ST ANNES captain Terry Wood has taken over top place in the Terry Sayers Merit Awards following his latest 21-8 away win which yielded two points for a total 18 and 58 aggregate.

Long-time leader Brian Tomlinson won his home game 21-15, to add just one point on the leaderboard, but his away fixture in two weeks time provides the opportunity to level the scores.

Five consecutive wins have moved Railwayman Dave Darley nine places on the merit list and he is now firmly in the reckoning on 16 points.

His clash with new leader Woods this weekend will ensure who goes into the last game in the driving seat.

However, Louis Stevenson who has been in the running for Player of the Year Award all season is also well placed on 16 points despite losing a two-pointer at Ighten Mount last weekend.

Louis does have a match in hand on the rest, but will need to defeat Tomlinson in the last match in two weeks time.

Number one at Stacksteads last year, Frank Herbert, has not been quite as consistent this term, but his 11 points is a good achievement considering he has missed a couple of games.

1997 runner-up Alan Cottam has had a decent run of successes and his 14 points underlines a good contribution to the Alex cause. Indeed, the title holders' captain Vincent O'Donnell has now accumulated 12 points following four consecutive victories.

Brian Haworth also has 12 points and has been invaluable to Sunnybank once again.

His total has already made sure he wins the club Player of the Year prize.

Although the Terry Sayers title is out of reach for Lostock men Barry Sutton and Tom Fishwick, both on 14 points, they can still take the overall club award.

Steve Crossley enjoyed another excellent win for Ighten Mount and retains his lead over team-mate Ken Topham on 10 points.

Besides the intense chase at the top of the leaderboard the majority of club prizes are still very much in the melting pot as the season draws to a close in two weeks.

Leaderboard: Terry Wood (St Annes) 18 points, 58 total; Brian Tomlinson (Alexandra) 17, 60; Dave Darley (Lostock) 16, 47; Louis Stevenson (Stacksteads) 16, 30; Barry Sutton (Lostock) 15, 41; Dave Worthington (St Annes) 14, 56; Tom Fishwick (Lostock) 14, 55; Alan Cottam (Alexandra) 14, 18; Mick Lee (Witton) 13, 50; Dave Barnish (Lostock) 13, 25; Colin Campbell (Witton) 13, 17; Peter Wilding (Frenchwood) 13, 5; Don Yeadon (St Annes) 12, 23; Vincent O'Donnell (Alexandra) 12, 22; Brian Haworth (Sunnybank) 12, 21; Steve Crossley (Ighten Mount) 11, 54; Mick Nelson (Frenchwood) 11, 36; Frank Herbert (Stacksteads) 11, 10; Steve Edwards (Frenchwood) 10, 36; Peter Slinger (Witton) 10, 41; Ken Topham (Ighten Mount) 10, 29.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.