PONTELAND maintained their charge at the top of Northern Division Two with a magnificent performance at home to Darlington.

They ran out 62-0 winners after building on a strong start to the match.

The Maroons injected some pace into the game with scum half Luke Bailey scoring the first of many tries for the day. Michael Searle was left with an easy conversion.

His brother Chris Searle was next to add points for the hosts as the team strung together a number of well connected moves.

Second row Alex Clark took a big carry off the restart to get Ponteland on the front foot. Reverting down the blind side, a dummy switch play with Courtney West saw James Mould receive the ball.

The latter ran 40 metres before placing it back for a charging Chris Searle who went to score.

Stu Browne demonstrated that front rows offer more than a dominating scrum, as the prop forward dived for the line for a spectacular finish in the 32nd minute. The last points of the half came from a flurry of passes before captain Michael Searle received a well weighted offload, before running in to score from 22 metres, and in doing so securing a try bonus point.

Leading 26-0 at half time, Ponteland continued to attack. Harry Lane made his way over the try line, after picking up the ball from a line-out. Michael Searle converted once again.

It took a further 10 minutes before the Maroons found their way through again as Sean Bettison was on the end of two consecutive well executed two-on-one plays with fellow front rows before going on to extend the lead.

Mould capped his man of the match performance with perhaps the best solo try of his career so far.

The back row broke the line on his own 22, and took on several defenders, bumping them off as he powered his way down the field. He was forced to the corner but finished in style.

The club’s top try scorer Josh Beswick got in on the act when he sliced through to go untouched and put Ponteland on the half a century mark. His second came just six minutes later after a well worked team try found the ball to him in the corner for an easy walk in.

In one of the final plays of the game, Connor White got his name on the scoresheet after a break down the right.