Fitzpatrick brace fails to save Mowden Park from defeat at Loughborough

Starting at noon, senior women will receive coaching from the Sharks, Mowden's women's team, plus some members of the men's first XV.

Girls aged 11 or over are invited to simply turn up and play. They do not need to be members of a team.

The sessions are free and everyone taking part will receive a ticket for the afternoon's two matches, with Mowden taking on Birmingham Moseley at 3pm followed by the Sharks v Richmond at 5pm.

Two tries by replacement centre James Fitzpatrick were not enough to save Mowden from a 29-14 defeat at Loughborough last Saturday.

The Students took a 22-0 interval lead, but Mowden's second-half performance was much-improved and, with Caolan Ryan adding the conversions, the gap was down to eight with 15 minutes left.

But as they pressed for another score, they lost possession and Loughborough mounted an excellent attack from inside their own half to score their fourth try.

After the previous week's heavy defeat at Plymouth, Mowden will need to improve again if they are to avoid a third successive reverse against Moseley.

The illustrious Birmingham club were relegated from the Championship last season, but are second in National One.

Mowden will again have to check on the wounded before naming a team after centre Ben Frankland and full back Jamie Barnard joined the casualties.

Frankland hurt an ankle in the warm-up, but soldiered on for 24 minutes before making way for Fitzpatrick. Barnard also retired with an ankle problem to be replaced by Josh Bragman.

Mowden were surprised to have winger Joel Gill sin-binned for what they considered a fair challenge for a high ball and it proved costly as a try was conceded a minute later.

But this was cancelled out in the second half when a dust-up saw a home player yellow-carded just before Fitzpatrick scored his second try.

Barnard Castle were delighted with a 30-15 home win in their first meeting with Middlesbrough, lifting them into second place in Durham and Northumberland One.

Boro began strongly and a forward drive plus good handling brought an early try. But the home forwards then applied pressure and Bill Neville finished off a catch-and-drive.

Sam Errington converted, but a penalty put Boro back in front prior to a lengthy period of deadlock, which was broken by Rob Stanwix exchanging passes and crashing over for a 12-8 interval lead.

Chris McTurk was a constant threat from full back and Barney's pressure was rewarded by two penalties from Errington before Boro scored a converted try to reduce the gap to three.

Barney were not to be denied and, in a pulsating final 10 minutes, Joe Larder touched down after another line-out drive. Errington added an excellent conversion before McTurk raced over from his own 22.

Stockton finally put together a competent performance to outclass Hartlepool Rovers and earn their first win of the season by 20-3.

Following a minute's silence to mark the passing of former Stockton forward Graham Docherty, a lively start saw fly half Jonny Horner touch down after good support play.

Dan Phinn then cut through the middle and outpaced the defence from 60 metres and Steve Barliff again converted for a 14-0 lead.

A sweetly-struck Bartliff penalty stretched the lead before Rovers pulled one back to make it 17-3 at half-time.

Rovers were more lively in the second half, but Stockton defended well and Bartliff added another penalty.

Darlington won 31-7 at home to Ashington to move into mid-table in Durham and Northumberland Two.

Northallerton finally got off the mark in Yorkshire Three with a hard-fought 29-17 victory at home to Castleford, scoring a hat-trick of catch-and-drive tries through Simon Manthorpe.

They welcomed back Jacob Sankey and Peter Skinner from injury and used their superior strength to out-muscle the visitors.

North opened the scoring with Manthorpe's first, but five minutes later a speculative kick through was collected by the Castleford full back, who ran more than half the length of the pitch to score out wide.

Jonny Baker touched down for North via another well-worked forward move, with Jedd Bainbridge converting. But Castleford also scored a converted try for a half-time score of 12-12.

From the kick-off, North pressed and scored the try of the game through Xander Metcalfe. Johnny Franks and Peter Skinner exchanged passes in midfield before Metcalfe came in on a diagonal run to slice between two defenders and score under the posts. Bainbridge added the conversion.

North relaxed slightly and, after scoring a try out wide, Castleford's determination to press on saw them get on the wrong side of the referee, giving away a lot of penalties.

North raised their game for the last 20 minutes and scored two similar tries, ignoring the easy option of a penalty in front of the posts to opt for the line-out. They collected the ball cleanly and drove over both times to score in the corner.

The second team travelled to Billingham with no subs and battled well to be level 12-12 at half-time before running out of steam and players to lose 48-19.

North's tries came from Dave Carter, Martin Dennison and Jack Swain, with Norman Harvie adding two conversions.

The first team visit Leeds Modernians tomorrow, and the seconds are at home to Whitby.

On a bright Sunday morning, Northallerton juniors again fielded teams from under-sevens to 12s against Whitby and Acklam.

All teams and supporters enjoyed a feast of energetic and enthusiastic rugby, played in good spirit, proving that junior rugby in the area is growing strongly.