EWOOD Amateurs are now firm favourites to capture the championship of the Colborne Trophies Premier Division, in Blackburn and District Football Combination, having now opened a five point lead on second-placed Griffin Celtic with Manxman in third place, 14 points behind the leaders.

Ewood defeated West End CYC while Griffin were held to a draw by Old Toll Bar, Manxman hold on to third place by taking two points from their game with Alexandra Hotel. St Mary's College Old Boys move up to fourth place and along with Manxman are in a position to overtake Griffin, but it will be difficult for either of these two and indeed Griffin to overtake the Amateurs.

At the foot of the table Crown Berger must now fear the worse along with Rishton and Whitehall Top Con. At the moment it would seem that two of these three are facing the drop to Division Two. The game between Rishton and Netlon was postponed. In the Hi-Tech Replacement Windows Second Division the leaders Railway Hotel saw their position at the top improve despite having their game with Witton Albion called off, as their closest rivals Centurions, playing at home against Ivy Hotel, lost 3-2 leaving them five points adrift, but with four games in hand.

Clarence have moved up to fifth place after winning at home against Rishton Res. In the only other game played in this division, Pleasington had a comfortable win against Bangor Old Boys. Just two games were played in the Third Division, with Anchor Hotel defeating Blue Star to regain top place from New Gardeners.

Anchor and New Gardeners have been locked in a close battle since day one and it seems as if the title chase will go to the last games of the season. Anchor and New Gardeners meet each other next week in a first round game for the Cotton Cup. The other Third Division game between Worth Avenue and Pleasington Res ended in 5-1 win for the Pleasington side. Shaws of Darwen are still setting the pace in the Neales Waste Management Fourth Division, defeating Printers 4-2 with Crown Berger Res keeping up the pressure after their win over Centurions B. Pleasington C, lying second from bottom, had an excellent win against St Matthew's Res while Brinscall, away to Rishton C, also won. In all a total of eight games were postponed and with some teams still to play first round cup games, the fixtures situation is beginning to get serious. Next week the league is put to one side as teams fight out a mixture of first and second round cup games. Teams are reminded that kick off time for the cup games if 2pm and not 2.15pm.

Results - Colborne Trophies Premier Division: Crown Wall 4, Crown Berger 1; Ewood Amateurs 3, West End CYC 1; Manxman 2, Alexandra Hotel 0; Old Toll Bar 3, Griffin Celtic 3; Whitehall Top Con 3, St Mary's College OB 5.

Hi-Tech Replacement Windows Second Division: Bangor Old Boys 0, Pleasington 4; Centurions 2, Ivy Hotel 3; Clarence FC 3, Rishton Res 2.

Division Three: Blue Star 1, Anchor Hotel 3; Worth Ave 1, Pleasington Res 5.

Neales Waste Management Fourth Division: Crown Berger Res 4, Centurions B 0; Pleasington C 2, St Matthew's Res 1; Rishton C 1, Brinscall 3; Shaws of Darwen 4, Printers 2. Cup fixtures for Saturday - Birtwistle Cup: St Mary's College OB v Alexandra Hotel.

Round Two: Old Toll Bar v Crown Berger (P5); Griffin Celtic v Crown Wall (P4); Ewood Amateurs v Whitehall Top Con (P6).

Eddleston Cup first round: Witton Albion v Clarence FC; Blackburn YMCA v Rishton Res; St Matthew's v Langho (P1).

Division Two: Railway Hotel v Blackburn Utd (P3).

Cotton Cup first round: Anchor Hotel v New Gardeners (P8); Blackburn Olympic v Alexandra Hotel Res (P10).

Round Two: Cupal v Pleasington Res (P7).

Livesey Cup first round: Shaws of Darwen v Railway Hotel Darwen (P2); Grimshaw Park v Pleasington C.

Division Two: Printers v Rishton C (P9); Brinscall v Blackburn Olympic Res.

Depending on weather conditions and the state of pitches on the day, it may well be that some changes will have to be made to the printed pitch allocation.

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