THERE will be no divided loyalties for Horden chairman John Groves when his team entertain West Hartlepool in North Two East tomorrow.

During his ten years in the centre with West, Groves was skipper from 1983-85, a period during which they fielded All Black lock Gary Whetton and his brother Alan.

"We lost a cup tie against Bristol 16-14 at Brierton Lane in 1983 and I remember it like it was yesterday," said Groves.

"But for 80 minutes on Saturday I have to remember I'm chairman of Horden and put sentiment to one side. We can relive the memories afterwards."

For West to be playing Horden would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago. Five successive relegations have brought them to this level, but they appear to have stopped the rot and lie fourth with two wins out of three compared with Horden's one.

"Some people are building it up as a big match, but we are trying to treat it as just another league game with two points at stake," added Groves.

Another former West player, 41-year-old Steve Black, comes in at lock as Craig Tait, signed from Ashington, is still unable to make his debut after twisting a knee in the warm-up last week.

Paul Priestley is selected at fly half, with Andrew Turner switching to inside centre and David Grand to the wing.

After scoring on his return in last week's win against Westoe, West are without centre Peter Hodgson because of a badly-broken nose. They also have a doubt about winger Tommy Barff, who was injured in last week's warm-up.

Joint leaders Middlesbrough expect to find their 100 per cent record severely tested at Hull. Tom Ellis returns at lock in place of John Dixon in an otherwise unchanged squad.

Stockton, without a point after three games, entertain the only team below them, Sandal.

The Wakefield club have been relegated with West in each of the last two seasons and their slide shows little sign of halting.

Stockton are without their entire first-choice back row. Alan Brown is still out with a knee injury, his brother Wayne is suspended and Brett Wildridge is on holiday.

Second team captain Jamie Brown comes in to partner youngsters Scott Powell and Phil Austen.

* Northallerton hope to continue their excellent start to the season tomorrow when they visit Leeds club Moortown.

After making good progress during the 1990s at their impressive Brompton set-up, the club were relegated to Yorkshire Three last season and are determined to move forward again.

In his 11th season as captain No 8 Steve Robinson has also taken over coaching duties with the help of Neil Kessell, who said: "I have never seen anyone with the vision and dedication of Steve.

"We have concentrated very hard on fitness and defence and we haven't conceded a try in winning our four games so far.

"Everything is going really well and the people in the club could not be happier. We have done a lot of work on the ground and have had floodlights fitted to match standard, and we are also sponsoring the Northallerton College teams at 15 and 16 level.

"We hope to keep them interested because we have quite a few elder statesmen in our team and need to bring on more youngsters. We train at 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and new players are welcome."

Former Wensleydale captain Nathan Cannell has joined and along with Ed Pratt, back from university, has solved last season's problem at centre

Northallerton won 39-3 at home to Hemsworth last week, while tomorrow's hosts recorded their second win in three league games by beating Stocksbridge 15-11 at home