The North-Eastern Counties short course (25m pool) age group championships are again being held at the Darlington Dolphin Centre tomorrow and Sunday (9.30am and 2.30pm) with races for boys and girls aged 11 to 14 years, writes ERIC WILKINSON.

Among the fastest qualifiers in three events are: Natasha Crawley (Middlesbrough) 12-14 100m freestyle, 11-14 50m backstroke and butterfly; Tara Johnson (Chester-le-Street) 11-14 200m and 400m freestyle, 13-14 400m individual medley and Tom Southam (York) 11-14 50m butterfly, 100m and 200m individual medley.

York's Lewis Porylo is the favourite to win two titles, 13-14 100m breaststroke and 11-14 200m breaststroke. Top seeds in one event are Stephanie Proud (Chester-le-Street) 11-14 200m backstroke and Jenny Meggs (Hartlepool) 12-14 800m freestyle.

Harrogate is the venue on Sunday (3pm) for one of the three national masters inter-county contests, following which the results will be pooled to determine the winners.

Northumberland and Durham's team of 28 is a strong one and includes three former World masters champions in Cliff Ward (Stockton), David Chaney and Verity Dobbie (Gateshead and Whickham), also European masters record holder Ian Proud (Chester-le-Street) and his club mate former British senior international Paul Rose. They compete against Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire.

The Sedgefield club provides five members, Angela Winstanley-Smith, Carol Mohan, Samantha Mitchell, Danielle Robinson and Zoe Mitchell, for the North-Eastern Counties team which competes in the ASA's inter-district girls (U16) waterpolo competition at the Manchester Commonwealth Games pool this weekend.

The Woodham Comprehensive School, Newton Aycliffe, team won all three games to become the new Northumberland and Durham Counties mixed U14 waterpolo champions.

The 40th Northumberland and Durham Counties annual dinner and dance is at the Hallgarth Manor Hotel, Pittington, Durham, a week tonight (Fri, Nov 24). Tickets are available from Brian Fleming on (0191) 548-3263