CITY of York Hockey Club played the role of good neighbours on Sunday by getting a result to keep up cross-city rivals Acomb.

The Tangerines needed York to avoid defeat against fellow strugglers Gainsborough Rose or they would be relegated from Yorkshire League division one.

York duly obliged with a Graham Cook goal in the final quarter earning City a 3-3 draw which sent the visitors down.

The crowd was swelled by supporters from both Gainsborough and Acomb.

Gainsborough took the lead after a breakaway but Matt Fletcher equalised only for Rose to restore their advantage with a penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Fletcher levelled with a penalty but Gainsborough took the lead for a third time, only to be denied by Cook, much to the relief of the watching Acomb contingent.

The previous day City of York III also drew 3-3 at home to Halifax with Ian Wiggins scoring two cracking goals. Fletcher scored York's other goal in an end-of-season encounter.

City of York VI completed their division five fixtures with a 6-1 thumping of Doncaster V.

It was the da Silva combination which did the trick for York. Will da Silva, on holiday from his Australian school, netted twice and his father, David, once. Other goals from the home side came from Richard Cockram (2) and Dennis Hooton.

Wakefield IV, unbeaten for the first game of the season in division seven, lost 4-1 to City of York VI. The leaders were beaten by goals from Greg Sykes, Ben Hildreth (2) and club top scorer Les Reed.

Although promotion was guaranteed for the City of York VI before they went to Bradford III on Sunday, they stretched their unbeaten run to 11 games with a 5-3 victory.

The points were in the bag before half-time thanks to Reed (3) and Sykes while Patrick Herriott netted in the second half. Brian Ignatovic had a good game in goal for York.

Division eight champions Old Malton II showed their class with a 7-2 victory over City of York VII, who led for 25 minutes courtesy of a Johnny Brooks goal. Old Malton then hit a purple goal-scoring patch, and eased to victory. Tim Jolly netted for York in the second half with a penalty.

Updated: 08:34 Tuesday, April 05, 2005