Worthington CIU Team Knock-out - Langley Park and Spennymoor A will contest the final after they came through their semi-finals with fairly comfortable victories.

Langley Park beat Hunwick at Leeholme, whilst Spennymoor A defeated Fishburn A at Sherburn Village.

Hunwick had 55 point start in their match and this was only reduced by two points when Raymond Coates took the first frame for Langley Park. Stephen Coates really pulled Langley Park into a very string position when he took the second frame by 46 points to close the overall gap to seven points.

In the third frame Paul Nord pushed Langley Park ahead for the first time with a seventeen points victory. Kevin Keers then took the fourth frame by 31 points to move Langley Park into the very strong position of going into the final frame with a forty-one points advantage. Robert Roche gave nothing away in the final frame and took Langley Park through to a 77 point victory.

Spennymoor A received 58 point start against Fishburn A and extended this by a single point when Ronnie Bateman beat Peter Davison. John Griffin reduced the Moors lead to only 20 points with a very solid second frame. John Wilson raised the hopes of Spennymoor A when he won by twenty-eight points to push his team 48 points ahead.

The see-saw match took another turn when Brian Quest ended a good performance to pull Fishburn within three points of Spennymoor. However there was another twist in the tail when Paul Biddle turned in a great show to take Spennymoor A to the final with a 51 point advantage.

Results: Spennymoor A 300 Fishburn A 249; Langley Park 292 Hunwick 215.

Worthington CIU

Team Plate

The semi-finals produced a very comfortable victory for Newhouse whilst Tow Law came through a nail-biting finish to join them in the final. Newhouse beat Brandon at Fishburn, whilst the Lawyers success over Crook Belle Vue came at Spennymoor.

Newhouse received 70 point start and were able to extend this by ten points after Jimmy Hassen took the first frame. The second frame was tied between Brandon's Kevin Sample and Keith Allison. Graham Jackson took the third frame for Brandon but his winning margin of six points did little to help Brandon in the overall total.

John Hall won the fourth frame for Brandon but again not by enough points to close the gap as Newhouse were going into the final frame with 59 points advantage. There was no way that Ian Dinsdale was going to lose the final frame for Newhouse and he safely took them to victory.

Tow Law received 25 point start for their game against Crook Belle Vue and had to qualify two extra players to make up for those unavailable. These two were drawn out to play first and put the Lawyers on their way to success. Heppell Hodgson took the first frame by 23 point and Alan Spence furthered the lead with a 25 points victory.

Ken Rider won a tight third frame by three points and Derek Potts followed with an 18 point victory to make the overall difference 52 points in Tow Law's favour. This lead looked good but Harold Lomax steadily pulled Crook Belle Vue back into the match when he got into the position of needing a snooker and all the balls from the green. Tommy Williams played a captain's part for the Lawyers by taking a ball at a time until he took the team through to a nail-biting 37 points victory.

Results: Tow Law 281 Crook Belle Vue 244; Brandon 226 Newhouse 331.

Crook League

Crook Mill House pulled off a great away victory when they beat reigning champions, Crook Olde Horse Shoe A by the odd point in a match which went to the final black in the deciding frame.

The Mill shot into a three points lead with wins from Mark Nicholls, Ian Bibby and Alan Saville but then the home side recovered to move back level when Gerald Parkin, Gavin Witton and Les Scott won. In the deciding doubles, Richard Walker and Graeme Witton, who was making a welcome return to competitive play for the Olde Horse Shoe, moved into a lead, which left Stephen Heyes and John Winning fifteen points behind with just three balls left on the table. Heyes kept his nerve and took the blue, pink and black to record their best win of the season.

Despite the defeat, Crook Olde Horse Shoe A still lead the First Division by five points with three teams in the chasing group. They are Crook Mill House, Crook Royal Sun and Crook Belle Vue.

Crook Golden Fleece lead the Second Division by five points from Crook Spitfire and Crook Jelly's Bar, who share the second spot, one point ahead of Crook White Swan.

Results: Crook Travellers Rest A 2 Crook Coach and Horses A 5; Crook Royal Sun 3 Crook Travellers Rest B 4; Crook Olde Horse Shoe A 3 Crook Mill House 4; Crook Belle Vue 6 Crook Olde Horse Shoe B 1; Crook Surtees 4 Crook Jelly's Bar 3; Crook Queen's Head B 1 Crook Golden Fleece 6. Crook White Swan v Willington Market - no result card, fine imposed as per league rules.

Worthington CIU

Winter League

The new season will begin on Tuesday, October 9 with three divisions of 11 teams each. The make up of the First Division is Brandon, Newton Aycliffe, Ferryhill, Witton Gilbert, Spennymoor A, Old Shildon, Cockton Hill, Wheatley Hill A, Shotton Palms, Willington and Fishburn A.

The Second Division teams are Stanley Central, Wheatley Hill B, Sherburn Village, Hunwick A, Crowtrees, Belmont, Wingate, Langley Park, Meadowfield, Newhouse and Spennymoor B.

The Third Division teams are Durham City, West Auckland, Leeholme B, Sacriston, Crook Belle Vue, Fishburn B, Tow Law, Leeholme A, Hunwick B, Coundon and Bearpark.

The following teams need their entry sheets in before Thursday, October 11 in order to get their players handicaps and entry to all competitions - Spennymoor A, Old Shildon, Wheatley Hill A and B, Shotton Palms, Wingate, Langley Park, Sacriston, Coundon and Bearpark.

Worthington CIU

Singles Championship

Sonny Hann of Crowtrees will meet Dave Walker of Wheatley Hill in the Final to be played at Durham City on Thursday, October 18 after both came through their semi-finals fairly comfortably.

In the semi-final Walker played Jimmy Evans of Shotton Palms and took the first frame by a mere nine points. The second followed a similar low scoring, tight frame with walker again edging through. The third and decisive frame saw Walker take control and go on to a comfortable win.

Stephen Coates of Langley Park built up an early lead against Hann but Hann slowly nibbled away the deficit to take the frame on the black. He found confidence form the first point and built up a good lead in the second frame only to see Coates steadily close the gap. However Hann only needed the brown but a wayward shot with the rest let Coates in to clear the colours and level the match,

The next two frames saw Hann taking charge. He took the third frame easily and then clinched a place in the final when he snookered Coates on the last red and gained free balls, which he gratefully accepted and completed the win by taking the green brown and blue.

Cleveland League

Iweek one in Division One, Carlin How A got off to a flying start when whitewashing Marske WMC A 6-0. Andrew Shelley set the standard for the home team beating an off-form Andrew Williams 64-32 and 97-4. In his second game Shelley compiled an excellent 67 break in what can only be described as an outstanding performance. Tony Zutshi followed this by taking the next two games from Andrew Mackay with scores of 60-38 and 64-38. The anchor man, Gary Moon, made sure of the six points, but only after sealing the final game with a black ball fight, his frame scores were 63-31 and 45-41.

Other results: Redcar Lakes A 6, Saltburn Lune Street A 0; Redcar Lakes C 4, Guisborough Cons A 2; Grinkle Park 4, New Marske B 2; New Marske A 2, Guisborough TA 4; Redcar Cons A 2, Redcar Lakes B 4. The match between Redcar WMC A and Saltburn Cons A wasn't played.

In Division Two Redcar WMC B recorded the best result of the week when, on their travels, whitewashed Saltburn Cons. B 6-0. A Moore kicked off by beating Geoff Hudson 2-0 with scores of 66-57 and 54-39. In the second match K Watson dominated his two games when beating C Beedle 60-12 and 65-30. Mick Smylie completed the whitewash taking two frames off Dave Browning with frame scores of 41-31 and 41-26.

Other results: Guisborough Cons B 0, Redcar Lakes D 6; Saltburn Lune Street B 5, Redcar Unionists B 1; Marske WMC B 2, Carlin How B 4; Redcar Unionists A 2, Redcar Cons. B 4; Redcar Literary Institute 4, Ennis Square A 2; Ennis Square B 4, Val's Priory 2.