties and seize victory after seeing a 12-point lead wiped out.

Connon's pace off the mark brought his tries and he is also benefiting from the service of new scrum half Sam Stuart.

Mowden drove a maul 20 metres from the kick-off then scored after two minutes. They moved the ball right and when Garry Law passed back inside it went to ground ten metres out but was hacked over the line for Connon to win the race.

Coventry came back with a penalty and a catch-and-drive try, which was converted for a 10-7 lead. But Mowden went back in front after 23 minutes when the ball was moved left for Gledhill to score in the corner.

Penalties were exchanged and just before half-time Connon added another from 35 metres for an 18-13 interval lead.

He also made the third try when Coventry gave the ball away and he shot up the middle before passing to Henry Robinson, who sent winger Tom Kill over.

Coventy scored a pushover try after Maddison earned his yellow card in trying to halt a catch-and-drive, then they ran back the restart, kicked another penalty to the corner and scored from the driving maul to level the scores.

The visitors now looked favourites but after being pinned back by an excellent Connon kick they again tried to run out of their 22 and lost the ball. When it came back to Connon he dummied through a barely existent gap to go under the posts. His conversion completed the scoring.

As if to emphasise the gulf which has opened up between the town's two clubs, Darlington lost 66-10 at home to Guisborough. Again the young players competed well in the first half but could not sustain the defensive effort against the Durham and Northumberland One leaders.

Stockton, playing uphill into the wind, had to dig deep to win 22-17 at home to Novos after seeing a 12-point lead wiped out with 20 minutes left.

Forward pressure was finished off by replacement prop Stuart Barrass for the winning, bonus point try. The first half tries came from scrum half Rob Green, lock Charlie Doherty and winger Ritchie Brown.

Iain Bradford marked his 300th appearance with a try as Middlesbrough moved up to fourth in Yorkshire One when they won 30-10 at home to Selby.

The veteran No 8 carried three defenders with him when he barged over from a five-metre scrum.

An early break by fly half Simon O'Farrell allowed winger Rhys Kilbride to outpace the cover, and when Richie Horton finished a driving maul Boro led 10-0.

Selby levelled the scores before Jack Bircham kicked a penalty into the wind on the stroke of half-time. Boro dominated the second half, Bircham adding another penalty after converting Bradford's try and the bonus point came when scrum half Sam Gaudie sent lock Richie Lonsdale surging through a gap from 15 metres.

Northallerton rested several players ahead of tomorrow's National Junior Vase quarter-final away to Warrington-based Eagle RUFC but still won 35-10 at home to Rotherham Phoenix.

The replacements all played well, possibly creating selection dilemmas, with Man of the Match going to flanker Rob Greene as he and ex-captain Liam Lincoln stifled the opposition after they went ahead with an early penalty.

Frasier Deas atoned for having a kick charged down by tackling a player who was about to touch down before North got on top and a break by scrum half Pat Hebblethwaite sent Doug Mulholland over.

Ten minutes later Deas hit a good line at high pace to go under the posts, Brian Tucker converting then landing a penalty into the wind after the break.

With Ben Ferritt already in the sin bin for pulling down a maul, North were reduced to 13 men when Jeremy Deas was yellow-carded for a high tackle.

As Rotherham threatened a superb tackle by Greene in midfield forced a knock-on which the referee failed to spot and a converted try resulted.

But once back to full strength North stretched their 15-10 lead with four tries from Iain MacLeod, Hebblethwaite, Ferritt and Mulholland, who sold two outrageous dummies on his way to the corner.

The second team lost 43-24 at home to Stockton after going 28-0 down in 15 minutes. They came back with two tries each for Andy Ryder and Paul Dennison, with two conversions by Alan Fishburn. But the superior visiting backs prevailed.

Darlington Mowden Park flanker Joe Craggs scored a try in England Under 18s' 39-27 win against Scotland at Newcastle's Kingston Park on Sunday. His Falcons Academy colleague Jonny McPhillips, playing at full back, also touched down and added two conversions and a penalty.