Chester-le-Street AC's hopes of European debut glory have been hit by illness, injury and unavailability.

Four members of the all-conquering squad which finished last year with the English National Cross Country, National four stage road relay, Northern six and four stage titles - Dianne Heneghan, Morag McDonnell, Sarah Wilkinson and Ruth Brown - will be missing from today's European Clubs Cross Country Championships near Rome.

Heneghan was prevented from travelling because of a family illness, while Wilkinson has a virus, Brown is injured and McDonnell is on high training mileage, concentrating on winning selection for the forthcoming European Cross Country Championships.

Their absences means that Chester-le-Street will be represented by one of their youngest-ever teams, led by former British Universities 10,000m track champion Alison Dixon. She is joined by her partners in last weekend's fifth-placed Northern Championships, team-mates Maxine Czarnecka and Angie Watson, plus Kathryn Waugh.

The Cestrians won the right to represent Great Britain by beating the top teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in Liverpool.

* Veterans could hold the key when defending senior men's champions Sunderland clash with challengers Durham City in today's third DP Furniture North-East Harrier League meeting at Chester-le-Street.

The two clubs share the lead in Division One with three points each after victories on each other's home turf, the Wearsiders winning the opening fixture at Meadowfield and Durham City avenging the defeat at Farringdon.

Sunderland, who have won the title 18 times since 1980, will be strengthened by the return of leading veteran Tom Doughty, who won the opening race with a five minutes start from the slow pack.

He now moves up into the medium pack.

The meeting starts at 12.30pm, with the senior men's race scheduled for 1.15pm.