A JUDGE has delayed her ruling in the case of George Reynolds, who is being sued by a veteran journalist who says he reneged on a deal to ghost-write the life story of the former Darlington FC chairman.

In the closing stages of the High Court case, brought by ex-Sun sports reporter John Sadler, a barrister yesterday claimed Mr Reynolds had given evasive and contradictory evidence.

Korieh Duodu maintained that the former Quakers chief was bound by an agreement with Mr Sadler to co-operate on his autobiography - a claim strenuously rejected by Mr Reynolds.

The 68-year-old later commissioned another writer to work on the book, which was published under the title Cracked It! two years ago, when he was still the chairman of the Quakers.

In evidence during the three-day High Court hearing, Mr Reynolds said there were initial discussions between himself and Mr Sadler about producing a book.

But he insisted that the project became unworkable when the writer relocated to France.

Mr Reynolds was adamant that there was no "proper verbal agreement" between the pair.

Mr Sadler claimed that even the idea for the book's title originated with him, as did its opening section, in which Mr Reynolds talks of a helicopter ride back to his childhood orphanage.

However, Mr Reynolds - who represented himself in the case - testified that the title and introduction were "definitely my idea".

In final submissions to the court, Mr Duodu claimed Mr Reynolds' evidence had been "contradictory and inconsistent", and said that he "made an occupation of not answering the question".

Mr Reynolds had also given imprecise evidence, Mr Duodu told Deputy Judge Elizabeth Slade QC.

"On his own admission, he was unable to remember the details about dates and the contents of conversations," he said.

The judge said that she had hoped to give her ruling yesterday but was compelled to fix it for another date, as yet unspecified, due to the case over-running the amount of time it had been estimated to take up.

Mr Reynolds stepped down as chairman of Darlington Football Club last January after calling in the administrators to avoid a winding-up order from the Inland Revenue.