NEW Brighton came from behind at Bradford and Bingley to secure their 11th victory in Courage North One League and are now level on points with Wigton in second place.

The score finished 27-18 for New Brighton, who gained tries via Ian Kennedy, 2, and Chris Sutton with Alex Guest adding all three conversions, a penalty and a drop goal.

Birkenhead Park came out on top in the North West One derby at Oldershaw 25-17. It was a see-saw affair with the lead changing seven times.

Ian Stead and Paul Morton gained the Oldershaw tries and Willy Gardner two conversions and a penalty. Birkenhead gained touch downs via Steve Buck, Peter Blaylock and Richard Raper. Ian Stanton goaled twice and landed a couple of penalties also.

There was disappointment for Caldy in their North West Three top of the table clash at Merseyside Police. The police prevailed 24-19 in an excellent encounter. Richard Farrall scored all the Caldy points with a try, a conversion and four penalties and is now on 317 points - a new club record for a season.

Wirral kept up the chase after Altrincham Kersal in South Lancashire/Cheshire One with a 74-15 demolition of Newton-le-Willows. Skipper Andy McKinney chalked up 29 points with two tries, three penalties and five conversions. Steve Connolly and Stu Hughes also had a brace of tries each with singles for Jim Shields, Mark McCall, Sean Kay, Frank Astbury and Paul Dinwoodie.

Kersal succeeded 52-6 at Anselmians, who had to settle for a couple of penalties by Andy Power.

Parkonians lost 17-24 at home to St Edward's. Billy Lloyd and Mark Peers went in and Paul Browne landed both conversions and a penalty.

In Division Two, Wallasey crushed Congleton 49-7. Colin Kirby, 2, Greg Maxwell, Dave Lloyd, Neil Francis and Kevin Parker crossed and the latter goaled seven times.

Hoylake lost 10-13 at home to Bowdon, but gained tries via John Howells and Dan Baldock.

Prenton kept up their good form in Division Three with a 20-7 victory at Helsby. Gary Fisher, Peter Wallace and Carl Salisbury touched down and Dave Thomas targeted one conversion and a drop goal.

There is a break from the league at Easter. New Brighton are at home to Birkenhead Park and Oldershaw have Prenton as visitors. Other matches include Congleton v Anselmians; Merseyside Police v Wallasey; Ormskirk v Caldy; and Port Sunlight v Hightown.

Parkonians go on tour to Whitley Bay and Wirral will play a Waterloo XV at a venue still to be finalised. Hoylake may take a game from the pool.

The final of the Parkonians Homebase Cup will be between Birkenhead Park and New Brighton. Birkenhead accounted for Prenton 24-10 in Sunday's semi-final with tries through John Lynch, 2, Jamie Rogers and Gerry Price. The latter goaled twice while Prenton had touch downs via Mike Featherstone and Paul Cotgrave.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.