Durham/Northumberland One: Malton & Norton 56, Acklam 7

Is it a record? Malton opened their account after just 28 seconds of this 10-try feast.

Having kicked off, the combined efforts of David Cooke and Carl Muscroft turned possession back to Malton and the ball was quickly transferred to centre Ryan Lonsdale, who crossed between the posts. Ian Cooke added the conversion and the show was on the road.

The large crowd were then treated to some sublime rugby as Malton quickly moved through the gears to overpower a plucky Acklam side.

On 10 minutes, Malton won a scrum on the visitors' 22-metre line. Quick ball found centre David Webster, who showed great skill to dummy and sidestep his way through the defence to score.

From the restart, Malton ran through several phases of driving rugby before switching direction for Lonsdale to cross in the corner.

A rout now appeared to be on the cards and expectations were raised 10 minutes later when fly half Chris Creber, who marshalled his troops in expert fashion all afternoon, fed Lonsdale, who used his brute strength to force his way over after leaving a trail of forlorn defenders in his wake for the first of four tries in a period of five minutes.

Again, Malton struck from the restart as second row forward John Dobson made a strong run before handing on to Andy Mitchell, who made further ground.

Cooke then took over before putting scrum half Tom Stephenson in the clear close to the touchline. As a former winger, he had no hesitation in heading for home.

Cooke then broke from defence to outstrip the Acklam defence for a score between the posts.

Some of Malton's handling at this stage reached heights many would not associated with this level of rugby. One move in particular saw the ball swiftly transferred through seven pairs of forwards' hands before setting up quick ruck ball for the threequarters to show their qualities, to put Cooke over in the corner to give Malton a 39-point interval lead.

The second half looked like being a repeat of the first when Creber cleverly read a short drop out and seized the poor kick to set his backs in motion, to put wing Liam Cowton over on the opposite side of the pitch.

Ten minutes into the half, Lonsdale again showed his strength as he burst through before feeding prop James Machin, who needed no second invitation to cross.

Acklam then raised their game briefly and set up a maul close to the Malton line. There is little, within the law, that a defending side can do to stop a forward-moving maul and back row forward Neil Turner touched down for fullback Dan Ashton to convert.

That was to be the end of the comeback as Malton again took control. The forwards turned over possession at a maul 22 metres out and 'powerhouse' Lonsdale was on hand yet again to crash over for Ben Hough to convert.

Frustration in the visitors' ranks then produced one or two minor scuffles but Malton held their discipline and referee David Downham used common sense and sensible man management skills to quell the fires.

This victory was all about team work and, although Lonsdale was nominated as Man of the Match, the award could have gone to anyone of those who took part.

With fellow promotion contenders Northern and Horden playing each other, with Horden running out victors, Malton are now in second place with a vastly superior points difference thanks to their ability to run up large scores and also to maintaining their excellent defensive record.

Updated: 16:13 Wednesday, February 15, 2006