Foster's Northumberland and Tyneside Senior League: Lanchester finally clinched the championship but had a close call before seeing off the challenge from Lintz in their penultimate game.

Despite spinners Farukh Iqbal and Banda sharing nine wickets, Lintz made the useful total of 170-9 and there were some anxious moments in the home side's reply before the celebrations started. Lanchester were in some trouble until Kevin Dixon came to the rescue and carried his bat for a match-winning unbeaten half century.

Tynedale have come up on the rails in recent weeks and now have a good chance of overtaking Newcastle City for the runners-up position. Richard Darling and Henry Twizell reduced Ryton to 156, despite Kevin Penny making 82. Neil Clark and Craig Barber then steered Tynedale to a four-wickets win and into second place.

Ryton and Backworth are relegated but three sides are still fighting it out for the two promotion places from Division A2.

Whickham enhanced their chances of returning to the top flight after a two-year absence when they defeated Greenside by 30 runs. Michael Armstrong and Gibson both scored half centuries leading Whickham to almost 300 and replying, Greenside were 265-7 when their overs expired. Rowell and Paul Carrick were another two players to pass 50.