Worthington CIU Team Knockout: Wingate and Spennymoor B will contest the final of the Team Knockout after both had fairly comfortable wins in their semi-finals. Wingate beat Durham City, whilst Spennymoor B overcame Newton Aycliffe.

Durham City had 61-point start against Wingate for their semi final at Sherburn Village. Dean Jones gave Wingate a great start when he capitalised on an early mistake by Brian Dunn when he failed to reach the object ball whilst trying to lay a snooker. This gave Jones 18 and he later added a 25 break to close the Wingate lead to 28. Jimy Mason then closed the gap to four points when he beat Gary Ward, who was making a welcome return to the Durham side but suffered from some unfortunate run of the balls.

Barry Stoddart played a captain's part for Durham when he won the third frame against Paul Harrison by 12 points. However Wingate's John Bourne was at the top of his undoubted ability by running up a quick 51 points and then clearing the last red with a black and all the colours to beat Michael Pratt and put Wingate into a 65 points lead.

Dave Hammond for Wingate and Eric Wright for Durham played steadily through the final frame with neither able to gain a substantial lead and Wright eventually conceded the match on the brown.

Spennymoor B received 48 points start against Newton Aycliffe at Leeholme and they were able to extend this to 81 when Wayne Parry beat Richie Young in the first frame. After a long bout of safety play between Mark Howe and the Moors, Alan Rouell the latter went for a long red, which rattled in the jaws and stayed up. This allowed Howe to get in to make a 40 break from five reds and blacks. Rouell made a late scoring burst with a clearance from the brown but the Moors lead was cut to 25 points.

The third frame was nip and tuck between Michael Hewitt and the Moors Alan Clarke, until Hewitt went in-off the blue and Clarke took the remaining colours to move Spennymoor into a 39 points lead. Gary Easen put in a couple of 15 breaks followed by tight safety to steadily build up a lead against Aycliffe's Ronnie Hall, who managed some damage limitation when he took the pink and black but the Moors had then established a 77 points lead.

In the final frame Micky Anderson had the comfort of the 77 lead and then added an early 13 break so that Peter Brown knew there was no chance and conceded the match.

Results: Newton Aycliffe 215 Spennymoor B 311; Durham City 225 Wingate 286.

Worthington Durham County CIU

Summer League

Ferryhill visited Wheatley Hill B in order to keep their place in the Association, as they had twice failed to play on previously organised dates and were deducted six points and warned that failure to complete their fixtures would result in expulsion.

The Hill got away to a good start with wins from Tony Ellison and Dave Blyth. Ferryhill then took their only point when Bernie Jones. The Hill finished in style with wins from Jock Frost and Steve Cave.

However the one point gained by Ferryhill kept them out of a relegation position.

Kingsway Krugerrand Competition

Paul Harland of Darlington Albert Hill Club produced a very solid performance to beat Billy Goggins of Old Shildon Club by three frames to one and knocked in the highest break so far when he put in 64 in the second frame in the competition run in Bishop Auckland Kingsway Club.

The first frame saw both players scoring steadily until the last two colours were left on the table with Goggins just needing one. Goggings was presented with a relatively easy pink but he played it far too hard whilst trying to get position on the black, which he did not need. Harland capitalised on the error and took both balls for a 58-50 victory.

This obviously inspired Harland, whilst leaving Goggins well below par. Harland made his 64 break and went on to take the frame at 101-0. Goggins showed his fighting spirit and got on top in the third frame, which he went on to win 74-11.

In the fourth frame Harland moved ahead but Goggins put in a 24 break to close the gap so that he trailed by seven points with only the black remaining. Harland missed a comfortable shot in the corner, with Goggins pulling off a remarkable long pot to cause a re-spotted black. Harland lost the toss and broke, with Goggins also having to play safe. Harland then pulled off a fantastic double into the corner pocket to take the frame 58-51 and the match.

On the other table Jimmy Dufton of Stanley Central Club met John Ferguson of Darlington. The first frame was close in the early stages until Ferguson fell foul of the miss rule when he attempted a flamboyant escape via four cushions and repeated the effort, before opting for the simpler escape. This upset him and he conceded on the blue at 67-36.

In the second frame Dufton got in to make a 33 break with Ferguson never able to get back and he went down by 55-14. The third frame was very tight throughout after Dufton went in-off the green leaving Ferguson to take the green, brown and blue before missing a comfortable pink. Dufton needed both balls and completed the frame and match with a 53-45 win.

On Thursday, October 16 the Second Round begins when Clyde Pearson meets Alec Appleby and Stephen Armstrong meets Thomas Bradley. These should be two cracking matches, with spectators welcome at no entry fee.

Worthington CIU Winter League

The fixtures for the first week of the new season are: First Division: Cockton Hill v Fishburn A; Brandon v Witton Gilbert; Newton Aycliffe v Shotton Palms; Sherburn Village v Wingate; Old Shildon v Spennymoor A; Bearpark A v Wheatley Hill A.

Division Two: Wheatley Hill B v Coundon; Spennymoor B v Belmont; Meadowfield v Crowtrees A; Langley Park v Stanley Central; Newhouse v Ferryhill A; Sacriston v Willington.

Division Three: Tow Law A v Bearpark B; Ferryhill B v Hunwick B; Leeholme A v New Durham; Crowtrees B v Leeholme B; Hunwick A v Durham City; Fishburn B v Tow Law B.

* Any late entries to any of the competitions must be to the secretary by Thursday, October 16.

Worthington CIU Summer Singles Championship

Semi-final draw: Scott Mallaburn (Sherburn Village) v Gordon Bowes (New Durham) to be played at Ferryhill on Monday, 13 October (7.30pm) with the referee, Mark Brown of Leeholme. The other semi-final is Dave Wallker (Wheatley Hill A) v Willis Joynes (Witton Gilbert) to be played at Newton Aycliffe on Monday, October 20 (7.30 pm)with the referee, Mark Brown of Leeholme.

* The Final will be played at Fishburn on Wednesday, October 29. All three matches are the best of five frames.

Worthington CIU Team Plate

Less than quarter of an inch kept Witton Gilbert out of the Plate Final and allowed Stanley Central to go through to meet Spennymoor A after they scored a comfortable win over Wheatley Hill A.

John Rooney senior for Witton Gilbert and Walter Cornell of Stanley Central both needed the final black of the match for victory when Rooney played a long double which trickled towards the corner pocket and looked certain to be in but stopped agonisingly on the lip of the pocket allowing Cornell to tap it in for a match victory of two points in the nail-biter at Tow Law.

Stanley Central received 53 points start but this was cut to just ten points when John Rooney junior beat an out-of-touch, Harry Grimes. Things got worse for the central when Willis Joynes knocked in a 25 break to beat Norman Rimmington and move Witton Gilbert 23 ahead. Ian Renwick then increased the Witton Gilbert lead when he beat Frank Foster by 11 points.

In a good fourth frame, Stanley's Jim Dufton beat Paul Nord by 13 points, leaving John Rooney senior 21 points start going into the final frame. Walter Cornell closed the gap very quickly with a 24 break but Rooney responded with 19 to stay in a narrow lead through to the point where Cornell needed both pink and black. He took the pink but had to play safe on the black with the devastating consequence for Rooney.

The final frame proved decisive for Spennymoor A when they beat Wheatley Hill A at Coundon. The Hill received 76 points start but Michael Pratt put in breaks of 33 and 27 against Dave Walker, who cleared the colours, the leave the Hill's lead cut to 19 points. Ronnie Bateman cut this by a further seven when he beat Bob Reay. Paul Biddle and Ronnie peacock finished all square in the third with Dennis Clish of Wheatley Hill beating Eddie Rhodes by one point in the fourth.

In the final frame, the Moors Paul Atkinson was conceding 13 points to John Worthington but steadily built up an unassailable lead, which began with a 22 break and was furthered by a series of runs in the teens to take Spennymoor A to the final.

Results: Spennymoor A 327 Wheatley Hill A 279; Stanley Central 303 Witton Gilbert 301.