Darlington and District League

Frozen pitches caused several postponements but four games did go ahead. Conditions were tricky at Rothmans and played a part in two of their opening goals against Cricketers, although keeper Andy Rea should have done better when allowing a hopeful punt to slip through his grasp. Philip Baldwin, David Hauxwell and Philip Shield netted in the first-half for Rothmans with David Lewis pulling ne back before half-time. Colin Smith increased Rothmans lead after 65 minutes, but Doug Fraser and Nick Carr put Cricketers back into contention. However, Rothmans hung on to take the points 4-3. Shuttle and Loom and Killinghall Arms showed commendable enterprise in rearranging their fixture when their intended matches were postponed. In an ideal world a draw would have been a just result. The match had an explosive start when Shuttle went ahead in the first minute through Warren Moncur but Killie went straight to the other end to equalise. Shuttle regained the lead when David Palmer converted a penalty after only five minutes. Andy Roberts equalised for Killie with a superb strike and got their noses in front to take a half-time lead. Killie increased their lead to 5-2 early in the second half but back came Shuttle through Kevin Baines and Darren McIlvanna to reduce the deficit to one. It was now Killie's rookie 16-year-old goalkeeper Richard Snowdon's turn to shine as he produced three tremendous saves to maintain his side's lead. Killie were then indebted to substitute Phil Reynolds for scoring his side's sixth and finally putting an end to Shuttle's fight back. Killie's other scorers were John Robson (2), Neil Matthias and Matthew Hanifan. In their league challenge cup second round the RA Social led DGSOB 1-0 at the interval through D West. Inspired substitutions contributed to a further four goals from Nigel Clarke and Barry Foster, each with a brace. Old Boys managed a couple in reply.

Archdeacon and Hole in the Wall shared four goals in the first half of their Invitation Trophy first round tie. Will Tuttie and Phil Snowball scored for the Deacon, Wall finished the stronger and notched three without reply in the second half. Daniel Leafe (3), Andy Rusties and Michael Lancaster were Hole's scorers.

Three weeks ago Newton Aycliffe led Hartlepool Gray Saxton's nine men 2-0 when their Darlington Charity Cup tie was abandoned. On Saturday Aycliffe could only muster nine men and decided not to travel thus conceding the tie to their hosts.

The draws for the semi-finals of the league cup and invitation trophy competitions are

League Challenge Cup: Newton Aycliffe v Cleveland Bridge SC, Shuttle and Loom v RA Social.

Invitation Trophy: Chilton Seniors v Killinghall Arms, East End WMC v Hole in the Wall.

P W D L F A Pts

Newton Aycliffe 17 13 2 2 76 25 41

Cleveland Bridge 14 12 1 1 67 14 37

Hole in the Wall 14 9 3 2 43 28 30

East End WMC 11 9 1 1 59 14 28

*Post Boy 15 8 2 5 35 19 23

Speedy Hire 16 7 2 7 48 46 23

DGSOB 18 7 2 9 53 70 23

RA Social 10 6 3 1 33 17 21

Chilton Seniors 12 6 2 4 44 29 20

Killinghall Arms 16 5 2 9 37 43 17

Cricketers Hotel 11 5 1 5 32 33 16

Rothmans 18 5 1 12 45 61 16

Shuttle and Loom 14 5 0 9 47 58 15

Spraire 13 2 5 6 18 42 11

DSRM SC 17 2 1 14 25 89 7

Archdeacon 14 0 0 14 10 84 0

*denotes three points deducted.