THE Ovalworld Super League has developed into a terrific climax.

With just two fixtures remaining three teams, Railway Lostock, current champion Alexandra, and long time leaders St Annes are on level points.

St Annes have led the division since early May, but gradually they have been pegged back to joint leaders, but they remain slight favourites.

At least they have an opportunity to eliminate Lostock from the title race when they entertain them in a crunch fixture this weekend.

However, Railway have a formidable line-up and one defeat in the last seven matches serves notice of current form.

Furthermore Alexandra are undefeated in the last nine starts, but have yet to take over top place.

Their latest 6-0 clean sweep over Fishwick Ramblers was vital to keep up the title challenge.

Recent squad acquisition John Birkett opened the account with the best of the day 21-5.

Terry Connell and Reg Horman followed up 21-11 and 21-12 respectively to complete a first half romp for the homesters.

After the break Alan Cottam continued in the same vein 21-9 and then Brian Tomlinson 21-13.

That left captain Vincent O'Donnell involved in a marathon contest with Joe McNabe who overturned a 16-11 deficit to lead 20-16 before Vincent replied with a thrilling finish to win 21-20. Meanwhile, Railway Lostock returned arguably their best result of the season when they overturned Witton 5-1 in what they described earlier as a difficult away game. But the visitors top men Dave Darley and Barry Sutton 21-11 and 21-18 respectively, put them on the road to success.

Tom Fishwick 21-16, Andrew Harley 21-15 and anchorman John Neville 21-11, completed the surprise scoreline.

Bill Green with a comfortable 21-13 win provided solitary consolation for out-of-sorts Witton.

There's no doubt that Railway will take some stopping on this form and their trip to St Annes this weekend will be quite a contest.

Meanwhile, the Ex-Servicemens Club were maintaining their effort with a surprise 4-2 win at Bamber Bridge.

The visitors took all first half games but Phil Parkinson 21-13 and Mark Elm 21-7 replied for Bamber Bridge who suffered their first home defeat of the campaign.

Ighten Mount are in a purple patch as they continue to finish the season with a flourish.

They defeated visitors Stacksteads 5-1 following their total eclipse of Frenchwood 6-0 two weeks ago.

These results will no doubt boost confidence and against the Rose 'N Bowl men the scores reflected the result.

Indeed, it was left to Frank Herbert to save face for Stacksteads as he came in with a last ditch effort to win by the narrowest of margins 21-20.

That came after an easy first half clean-sweep thanks to Steve Crossley 21-11, Ken Topham 21-13 and Alan Fitzgerald 21-3. Alan Walsh 21-8 and Roger Hancock 21-6 completed the romp after the interval.

Sunnybank Helmshore returned to the form that won them the title in 1996 when they defeated Preston visitors Frenchwood 5-1.

Number one player Brian Haworth, who comfortably leads the club's merit chase again, gave them a good start 21-15.

Simon Haworth 21-13 and Fred Barlow 21-10 both had points to spare as they brought the curtain down on first half proceedings 3-0 in front. Chris Pollard added to the score 21-9, as did Jack Pilling in a much closer finish, 21-19.

Glyn Andrews provided the consolation point for Frenchwood after a consistent display for 21-17.

Results: Alexandra 6, Ramblers 0; Bamber Bridge 2, St Annes 4; Ighten Mount 5, Stacksteads 1; Sunnybank 5, Frenchwood 1; Witton 1, Lostock 5.

Fixtures for Sunday: Alexandra v Sunnybank; Frenchwood v BAmber Bridge; Ramblers v Stacksteads; St Annes v Lostock; Witton v Ighten Mount.

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