The Northern Echo Darlington Sunday Invitation League

ONLY two Second Division beat the big freeze. Northern Spirit RA defeated The Green Dragon 3-1 to move within two points of the third promotion place. The Dragon adapted well to the cold conditions and deservedly took an early lead as top scorer Elliott McCabe rounded the keeper to slot the ball home. RA fought back well and equalised through Darren Warr who ran onto an excellent Dave Tuschnick's pass, rounding the keeper and firing low into the bottom of the empty net. Early in the second-half The Dragon were forced into a substitution following a collision between the goalkeeper John Wright who suffered a suspected broken leg, and a defender. Spirit continued to press and Green Dragon's rearguard action was finally broken down when Dave Brown converted a Matt Waistell free kick. Waistell then secured the points with a free kick from the edge of the box.

In the other game, Northern Spirit Colts drew 3-3 with the Classic World of Fitness. Referee John Williams ruled the pitch unfit for a morning kick-off but returned for a 1pm start. Colts took the lead through a breakaway Andy Salisbury goal. They doubled the advantage before half-time with Paul Spinks finishing off an excellent move and Craig Shaw notched a third before the break. A revitalised Classic came out for the second-half full of fight and soon pulled a goal back through Leon Jones. With time quickly running out Classic threw everyone into attack and scored twice through Dave Kent and Jones again.

Division Two

P W D L F A Pts

Nestfield Club 13 12 0 1 90 27 37

Hoppers Transport 13 10 3 0 63 32 30

Green Dragon 13 7 3 3 74 40 24

Northern Spirit RA 14 6 4 4 38 32 22

Greyhound 12 5 3 4 36 34 19

Sadberge 11 5 4 2 47 42 17

Classic World 13 4 4 5 49 51 17

Smith and Allan 12 4 5 3 47 46 15

BA Derby 14 4 7 3 55 61 15

n Spirit Colts 14 2 8 4 33 56 10

Newton Cap 10 2 8 0 23 59 6

Hogans 13 0 12 1 18 93 1

Wensleydale Creamery League

Concern over the possible spread of foot-and-mouth disease resulted in the postponement of the whole programme on Saturday. The Government urged the general public to stay away from the countryside and although no cases of the disease had been reported in the Dales, a League emergency committee decided that in view of the number of pitches sited on agricultural land the eight scheduled league and cup matches should not go ahead. These included the quarter-finals of the Dales Cup between Hawes Utd and Leyburn and Askrigg v Bowes

P W D L Pts

Hawes Utd 21 16 3 2 51

Leyburn 21 15 4 2 49

Richmond Mavericks 20 14 3 3 45

Carperby 18 13 1 4 40

Bowes 17 13 1 3 40

Bishopdale 23 10 3 10 33

Spennithorne 19 9 5 5 32

Askrigg 20 9 4 7 31

Swale Travaux 21 8 5 8 29

Middleham Town 22 8 5 9 29

Reeth 21 9 1 11 28

Catterick Garrison 21 5 4 12 19

Richmond Buck 19 4 4 11 16

Hawes B 18 5 1 12 16

Catterick Village 23 3 1 19 10

Redmire 26 1 1 24