York League comfortably retained the Aubrey Spalton Trophy when they defeated Harrogate League by 14-9.

The trophy commemorates one of Harrogate's former leading personalities.

York RI hosted the fixture and the match was played over 24 boards.

The key to the victory was, not for the first time this season, the strength in depth of the York team.

The top 12 boards were shared six points each, but York won the bottom 12 boards by 8 to 3 points.

York League results: R Hardy 0-1 R Palliser; P Hopwood 1-0 S Huxley; P Cloudsdale - C Marcus; D Findlay 1-0 J Duckworth; T Turner 1-0 R Sneddon; P Johnson 1-0 R Tate; E Winn 0-1 C Marks; M Cook 0-1 P Gregory; N Pearce 0-1 M Rowley; O Robson 0-1 W Boothman; P Gower 1-0 L Howard; C Snowball - G Conley; J Knowles 1-0 T Gilling; E Cameron 0-1 B Hesler; A Price 0-1 C Callis; F Yousif 1-0 R Hughes; Sri Sriharan 1-0 J Pastil; A Wade 1-0 A Zigmond; R

Mitchinson 1-0 T Ward; P Mander 1-0 R Nankivel; P Brooks 0-1 M McHugh; N Atkin 1-0 R Connor; R Oates - R Slatcher; J Lafferty 1-0 N Knald.

Lady Anne Middleton had a routine win in the final of the York Evening League Plate competition.

The first division side comfortably defeated the second division juniors by 9- 2.

However, there were some promising individual results achieved by the juniors with Chris Sommerville, Chris Brookes, and Edward White all drawing one of their two matches while Michael Hannington won one of his two games.

Yorkshire bowed out of the Under-25 County Championship but not before restoring some lost pride with a 7-5 win against Merseyside.

Four players from York participated. Neville Pearce, Owen Robson and John Lafferty won, while Mick Beavers lost.

Updated: 12:30 Thursday, April 05, 2001