North One East: Dinnington 20 Bradford & Bingley 28

A MUCH-improved Bradford & Bingley performance helped them win away from home, moving them to tenth, three points above the relegation trapdoor but now six points clear of fellow strugglers Dinnington in the bottom five of North One East.

Unfortunately, West Hartlepool claimed a superb victory over table-toppers Morpeth to keep the battle to break away from the relegation zone just as tight, with West's only one point behind the Bees and Malton & Norton only one point above.

Martin Whitcombe's men do have a chance to break further away from West's next Saturday when bottom club Northern come to Bingley and West Hartlepool travel to Penrith, who are undefeated at home this season.

The Bees have started most recent games very poorly and taken perhaps 20 minutes to get into their stride.

There was no apparent sluggishness to their start in this game, however, as the first try was on the board within the opening two minutes.

Andy Walker, who had his best game since coming across from rugby league, gathered a clearance kick in his own half and set off on a bullocking run straight to the heart of the Dinnington defence.

He blasted through two or three tackles and was suddenly almost clean through on the home 22.

The ball was smuggled away to the supporting Ali Macdonald, who followed suit with his own charge up the middle and, despite the close attentions of two or three home defenders, the Bees' coach, making his first appearance of the season, had the strength to make the whitewash.

Tanner Lighfoot slotted the conversion and the visitors were off to the best possible start.

Dinnington quickly regrouped, however, and were soon bumping and barging their way upfield, with a number of their tight forwards looking dangerous bouncing off the side of the rucks and mauls.

This was a change from last week, where the Bees completely bossed the Alnwick pack in the close exchanges, and it was soon Dinnington who were keeping the lion's share of territory and possession.

The Bradford & Bingley back row of Louis Fraser, Mani Riaz and Tom Cummins, ably supported by second-row men Troy Frisch and Tom Booth, were asked to put in quite a session of tackling, with youngster Fraser having a fine afternoon, belying his tender years.

As the home side nudged closer to the Bees line, a score looked on the cards, and the equalising score duly arrived with a simple but well executed roll around the front of a line-out getting second-rower Dean McAulay on the scoresheet, ably converted from out wide by centre Chris Williams.

A Williams penalty then followed and it was 10-7 to the home side as the first quarter ended.

There was no panicking in the Bees ranks though, and players right across the 15 continued to tackle well and take the right option when possession fell to them.

There is a clearly an understanding developing at half-back between Lightfoot and Dan Jeffrey, and having that pivot to work off in midfield will surely stand Bradford & Bingley in good stead over the coming weeks, as both half-backs popped up individually and as a pair to good effect in both attacking and defensive capacities.

Lightfoot slotted a penalty on 28 minutes to level the scores, but then as the half-hour mark passed, the referee saw fit to yellow card Bees skipper Booth for a high tackle.

Although Booth himself had been the recipient of a couple of slaps across the throat himself only a minute earlier, the referee saw Booth's as a more serious indiscretion.

This yellow card caused the Bees supporters on the touchlines to howl for a reciprocal yellow card for much of the rest of the games as a couple of high but far from dangerous challenges punctuated proceedings.

With the visitors a man short, the Dinnington pack now had a real chance to capitalise on their advantage, and their No 8 Will Marshall was soon celebrating a try whgich Williams cobverted.

Bradford & Bingley came back at Dinnington, however, and were soon pressing in and around the home 22.

With an icy, stiff breeze blowing upfield into the Bees faces, kicking was not going to be easy, but the two penalties the Bees were awarded in the period running up to half-time were calmly despatched by Lightfoot.

With the sides turning round at 17-16, the one-point advantage to the home side looked like it was not enough of a margin to compensate for the tricky wind which favoured the side playing towards the clubhouse.

Within three minutes of the restart, Dinnington had extended their advantage to four points with a Williams penalty, but with Booth back on the field and fired up, the Bees were soon taking the game to their hosts, with some astute kicking from Lightfoot and Jeffrey pushing the game deep into home territory.

On 48 minutes, Bradford & Bingley's lead was restored.

A move up the right touchline faltered and the ball was fed infield, with the ball ending up in the hands of Dennis Touffour, who momentarily looked to have lost his footing and the ball.

Somehow he held on and shipped the ball to his left, where the Bees backline injected some real pace into the move and Lightfoot zipped out a pass to Ben Greaves, who was haring up the touchline.

There was no telling that Greaves is a lot nearer 40 than 30 as the veteran scooted over in the left corner.

Where Dinnington had held the upper hand for the opening 40 minutes, the game was being taken over gradually by the visitors, and with the pack managing to get the ball away from the midfield wrestling match, with Jeffrey, Lightfoot and the rest of the Bees backline mixing up the kicking and running options, a third score appeared to be on the cards.

However, it didnt arrive as part of a flowing move as the score was claimed by No 8 Tom Cummins carrying the ball the final few feet through a wall of bodies to dot down under the sticks.

With Lightfoot's extra points extending the lead to eight points, the Bees at least knew that their hosts would have to score twice to win, but with a full 25 minutes on the clock, that was clearly not an impossible task for the hosts.

The visitors then lost hooker Mat Cochrane to a shoulder injury, with Corey Spencer replacing him.

Bradford & Bingley changed their line-out options to try and guarantee that they kept possession on their own throw, and the decision proved to be a good one.

Dinnington threw everything they could down the hill at the Bees defence but only breached the line once.

Fortunately for Whitcombe's men, the final pass was forward and the Bees were able to clear their lines and finish the game eight points in front, denying Dinnington a losing bonus point.