A MINI football competition scored a hit for the Butterwick Hospice despite the non-attendance of some of the billed stars.

Organisers of the charity five-a-side tournament, at Meadowfield Sports Centre, near Durham, decided "the show must go on", when injury and unavailability left them without several celebrity competitors.

Stars of ITV's Emmerdale soap and Bernie Slaven, of Century Radio's "Three Legends", were unable to fulfil the commitment.

The ageing limbs of Slaven's Legends teammate, Malcolm McDonald, also ruled him out of the event. But the third member of the trio, former Sunderland star Eric Gates, was fit to play.

He took his former club captain, long-serving Black Cats' defender and former Darlington manager Gary Bennett, to bolster the Century team, which also included the station's Gary Philipson.

The makeshift Century side faced a mix of firefighters, leisure centre staff and pub teams, but emerged from the round-robin group to compete in the play-off for third and fourth place.

They beat the hosts, the sports centre's "young team", 3-2 to secure third spot.

The Station Hotel, at Brandon, will have another trophy to put behind the bar at the nearby watering hole.

Their team edged out a team of firefighters 2-1 in the final.

Leisure officer Lesley Tindale said: "It's gone very well and I think everyone who took part and watched has had a good time.

"All the teams had to raise sponsorship to compete and with the money taken in entry fees and a raffle, plus the sponsorship raised by all the competing teams, I'm sure we'll be raising an excellent sum."