Darlington Mowden Park produced a stunning all-round performance to clinch a bonus point win over Cinderford on Saturday. Standout performances on both sides of the ball saw Mowden make it 3 consecutive home wins and start December in style.

In similar fashion to last weekend's trip to Sale, Saturday's game promised to be a clash of styles in the North East. Mowden's free flowing attacking style came up against one of the league's most powerful packs, with Cinderford hooker Nathan Taylor notching 4 tries in their last game against Bishop's Stortford.

Cinderford wasted no time in showing the strength of their driving maul, with flanker Dec Fissenden crashing over from a 5m lineout after 10 minutes. Mowden replied soon after though, with Morgan Passman breaking a tackle out wide after a stolen lineout from Ollie Hodgson and feeding Liam Checksfield who dived over to level the scores. It didn't take long for Mowden to score their second, with Matt Minogue finishing off a flowing move after a well-timed pass from Joe Craggs. Craggs had a big hand in Mowden's third too, stealing a Cinderford lineout before Ollie Hodgson dived over under the posts after being put through by Callum Pascoe. Cinderford hit back through winger Will Anderson, before the first half was overshadowed by an injury to Liam Checksfield on the eve of the interval. We wish Liam a very speedy recovery.

Mowden led 21-10 at the break, but their advantage was slashed when the league's top tryscorer Nathan Taylor profited from another driving maul in ominous fashion. Mowden fans would be forgiven for expecting another nervy finish at the Arena, but Mowden enjoyed their best spell of the game to dominate the next 20 minutes and put the game to bed. First Minogue darted over for his second after some sustained pressure on the Cinderford line, before Ollie Walker fed Morgan Passman on the left for the winger's 14th try of the campaign. Minogue converted, giving Mowden a 31-15 lead heading into the final stages. Cinderford fought hard late on for what would arguably have been a deserved bonus point, but Mowden continued to defend well to see out an impressive home win.

Matt Minogue was awarded Man of the Match honours after an 18 point haul, with strong performances across the whole DMP lineup. Mowden now travel to Esher in Round 13, before returning to the Arena on Saturday 17th December to round off 2022 with a game against Hull.