North-East Conference: Durham Tigers were awarded a 27-0 walkover win following the failure of Northern Division side Chester Wolves to fulfil last Saturday's fixture.

Durham Tigers' hopes of banishing memories of the previous week's heavy defeat at Teesside with a home win were dashed as Northern Division opponents Chester Wolves were unable to fulfil the fixture and conceded the game.

The Wolves, former RLC Champions, had suffered a number of injuries in a barnstorming 40-40 draw with Rotherham Giants the previous week, and were unable to find enough replacements.

Despite the 27-0 walkover win pushing Durham two places up the Play-Off Group table, Tigers coach Rob Jones was disappointed at the loss of a competitive fixture.

"We have trained really hard all week for this game," he said. "We finally had strength side back and were looking to bounce back after losing at Teesside. To find out as late as Friday that they couldn't fulfil the fixture was a bit of a let down.

"Obviously these things do happen in amateur sport, but all the same it's annoying."

Four points behind the top two in the group, the Tigers have no chance of going into the semi-finals. However Jones insists that tomorrow's final fixture of Durham's 2002 RLC campaign is not meaningless and will be taken seriously.

"We fully intend to take to our strongest possible side down to Chester and win the game," he confirmed. "If we do we could still finish in the top half of the Play-Off Group table, and that would he a nice way to end the season."

Hastily reformed to replace Durham Phoenix, the Tigers recruited a number of teenage players from the disbanded Gateshead Thunder academy side and after a shaky start the youngsters gelled well with the remaining Phoenix players and the club finished second in the North East Division of the Conference.

Two defeats in the following Play-Off phase ended their chances of reaching the semi-finals, but the Tigers are looking to end a successful comeback season on a high.

"Next season we're hoping a lot of our players will graduate to a new Thunder Academy side," said Jones. Durham Tigers will be carrying on in the Conference and will I'm sure be looking for any interested players of any level of experience to their squad."

Anyone interested in playing for Durham Tigers should contact Lynne Wightman on (0191) 384 7779.

Meanwhile, Bridlington Bulls have built up a reputation for being weak when on the road but strong at home, and that was reinforced when they gave semi-final favourites Teesside Steelers a hard game down on the east coast.

Eventually the unstoppable Teessiders were too strong and recorded a 38-18 win to remain top of the Play-Off Group. Rotherham Giants did the Steelers a favour by restricting Manchester Knights to a tight 16-13 win, leaving the Knights well adrift on points difference.

A win against Rotherham on Saturday will see Teeside through to the semis, in which case Manchester must hope for a big final round win over Bridlington to give them a chance of finishing as best runners-up. Durham Tigers meanwhile recorded a 27-0 win over Chester Wolves.

In the Shield Newcastle Knights kept their hopes alive with a solid 30-18 win away at Sunderland. However with Crewe still unbeaten and enjoying a points difference advantage of +100 it seems that the best the Knights can now hope for is a big win at Derby next Saturday to give the an outside shot at progressing as best runners-up.

All games were played on Saturday.

Trophy Play-Offs: Bridlington Bulls 18, Teesside Steelers 38; Durham Tigers 27, Chester Wolves 0.

Shield Play-Offs: Sunderland City 18, Newcastle Knights 30.

Fixtures for Play-Off round 4 (final round), all games to be played on Saturday, August 17 - Trophy: Chester Wolves v Durham Tigers; Manchester Knights v Bridlington Bulls; Teesside Steelers v Rotherham Giants

Shield: Crewe Wolves v Sunderland City; Newcastle Knights v Derby City