City of York I missed out on a chance to go second in the National Hockey League premier division after wasting a series of chances against Harrogate I.

The two sides went into the match in joint second place with a blank half-time scoreline echoing the closeness in league position.

York had the best of the chances in the first half but were made to pay when Harrogate put away a breakaway goal ten minutes into the second half.

The lead was doubled minutes later with the defence out of sorts with two more goals flying in to make it 4-0 as York pushed forward in an otherwise close encounter.

A combination of poor finishing and excellent goalkeeping forced York II to work hard for their 2-1 NHL division two win at Sunderland I.

Richard Jenkin put City ahead with a reverse stick shot after a dominant opening ten in which the Sunderland 'keeper was called upon to make a number of good saves.

But the goal worked against the leaders as Sunderland began to find gaps in the attacking York line-up, resulting in an equaliser from a string of short corners.

Hard words at the interval restored York's discipline and Jenkin eventually restored the lead after a Sunderland player fortuitously ran the ball into his stick.

Problems in the 'D' also hit York III in Yorkshire League division three as they ended up losing 4-2 to Airedale I despite an opener from Matt Fletcher.

Airedale made their counter-attacking tactic work and equalised from a short corner, before taking the lead in a packed York 'D' from a second on the stroke of half-time.

Alex Cockram sandwiched another City strike between Airedale's third and fourth but it wasn't enough as only Simon Gray hit a post.

York IV captain Malcolm Cossey described their Yorkshire division five match against Normanby Park II as a rollercoaster as his side hammered in seven goals.

Two sloppy goals put Park in front before Adrian Nye and Denis Heotton equalised. Goals either side of half-time made it 4-2 to Normanby but two each for Chris Allerton and Chris Smalley, plus one for Andy Wilson turned it round to 7-4.

York V's match against Brigg III was postponed with Brigg unable to get a team out, while York VI recorded their first win of the season in division eight.

Stuart Burke set up Simon Bennett to take the lead, with Burke adding two goals of his own in the 3-1 defeat of Sheffield Hallam VI.

Ben Foster put York VII in the lead against Grimsby II with a reverse flick and Richard Tanner-Smith doubled the score with a rocket just after half-time in Yorkshire Division Nine.

Grimsby pulled one back but York looked safe for the win until Grimsby levelled from a last-minute short corner.

Dominant York VIII were on top from start to finish against Brigg IV with Greg Sykes and Les Reed scoring the two unanswered goals in the deserved win.

Updated: 09:03 Tuesday, December 09, 2003