The Readers Durham County League: Evenwood threw the race for the championship wide open when they defeated leaders Tudhoe and on-song Willington also won.

The trio have identical playing records but Tudhoe have a two point advantage over Willington having gained more bonus points than their two rivals.

A tense filled match at Tudhoe ended with Evenwood victorious by just two wickets. The home side battled to 142 in 42.3 overs and they were indebted to Shahid Anwar, who hit a six and seven fours in a top-scoring 42 and to Stephen Maddison for his valuable 31.

Although John Maughan took the wickets of the first three batsmen and returned a creditable 3-31 from an economical 12 overs, it was Billy Teasdale who reaped the biggest reward from a 6.3 overs spell, ending with four wickets for just 18 runs.

A useful 30 by Deighton Butler kept Evenwood in the game when they replied but it was youngster Chris Peareth who was the eventual match winning. He kept his cool and was undefeated with 25 valuable runs when victory was secured.

Willington's band-waggon continues to roll. Their latest victims were Ushaw Moor, whose 164-9 looked defendable at the halfway stage. But Karl Brown maintained his impressive form with 69 not out and when Gary Cummins added 41 and Gareth Wyatt 34, Willington won with eight wickets remaining.

Stephen Nattrass (48), Gary Whitfield (37) and debutant Peter Maddison, with an undefeated 30 made valuable additions in the Ushaw Moor innings.

Kimblesworth have moved into fourth position following their easy win at Esh Winning. Faced with a target of 154, they romped home in just 30 overs losing only one wicket.

Stephen Meek (32) and Adam Cochrane, whose undefeated 72 included 11 fours, set the early scene before Michael Fishwick with 31 not out joined Cochrane in an unbroken second-wicket partnership.

John Carmedy made a half-century for Esh, striking nine boundaries and Eddie Watson added 32 but when Nigel Darling and Meek both took three wickets at economical cost, the home innings slumped to 153 all out in 40 overs.

Mainsforth are now fifth after seeing off the challenge by Etherley with eight wickets intact. It looked as if the visitors would post a much bigger total than 129 when they were 116-4 but they lost six wickets while adding only 13 runs.

More than 100 of the runs came from Lee Gowland (39) and Stephen Crane (62). Replying, Mainsforth were home in 38.2.

Langley Park had 40 runs in hand over Sedgefield. Alan Gray whose 47 included a six and seven boundaries, and David Wilkinson with 53 propelled the visitors to 178 in 39.4 overs.

A second-wicket stand of 72 between Peter Crossling, who added 52 with ten fours, and Michael Tinkler set Brandon up for a five wickets success over Crook Town.

Robert Morgan and Ian Johnson played their parts and when Crook batted first and made 134, they found young spinner Jamie Robinson in good form as he returned 4- 21 from an effective 11 overs spell.

Richard Manuel struck 12 fours making 75 for Crook.