FORMER Stockton allrounder Richard Waite pushed his former club further into the doldrums when he grabbed an impressive seven-wicket haul to keep Chester-le-Street in championship form and among four sides still unbeaten after five games.

Waite made up for his lowest score of the season – 18 – as the Cestrians amassed a match winning 242-9 before a declaration, with a superb 75 for the in-form Andrew Smith, and 47 for Andrew Tye at the tail-end of the innings.

Sri Lankan, Malintha Gajanayake (3-63) made his mark for the Teessiders, as did Chris Hooker (3-80), but in Stockton’s reply Waite caused havoc with his seven for 22 as they were dismissed for 131, losing by 111 runs and staying bottom of the table.

Chester remain 29 points adrift of the leaders South Northumberland, who crished South Shields, a team tipped as possible championship runners.

But John Graham (81) and Stephen Humble (5-18) led the Bulls to a 135-run victory on the Shields ground where the home side tumbled to 109 all out, with more runs coming from a defiant tail end than the top five batsmen.

Sunderland got back to winning ways after being held last week by South Shields.

They beat Tynemouth by the massive margin of 152 runs after posting 239-8, with an unbeaten 88 from Stuart Walker and 50 from Michael Robson.

Jamie Coates (6-72) did his best to slow the Sunderland run rate but only Daniel Young (45) showed batting resistance as Tynemouth were bowled out for 87.

Durham Academy found the going tough when they met a Benwell Hill side determined to record their first win of the season following a series of frustrating draws. Alistair Maiden (68), Phil Nicholson (61) and Mark Dale (50 not out) gave the seven Academy bowlers the run-around, Hill reaching 231-3 before a declaration.

Their young opponents were bowled out for 168 despite a half century from Ben Stokes. Five wickets for David Rutherford, and two each for Peter Jones and Zohaib Khan, left the Academy 63 runs adrift.

A high scoring game at Newcastle saw Gateshead Fell still 55 runs short of a first victory as they settled for a draw.

The Tynesiders totalled 278-8 with 53 from James Davidson.

But the Fell had three who achieved half centuries – Richard Smith with 55, Peter Towner with 52 and Richard Steele with 52 not out – although they never caught up with the run rate required for victory.

Blaydon took full advantage of weaker opponents to underline their challenge to the championship pacemakers in third place. They beat second-bottom Norton even though they had to fight every inch of the way.

Jonathan Kean (4-70) and Ben Duncan (3-5) made Blaydon struggle to 107, but Graeme Bridge (5-9) spun them back on the winning track with 13.4 overs which included seven maidens. He was helped by Martin Pollard (2-15) and Craig Knox (2-23) as Norton