Middridge CRT rider Noel Clough, a runaway winner of round four of the North Eastern Cyclo-Cross Association points series at Hartlepool, could be heading for a unique North East and Yorkshire league double.

Clough, who lives at Northallerton, has twice won the Yorkshire CCA points competition in the past but has never completed a full programme of NECCA events.

He has already won three rounds of the Yorkshire series and finished runner-up to Three Peaks record holder Rob Jebb in the other, but he chose to miss the fifth round, staged by Bradford Racing CC on the Myrtle Park course at Bingley, because of a clash with Stockton Wheelers' event on a new course at Summerhill Outdoor Centre, Hartlepool.

With 40 points going to the winner of each round of the Yorkshire league, Clough was just 11 points clear of Bradford rival Dale Goodwin going into the Bingley race, and Goodwin snatched what will almost certainly be a temporary lead when he finished second to Rob Jebb, who was completing a weekend double and is among the favourites for next Sunday's North of England championship at Bolton.

But with riders counting their best five results from six counting events, the Middridge rider should be able to make up lost ground in the final round at Ripon on December 27, while riders count only four events from six rounds of the NECCA competition.

"There are no more clashes between the two competitions, so if I get enough points in the final Yorkshire event and the last two rounds of the North East series I could win both, which will be brilliant," he said.

Matt Kipling, of the Alpine Rootz team, took an early lead on the Summerhill course as Clough, having trouble with his gear mechanism, struggled on a climb on each of the nine laps of a circuit of just over a mile.

But Clough was regaining ground on the flatter sections of the course and he took his chance when, on the fourth lap, Kipling slid off.

He stretched out his lead steadily from there, crossing the line 67 seconds clear as Kipling held on for second place ahead of James Anderson (Ferryhill Wheelers) and leading junior Darren Tiffen (Cestria CC).

Darlington's Keith Murray, who will be defending his North of England title next weekend, missed the Stockton Wheelers event because of a chest infection and relinquished his one-point lead over Stuart Wearmouth, another absentee, as Clough moved ahead of them both.

The final two rounds of the NECCA competition, both at the Hetton Lyons circuit, will be on January 2 and 23