At long last a bright, dry, sunny day allowed Malton and Norton to show their capabilities and take a further step towards the Tetley's Bitter Vase final at Twickenham.

Their fourth round victims were Gosforth, who went into the game unbeaten in competitive rugby this season and at the top of the Northumberland and Durham League division two, which, comparatively, is one division higher than Malton's status.

However, the hosts went through in fine fashion with a 27-14 victory.

Malton began with a flourish and opened their account in the first minute after turning over possession from the kick off and seeing skipper Chris Creber find a gap to race over from 20 yards, Andy Newsome converting.

From the re-start, Malton again tore into the visitors with some aggressive tackling.

After five minutes some good handling and support play from the Malton backs saw Neil Gilbertson put his side further ahead with another try, also converted by Newsome.

Malton were threatening to run riot but Gosforth refused to panic and began to edge their way back into the game. They were rewarded with a penalty to narrow the gap.

Malton's defence, however, remained solid and continued to win possession.

From one such turn-over, the ball was spun wide for full-back Ian Mansell to enter the line at pace and run in from half way for Malton's third try of the half.

Gosforth still refused to lie down and a period of sustained pressure saw the visitors gain their second penalty success just before the interval.

For the second half, Ed Gwilliam replaced coach Pat Stephenson in Malton's back row as they faced an increasing head-on wind. Under extreme pressure, Malton's defence held firm and all that Gosforth could muster was a solitary drop goal for their exertions.

Malton adopted the sensible tactic of keeping the ball in hand and a series of forward drives led by Carl Rushworth, Gwilliam and Jim Fisher caused the visitors to deliberately collapse a maul in front of their own posts.

Newsome duly converted the penalty for a further three points.

However, Malton got on the wrong side of the referee and conceded a number of penalties for killing the ball, culminating in Gwilliam being sent to the sin bin for ten minutes. Gosforth then increased the pressure but were unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage.

With Gwilliam back on the field, Tim Casey was then sin binned for a similar offence, and Malton's understrength defence could not hold out again.

Gosforth managed to touch down their only try of the game, failing to convert the try, to trail by 22-14.

With the Newcastle side pressing and with ten minutes on the clock, Mansell collected a spilled Gosforth ball on his own 22-metre line and sprinted into the visitors' half before making the ball available in the tackle for Ian Cooke to squeeze in at the corner for Malton's fourth try.

This final blow deflated Gosforth and it was Malton who took the honours on a high note.