How pleasant it was! A walk in the park at Darlington’s South Park, followed by another at Blackwell Meadows. Darlington’s players could perhaps take to the bowling green, and still find they lack aggression and skill. Still, Alty managed to be superb at missing the target in a bizarrely one sided first half. Hulme took up the baton from Johnstone’s grandstanding silliness in the second half, and also got booked. Meanwhile Darlington continued to delight with little dinked, flighty corners and their defenders’ determination to run away from the ball at the most critical moments. Then came a spell of improved finishing, with a couple of shots on target, and a couple of goals. As if waking up from a dream, late on, Darlington’s top bowls prospect headed a ball towards South Park. The Alty goal was in the way of the flight of the ball, but all of a sudden, a balletic, leaping, twisting Wynne produced the top quality moment of the match to flip it away. A first trip down from the Dales this season and it didn’t disappoint. Johnstone’s dramatically strapped up leg and painful hobbling wasn’t a pretty sight though.