Malton and Norton almost pulled off a miracle in their National Intermediate Cup first round tie going down 27-24 to a powerful Middlesbrough side who are riding high in North East Two.

The heavier visiting pack meant that Malton possession was limited but they made the most of it to give the Teessiders a real fright.

Middlesbrough opened the scoring when a rolling maul led to a try for skipper Gavin Fingland.

A good passage of play from the home pack, spurred on by scrum half Jon Newsome, almost brought reward when they drove over the Middlesbrough line. After playing themselves out of defence with some good rugby Malton looked to be on the attack only to have possession again stolen from them in mid-field for the visitors to spread the ball wide and use the overlap to put centre Andrew Micklewright over in the corner.

Worse was to follow when Malt lost possession at a set scrum and Borough scrum half Pete Wright broke through to make it 15-0 at the interval.

Ian Cooke slotted over a penalty but hard as they tried Malton were still finding difficulty in retaining possession in contact. Cooke, James McKay and Andy Mitchell were putting in some big tackles and Ryan Lonsdale was making headway every time he got the ball.

Middlesbrough's pack strength paid off again when No 8 Ian Bradford went over from a five-metre scrum. Dan Bishop converted. Wright then scored another individual try as the visitors pulled further ahead.

From that point on Malton took control as the big visiting forwards tired. Malton introduced some fresh legs and took control with fly half David Webster setting up Ian Cooke for a try in the corner, Cooke converted his own try and with the large crowd behind them Malton again struck.

From a set scrum on the visitors 22 metre line Malton stole the ball against the head and McKay fed Tim Chapman who made further ground before putting Liam Cowton behind the posts.

Cooke's conversion meant that Malton were back in the game and cut back Middlesbrough's lead still further when Webster went over after a good handling move.

Cooke again converted to put Malton within one score of taking the game. The tension mounted further when Middlesbrough had a man sin-binned in injury time for killing the ball at a ruck but his side managed to hang on.

York's much-changed side were slaughtered 57-6 at Driffield in the Powergen Intermediate Cup first round.

Although the visitors had plenty of beef in their pack, they could not contain the home side's incisive backs, left winger Rich Anderson starring with four tries.

He put Driffield ahead after 11 minutes with the first of the home side's nine tries. Stefan Hellies converted and the elusive French full-back then ran in two tries of his own, which he converted.

York were finding it difficult to contain their North Two hosts even though they had a man advantage for a period when Australian second row forward Steve Huber was sin-binned.

Andy Gair's side kept plugging away, but Hellies went on to complete his hat-trick while centre Robin Kitching and scrum-half Tom Wright finished off the scoring for the Kelleythorpe team.

York's only points came from the boot of Mike Ford with a penalty in either half.

Updated: 11:04 Monday, September 22, 2003