Crook gallop into second

Crook Coach and Horses moved into second place in the table after they only dropped four points to the visiting Tow Law Station, who relied on David Craggs to take two singles points and then add the two captain's points when he beat Les Scott. The Coach's singles points came from Michael Burke, Les Scott, Aaron Cowan and Neil Campbell with two each to add to the doubles win from Lee Scott with Neil Campbell.

Henknowle Manor House made a good home win over Bishop Auckland Derby with two singles points from Steve Webb and one each from Peter Merner, Jon Tomlinson, Ronnie Wright and John Collinson. The derby replied with one point each from Colin Gash, Michael Richardson, Paul Stewart and Stephen Lowther. Steve Dillon and Paul Stewart took the doubles for the Derby but the Manor finished in style when Steve Webb took both captain's points from Andrew Delve.

Crook Olde Horse Shoe lead the table by four points from the Coach and Horses with Bishop Auckland Snooker Club B and Bishop Auckland King's Head a further seven points adrift.

Results: Spennymoor Weardale 4 Bishop Auckland Football Club 9; Bishop Auckland Snooker Club A 3 Bishop Auckland Snooker Club B 10; Bishop Auckland King's head 10 Ferryhill Greyhound 3; Crook Coach and Horses 9 Tow Law Station 4; Henknowle Manor House 8 Bishop Auckland Derby 5; Crook Olde Horse Shoe 9 Toft Hill Three Tuns 3. Bishop Auckland RAFA v Bishop Auckland Cumberland Arms and Spennymoor Ashtree v Witton Park Rose and Crown postponed.

Crook League

The third placed Crook Coach and Horses A visited second placed Crook Travellers Rest B and went down by two points. The Travellers had two points from Jim Ainsley, Neil Campbell and Doug Bowey with Peter Coates adding one. The Coach had two points from Phil Tobin and one each from Adam Martin, Les Scott and Eric Machin. The doubles were shared with Peter Coates and Jim Ainsley winning for the home side with Ray Holliday and Les Scott taking the second doubles for the Coach.

This close result allowed Crook Olde Horse Shoe A to move eight points clear of the Travellers Rest B, who are now eight ahead of Crook Coach and Horses A in the First Division. In the Second Division Willington Market extended their lead to nine points from Crook Jelly's Bar A, who are four ahead of Crook White Swan.

Crook White Swan only managed to collect three points from their visit to Willington Market, who had two singles points from Syd Trow and one each from Micky Toward, Gary Trow, Paul Lauder, Ian Moore, John Blackett, Stuart Wayman and Stuart Shillan. The Market took both doubles through Micky Toward with Syd Trow and Ian Moore with Stuart Wayman.

Results: Crook Spitfire Club 4 Crook Royal Sun A 10; Crook Olde Horse Shoe B 3 Crook Olde Horse Shoe A 11; Crook Mill House 8 Crook Belle Vue 6; Crook Surtees 4 Crook Travellers Rest A 10; Crook Travellers Rest B 8 Crook Coach and Horses A 6; Crook Royal Sun B 3 Crook Golden Fleece 11; Crook Jelly's Bar B 5 Croft Social Club 9; Willington Market 11 Crook White Swan 3; Crook Coach and Horses B 7 Crook Jelly's Bar A 7; Crook Queen's Head 5 Crook Queen's Head A 9.

Bishop Auckland

Area League

Bishop Auckland Bay Horse started well when Chris Ball took the first singles point in their match at Henknowle Manor House. After that the home side rallied to take the next three through Ron Wright, Chris Neasham and Tony Cotgrave. Wilson Harrison then took the final singles game for the visitors to leave the score at 3-2. John Collinson and Chris Henderson then took the first doubles to increase the Manor's lead to 4-2. A good finish saw Wilson Harrison and Michael Wright win the second doubles and Andy Henning take the captains game for the Bay Horse to level the score at 4-4.

After Gary Smith and Kenny Smith had won the first two singles games for Spennymoor Hillingdon in their home match against Spennymoor Victoria, the visitors then took the next two games through Steven Hodgson and Alan Shaw. Steve Jones won the decisive final game to give the home side a 3-2 lead. The Victoria then won the two doubles matches, the first through Steven Hodgson and Andy Cairns and the second through Ian Cranswick and Marcus Jayne. Steve Jones then won another crucial point when he won the captains game to share the points 4-4.

* The next League Meeting will be held in Bishop Auckland Aclet Hotel on Tuesday, June 11 (8pm) and all teams must be represented.

Results: Bishop Auckland Green Tree 5 Spennymoor Voltigeur 3; Bishop Auckland Aclet 3 Bishop Auckland Derby 5; Henknowle Manor House 4 Bishop Auckland Bay Horse 4; Spennymoor Hillingdon 4 Spennymoor Victoria 4.

Tow Law League

Esh Football Club pulled off one of their best victories since joining the league when they travelled to Tow Law New Market B and only dropped two points, when Tommy Sloan and Dave Spencer won singles for the home side. The footballers had singles points from John McCormick, Colin Neil, John Robinson and Alan Brown. They completed a fine victory by taking all three doubles.

Tow Law Rose and Crown maintained their unbeaten run but had to stage a last ditch recovery to win by the odd point at Tow Law Cattle Mart. Malcolm Boughey, Paul Longstaff, Alan Ogilvie and Stephen Maughan took singles points for the Cattle Mart with Anthony Ward and Gavin Hammell replying. The visitors then took the first two doubles to square the match and went to victory when Steven Todd and Gavin Hammell beat Marc Williams and Luke Johnson.

This win for the Rose and Crown leaves them six points clear at the top with Dan's Castle A one point ahead of the Cattle Mart and the New Market A.

Results: Hamilton Row Black Horse 3 Tow Law New Market A 6; Tow Law Dan's Castle B 0 Tow Law Dan's Castle A 9; Tow Law New Market B 2 Esh Football Club 7; Tow Law Cattle Mart 4 Tow Law Rose and Crown 5. Lanchester King's Head v Tow Law Football Club postponed. Tow Law North Point v Sunniside Comedian no result - home team fined.

Durham County

Super League

Horden still remain unbeaten after they won 8-6 on their visit to Ferryhill. Horden had two wins from Darren Jones and one win each from John Bourne, Shaun Williams, David Jones, James Evans, Gerald Evans and Stephen Wylie. Ferryhill replied with two wins from Simon Corbridge and Steven Wray, one win each for Terry Wray and Steve Webster.

Durham B entertained Aycliffe A and took the last five frames to win 8-6. Durham had two wins from Chris Bowron and Andy Seal, one each from Andrew Morley, Ian Dinsdale, Dave Hodgson and Trevor Walton. Aycliffe A replied with two wins from Dave Bromley and one each from Andrew Tuesday, Christopher Mason, Steve Bainbridge and Eddie Mackay.

Bishop Auckland had the best win of the week when they beat the visiting Consett 12-2.

Shildon's game was not completed and the visitors Durham A have a 9-2 lead.

* The team knockout will be held at The Daisy Hill, Sacriston on June 16.

It will be a 12.30pm start for Horden, Aycliffe B, Crook A, Bishop, Durham B, Consett with all other teams beginning at 2.30pm.Teams arriving late will lose one frame every ten minutes.

Spennymoor League

Spennymoor Football Club A team pulled off a good home win over Spennymoor Pit Laddie, who had S. Horner as their only singles winner. The footballers had singles points from T. Cairns, B. McAloon, L. Maddison and S. Wall. The home side increased their lead when G. Brown and S. Wall won the first doubles but the Pit Laddie reduced the arrears when N. Mains and I. Mains won the second doubles. However the footballers finished in style when B. McAloon beat D. Mains in the captain's game.

Spennymoor Black Horse maintained their four points lead at the top of the table with Spennymoor Quinns Inn in second place with a match in hand. Spennymoor Victoria take up third place, six points adrift of the Quinns.

Results: Spennymoor Quinns Inn 6 Spennymoor Penny Gill 2; Spennymoor Voltigeur 3 Spennymoor Railway 5; Spennymoor Victoria 5 Coxhoe Red Lion 3; Spennymoor Salvin Arms 4 Spennymoor Ash Tree 4; Spennymoor FCA 6 Spennymoor Pit Laddie 2; Spennymoor Black Horse 6 Spennymoor FCB 2; Spennymoor Half Moon 4 Spennymoor Hillingdon 4.

Middlesbrough and District League

The Captain Cook Eight's have once again made it through to the league cup final. The Cook, who have dominated the league cup over the years, were just defeated in last year's final and have tough opponents in the final league leaders tables. In the semi-finals the Cook were up against The Grenadier who have this season just joined the league but give a good account of themselves against second placed Cook 8's. The Grenadier went I-0 up when Roy Thomas defeated Michael Gray. The Cook hit back with wins from Lee Wray, Gary Mahon and Kevin Dismore to go in to a surprised 3-I lead after some excellent play by Joe Matthews, Noel Wilson and Geoff Middleton from the Grenadier who all just missed out on winning their frames. Andy Barris defeated Mark Fisher for 3-2 but then Alan Stevenson won the next frame to put a relieved Cook 8's team in the final and the Crown and Mitre between the top two teams in Division One. In the league the top match was between second placed Captain Cook 8's and fourth placed Jovial Monk. In the first frame both Michael and Tony Wells had chances with Tony looking the favourite to win the frame. Michael hit some excellent shots to give himself a tough pot on the black and potted it very well for I-0. Then Lee Wray put the Cook 2-0 up. Ian Wells pulled one back for the Monk but the Cook went on to win the remaining four frames from Gary Mahon, Magic Mark Fisher, Alan Stevenson and Steve Woodier for a 6-I win.

League leader tables are showing no signs of easing up in their quest for retaining their league title after they hammered the park end 6-I.

The Saltersgill put themselves back in the reckoning with a 7-0 win at the Captain Cook.

World Championships

This week in Blackpool the Ladies England Team have gone on to win the Ladies Team World Championship. In the semi-finals England defeated Wales 8-3 and South Africa defeated Australia 8-2 but England were too strong for their opponents with England running out easy 8-I winners. There were some big shocks in the Men's World Championships when world champion Chris Melling was defeated in the last 32, 8-7 by Pat Holtz and a bigger shock was the exit of favourite Mick Hill who went out in the early rounds losing to Maltese Ivan Rizzo, 7-4.

The draw for the quarter-finals are P Holtz v Darren Appleton; Steve Horan v Jason Twist; Lee Kendal v Phil Harrison; Yannick Beaufils v Carl Morris.

Yarm League

The Eaglescliffe/Bar have won the league cup as well as the league title. They faced an on-form Pavilion who pushed them all the way in the cup final. S Green took the first frame for the Pavilion defeating T Wells. In the second frame B Good played well to defeat M Bedford to make it I-I. Frame three saw the Pavilion go back in front. M Dunnin defeated P Keane. With the score at 2-I an under pressure A Woodier played some great pool to pull the score back to 2-2.

The Eaglescliffe/Bar then edged into the lead 3-2 when I Moran played an excellent double on the black. I Wells then played a blinder of a frame to take the match and the cup for the Eagles.

The final of the Millennium Cup produced a big shock. The underdog team The Yorkshire Dragoon (B) took on the well fancied Beckfields (B). The Yorkshire Dragoon played out of their skins to keep in touch with the Beckfields all the way. With the score at 3-3 it was S Iverson who played excellently to take the frame and the match for the Yorkshire Dragoon B.

This is the first trophy the Yorkshire Dragoon have won in quite a few seasons. The credit must go to their hard working captain, P Fallows who has kept the team running the last few matches.

Redcar and

District League

Isecond round of the Fosters Cup sponsors Hydro B were at home to the Royal. M Davis put them I-0 up with M Ho and S Nixon making it 2-I. P McCabe made it 2-2. The Royals then went 4-2 up with wins from M Wheeler and I Wright. Hydro came back to win all three doubles for a 5-4 win and put them into the next round of the cup. West 2 B 4 West 2 A 5

Sam Smith's Handicap

In the Sam Smith's Handicap the Starting Gate had a I-0 start over the Rugby Club. G Thurlow made it I-I. C Lillystone, S Roberts and K Dent put the Gate within one point of the semi-finals. K Holmes made it 4-2. The Rugby Club then won all three doubles for a close 5-4 win. Vals C 3 Vals A 5

George Cup

In the George Cup the Cleveland C started the match 2-0 down with the RAFA given the first two singles. A Hartshorn made an 8-ball clearance to make it 2-I. J Brown made it 3-I. D Richardson and C Evans then made it 3-3. The Cleveland then won the first doubles to make it 5-3 and go through to the next round. The Station had a I-0 start against the Clarey BC. The Clarey won the first singles. Rich Sherris then made a 9-ball clearance to make it 2-I. The Station won the singles 4-2 then won the second doubles to win the match 5-2.

Cleveland Open

In a hard fought game Coble B went 2-0 up through J Cree and K Askham, A Reed and R Turner brought it back to 2-2. S Peacock and G Largen put the Coble within one point of the next round. Hydro won the first doubles but the Coble won the next to put them through to the next round. The Lobsters beat the Lazenby Club 5-2 with L Graydon man-of-the-match for the Lobsters. Barns A beat the Cleveladn B 5-4.