Peter Grainge, the secretary of Stokesley SC, received a couple of presents ahead of his birthday!

He celebrated on Tuesday but was already in good form after seeing his side lift the North Riding County Cup and reach the final of the Wearside League Cup in the preceding six days.

"It could not have been a better week for the club and for me personally," enthused Peter who has been continuously involved as a player and official for 35 years.

"We won the County Cup defeating Cargo Fleet 9-8 on penalties after the score ended 1-1 following extra time. It was nerve-wracking to say the least and in penalty shoot-outs anything can happen, but in the end we came out on top."

Last Saturday, Stokesley visited Darlington RA and were considered in some quarters to be the under-dogs but the visitors gave their best performance of the season and romped into the final of the League Cup with a 6-0 win.

"After our display against Cargo Fleet, the lads were fired up and even though we had to change the formation because of injury, we cruised through and will meet Birtley Town.

"I could not have had two better birthday presents. We are out of contention for the championship but whatever happens it has still been a hugely successful season," claimed Grainge.

The race for the title looks like going right to the wire. North Shields lead the table by three points from New Marske whose hopes were dealt a blow when they could only draw 3-3 with Ryhope CW on Wednesday night.

Indeed, at one stage the Seasiders were 3-1 down but eventually gained a valuable point with second-half goals from Adam Taylor and Dave Brown after Glen Shepherd had given them the lead. David Ashplant, Christopher Callaghan and Stephen Rochester were on target for Ryhope.

North Shields secretary David Thompson reckons that Paul Ross scored one of the best goals seen at Ralph Gardner Park for many a day when he netted with the very last kick of the match against Jarrow last weekend.

"Paul picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area and with a delicate chip beat the Jarrow goalkeeper. It was exquisite and sent our supporters home happy after the battle against Jarrow.

explained Thompson.

P W D L F A Pts

North Shields 20 16 1 3 61 22 49

New Marske 22 14 4 4 48 26 46

*Redcar Town 19 15 2 2 65 19 44

Birtley Town 22 11 6 5 68 41 39

Darlington RA 18 12 3 3 40 23 39

Windscale 20 11 6 3 44 29 39

Wolviston 21 9 4 8 46 45 31

Stokesley 20 9 3 8 50 44 30

Boldon 21 9 0 12 40 52 27

Harton and Westoe 17 7 4 6 43 30 25

Cleadon 23 6 5 12 35 49 23

Annfield Plain 25 6 4 15 38 64 22

Ryhope 21 6 3 12 32 49 21

Jarrow 20 4 6 10 23 50 18

Ferryhill Athletic 22 5 2 15 33 77 17

Whitehaven 19 4 3 12 35 56 15

Stanley United 22 1 6 15 32 57 9

*Denotes three points deducte