WITH just a few loose ends to tie up, this weather-ravaged season is now coming to an exciting conclusion.

New Gardeners duly took the Third Division title with a narrow 3-2 win against Alexandra Hotel Res, Anchor Hotel having completed their league programme finishing in second place.

The Premiership is already settled with Ewood collecting the title and Griffin Celtic runners-up. These two met in the final of the Birtwistle Cup at the Anchor with Celtic denying Ewood yet another double, winning 2-1 - a full report of this game will appear in Wednesday's Sport Extra.

Crown Berger Res, still with two games to play, have finished in second place in the Neales Waste Management Fourth Division with Shaws of Darwen taking the title. A dramatic end to the season is certain in the Hi-Tech Windows Second Division, with two teams left in the frame.

Both of these have seemingly at some point thrown their title hopes away only to see their close rivals do likewise. Railway Hotel are a classic example, with two games left they required just four points to become champions.

In the first of these two games they met one-time rivals Witton Albion, the Hotel side leading 3-1 well into the second half, seemed to be well on their way when Albion reduced their lead to just one goal. The excitement increased when the Centurion team appeared on the touchline to cheer on Albion. Their game with Rishton Reserves having been called off, with just 30 seconds left Albion scored a dramatic third goal to steal a point from Railway. On Saturday Railway were without a game. They visit Langho on Tuesday, May 4, in their last league game.

Centurions however, played Blackburn United on Saturday knowing that if both sides gained maximum points from their final games, goal difference would decide who would be champions, Centurions at this point having a two goal advantage. They rapidly trounced United 11-1. Centurions play their final game next Saturday away to Rishton Res.

On Thursday, May 11 Centurions and Railway meet in the final of the Eddleston Cup to be played at the Anchor Ground, Darwen, kick off 6pm. The Combination representative side are through to the semi-final of the North West Inter League Alliance, on a technicality, in the final group two game Bolton needed to draw with St Helens to give Blackburn a clear passage into the semi-final as it was St Helens won 1-0, but on checking the records it was discovered that Blackburn and the Saints had finished on equal points and with identical goal differences. A play-off seemed on the cards and competition officials were in the process of setting this up when Blackburn fixtures secretary Jim Howarth sat down to read the rule book. He then noted that according to the rules if two teams finished with identical records then the game played between those teams entered the equation.

Blackburn had defeated St Helens 1-0 when they met at St Helens in November, when this was pointed out to competition officials Blackburn were put through, their likely opponents will be Preston and District League.

Results (April 20) - Division Two: Witton Albion 4, Langho 2; Pleasington 2, Railway Hotel 3.

Division Three: Cupal 1, Darwen Subs 3; Worth Avenue 1, Alex Hotel Res 3; Pleasington Res 1, New Gardeners 3.

Division Four: Crown Berger Res 4, St Matthew's Res 2; Grimshaw Park 0, Pleasington 0; Railway Hotel Darwen 3, Centurions B 2. April 22 - Birtwistle Cup Final: Ewood Amateurs 1, Griffin Celtic 2.

Premier Division: St Mary's COB 3, Whitehall Top Con 3; West End CYC 0, Crown Wall 1; Rishton 4, Netlon 1.

Division Two: Witton Albion 3, Railway Hotel 3.

Division Three: Darwen Subs 4, Blackburn YMCA Res 2.

April 24 - Premier Division: Rishton 4, Crown Wall 1; St Mary's COB 0, Crown Berger 0; West End CYC 2, Whitehall Top Con 0.

Division Two: Rishton Res 5, Witton Albion 1; St Matthew's 2, Blackburn YMCA 2; Ivy Hotel 3, Clarence 1; Blackburn Utd 1, Centurions 11.

Division Three: Alex Hotel Res 2, New Gardeners 3.

Outstanding fixtures - April 27: Brinscall v Crown Berger Res. April 28: Blackburn YMCA v Bangor Old Boys.

April 29: Langho v Rishton Res. May 1: Blackburn YMCA v Clarence; Langho v Blackburn Utd; Rishton Res v Centurions.

May 4: Rishton Res v Bangor Old Boys; Langho v Railway Hotel.

May 8: Blackburn YM Res v Cupal.

To be arranged: Crown Berger v Grimshaw Park and Brinscall v Rishton C.

Midweek games 6pm kick off, Saturday games 2.15pm kick off.

Pleasington and Tilston contest the semi-final of the Northern Cup competition to be played on Saturday, May 1 at Tower View (ground of Centurions) kick off 2.30pm.

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