All of a sudden, the race for the championship was thrown wide open when South Northumberland gained the maximum 30 points at Chester-le-Street and leaders Benwell Hill managed a meagre nine in their fixture with Blaydon.

South North now trail their rivals by a mere three points with four games still to play.

They greatly enhanced their chances with an excellent performance at Ropery Lane where Adam Heather called his side off the field after just 58 overs with 275-6 on the board.

John Graham led the way hitting 14 boundaries in 103, Chris Hewison contributed a half century and Martin Speight struck a quick-fire 60 which included five sixes and three fours.

The home attack toiled at their task and Ashley Day bowled the maximum 20 overs taking 3-77. Allan Worthy gave support and in 12 overs returned 3-50.

Chester-le-Street never threatened in their reply and the innings ended following 61.1 overs with 178 on top.

Daniel Shurben recorded one six and 13 fours in 75, but it was Dewalt Pretorus who took the eye with figures of 5-58 from 19.2 overs. Richard Brook was particularly economical, his 20-overs stint costing just 34 runs.

It was not a good day for Benwell Hill. They stuttered to 182-6 in 55 overs at Blaydon and were grateful to Shahid Nazir, who went in at number seven and cracked three sixes and eight boundaries making 63.

Former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams featured in the Blaydon innings.

He had a six and 11 fours as he carried his bat for 109 out of a total of 233-7 which came from the maximum 65 overs.

It is also tight at the bottom of the table.

Tynemouth are still at the basement, but they nearly caused a shock against Sunderland who were teetering on the brink of defeat with eight wickets down for just 106.

Batting first, Tynemouth were all out for 180 which included 40 plus scores by Barry Stewart and Russell Perry.

Chris Brown and Franklyn Rose shared seven wickets in the home attack.

Stockton are just marginally better off than Tynemouth and they too drew their game with Durham Academy. Required to score a massive 285, Stockton were 210-8 when time was called.

Their hopes were raised with a second-wicket partnership between Andy Bowman (60) and Hiram Marambe with 31, but when Paul Cummins was introduced as third-change into the Academy attack and captured four wickets for just 27 runs, the Stockton innings petered to 210-8.

Norton were close to victory over Philadelphia when time ran out. The Symingtons dominated for the home side with Mark scoring 46 and Craig 76.

An opening contribution of 43 from Andrew Tate and an undefeatd 68 from captain Kenny Gresham took Stockton to within eight runs of victory with three wickets intact.

Although Shaun Smith opened with 32, it was the mid-innings partnership with youngsters Darren McKitterick (60) and Shoaib Akhtar (61) which propelled Phili to 277-8 as Norton utilised no fewer than eight bowlers in the attack.

The local derby at Gateshead Fell went in favour of Newcastle, who eased their position near the bottom.

Faced with a target of 185, they were indebted to captain for the day Wayne Ritzema for his innings of 44 and at the end to Karl Brown and veteran Ken Pearson.

Phil Taylor (47) and Marcus North with 45 gave the Fell innings a sound launching pad but when wickets fell, a total of only 184-8 was achieved as Scott Kay claimed five of the wickets for just 47 runs.