FOUR-TIMES Darlington 10K winner Martin Scaife must wait until he takes his place on tomorrow's starting line to find out whether he will be crossing swords again with arch road-race rival Stephen Hepples.

The 27-year-old North-East 10K champion is currently on a family holiday in the Lake District and will make a late decision about travelling back to defend the title he won convincingly - in Scaife's absence - last year.

Great Britain international Scaife, who has dominated his home-town race, winning four times in the past six years and setting the course record of 30 mins 21 secs in 2002, has shared the honours with his younger rival in their last two Tarmac tussles on Teesside.

Their last big regional clash was in the Middlesbrough 10K last September, when Redcar-born Hepples broke away halfway through the race to claim the North-East championship in 30 mins 47 secs. But Scaife, beaten by 34 seconds, had just recovered from a glandular infection and was nowhere near the fitness level which gave him victory in the inaugural race the previous year in a personal-best 29 mins 36 secs, showing Hepples a clean pair of heels midway through the event to win by 48 seconds.

Hepples improved his 10K personal best to 29 mins 31 secs in the Great Manchester Run in May and three months earlier finished second at Dewsbury in 30.24, beating third-placed Scaife by 12 seconds.

Hepples said after winning the Tees Pride event that he wished the pair could meet when both were in top shape and the contest tomorrow could be much more competitive if the Great Britain half-marathon international chooses to travel across the Pennines to renew their rivalry. The prize for a course record is £150.

Scaife, who made his marathon debut in Antwerp in April in a time of 2 hours 25 minutes, has left Morpeth Harriers, whom he helped win the silver medals in the National 12-Stage Road Relay Championships in April, and now runs in the colours of North Yorks Moors AC.

Hepples, who competes for Newham and Essex Beagles in the British Athletics League and runs second-claim for Loftus, is keen to run a 10K after disappointingly being forced to drop out of the 5,000m in the AAA Championships and World Trials in Manchester two weeks ago.

Teesdale's Claire Robson will defend the title she won last year in 37 mins 26 secs but the 23-year-old faces opposition from reigning North-East 10K champion Louise Noble. The Sunderland Harrier won the Middlesbrough 10K in a personal-best 37.58 and has this year won other 10Ks.