The return of Durham County all-rounder Mitch Claydon gave South Shields added impetus as they extended their lead at the top of the table.

Claydon took six wickets and hit a half century as the newly-promoted former Durham Senior League side romped to victory at Stockton by a 149-run margin as their main rivals, South Northumberland were unable to play due to the bad weather in the north of the region.

Shields, who welcomed back Claydon after his stand-by county duties the previous weekend, have become the surprise title runners having won all their three games.

Against their Teesside opponents they reached 216 with another half century from Theo Doropolous and 40 more from Phil Bell, their opener.

Despite the formidable total, Richard Waite, with seven wickets for 56, starred for Stockton. But their batting suffered a major collapse and they were all out for 67 with Claydon helping himself to figures of six for 31. Bell showed his all-round ability by getting two of the others. Stockton remain in the bottom three without a win to their credit.

Sunderland find themselves three from the top after an impressive five-wicket success at home to Newcastle. Like four other teams, they are unbeaten and with the strength of their batting will take some beating.

Newcastle reached 203-5 with openers Matthew Hynd (47), and Lewis Bruce (39) heading the scoring and Fahrenhein (39 not out) and Rob Wilson (38 not out) sharing in another useful partnership at the end of the innings.

Even so, Simon Brown, Sunderland's ex-Durham County strike bowler was in fine form with four wickets for 51.

Leading the run making for the home side were Mark Symington, who top scored with 51, Gary Scott (41) and Greg Applegarth (40) as they reached 206-5 to record the only other win of the day.

The only other match possible was at Tynemouth where Durham Academy, still looking for their first win of the season, had to settle for their third draw.

They totalled 231-3 with only one batsman failing. Leading the run feast was Uzair Mahomed who made 78,

Paul Muchall (54) and Richard Hopwood (48) but Tynemouth responded with 187-3 as the Academy bowlers toiled. Mark Cummins was just three runs short of a century when the innings ended but his side got enough points to take them into fifth place in the table.

South Northumberland, who started the day just a point behind South Shields at the top, are now 21 points adrift after their game at Blaydon was called off.

The other matches which fell victim to the wet conditions were at Benwell Hill where Norton were to be the visitors and at Chester-le-Street where bottom club, Gateshead Fell, were hoping for a change of fortune.