Foster's Northumberland and Tyneside Senior League: Tynedale aim to clinch a hat-trick of championships, but it is expected they will be pushed all the way just as they were last season.

Lady Luck was on their side during the final two games when they edged Ashington by eight points.

On the penultimate Saturday they were the only side to stage a match and claimed the maximum 20 points, while on the last day they were in big trouble at Ashington when the weather intervened.

Had Ashington won, they would have been crowned champions.

"We need to make a better start than we did last season when we lost four of our first six games. After that we didn't taste defeat again but it was hard going after conceding so many points in the early games," observed fixture secretary Gary Cant.

A massive boost for the Hexham club is the news that Stuart Graham is fit, after missing several games towards the end of the last campaign.

The all-rounder has been re-engaged as professional and Scott Kay is back as captain.

He is one of the most prolific scorers around and if he repeats last season's near-1000 total, Tynedale will take some beating.

A major change at Ashington is the retirement of Bruce Storey following a long association with the club.

Teenager Adam Cragg has joined Tynemouth in the North-East Regional Premier League.

Swalwell, third in 2005, have changed professionals but signed another Australian in 26-year old Steve Magoffin, an opening bowler from Western Australia.

Ian Patterson has moved from Gateshead Fell and will join his brother Stuart but Andrew Worthy has returned to Seaham Park.

Sacriston have also lined up an Aussie in Mattie Milton from Fremantle where Martin Hubber played during the winter. Ross McLaren has linked up with Newcastle.

Newcastle City have signed Indian left-arm seamer and left-handed bat Amit Uniyal but have lost Palav Kumar, Surgit Singh and Geoff Prudhoe.

Benwell and Walbottle are strengthened by the signing of Singh and Prudhoe as well as Lee Collis from Ashington.

Ponteland only just avoided the drop and although Malcolm Clarke is back for a second year as professional, his brother Simon has returned to Swalwell.

There are no changes at Shotley Bridge although they may yet sign a professional. Donald Brown is again at the helm and his task will be to improve on last season's bottom-of-the-table finish.

Annfield Plain again have former Durham County player Martin Speight in their line-up together with Kevin Dixon Snr from Lanchester. David Baxter has joined Burnopfield.

It will be interesting to see how the two promoted clubs fare. Lintz are back in Division A1 after only a year's absence.

Greenside also return to the top flight but are weakened with the retirement of Tommy Peel and Gavin Anderson.

Glyn Taylor remains the pro and although he has relinquished the captaincy, the experienced Paul Carrick stays on as player coach.