CHRIS Pleasants is already looking like he could prove to be Bill Quay's best signing in years.

Last season he regularly troubled Federation Special Durham Senior League batsmen when he played for Felling, and in two games for his new club so far he has already amassed an impressive 14 wickets.

Houghton were on the receiving end on Saturday. His nagging length and accuracy earned him match-winning figures of 7-29 and the target of 60 was comfortably achieved with Will Gardner top-scoring with 34.

Surprisingly, Ryhope made the lowest score of the day when they were sent back by Hylton for just 58.

Keith Trotter is another player who has plied his trade with considerable success over the years and the newly-appointed captain claimed five wickets for a meagre 16 runs.

Hylton's batsmen found runs a lot easier to accumulate and a total of more than 200 was achieved mainly as the result of the efforts of newcomer Gary Braithwaite with 80.

Errington (5-58) and George Smith with 3-47 were prominent in the Ryhope attack.

The local derby between Seaham Park and Dawdon ended on a knife-edge.

Shoaib Akhtar was only a run short of a half century and Michael Watson hit 61 as Dawdon made a useful 169-6. Four of the wickets fell to Ian White for 48 runs.

The Park made an indifferent start but a sound innings of 79 by David Morton took them to 151-9 at stumps. With only 18 runs and one wicket separating the pair, either side could have clinched victory but in the end a draw seemed the fairest result. Craig Price picked up four wickets for just 35 runs for Dawdon.

There was another derby at Easington and this time the home side came out on top by a comfortable six wickets.

Their target was 136 and an undefeated 74 from opener James Robson dominated the reply.

Harry Garrighan contributed a half-century to the Peterlee total but most of the time the batsmen were well contained by Robbie Atherton (5-35) and Stuart Wilson whose four wickets cost him 38 runs.

Silksworth had just seven runs to spare winning at Boldon CA. In a game dominated by bowlers, Kit Allen and George Lincoln shared eight wickets as Silksworth struggled to 133-9 including 39 by captain David Tate.

Gary Critchley (38) and Gary Frater (32) raised the hopes of Boldon but when Stephen Wright weighed in with seven wickets for only 46 runs, they were all out for only 126.

The game between Castle Eden and champions Murton was cancelled because the ground was unfit.