VICTORY at the weekend would secure Stocksfield's place in the top tier of Northumberland cricket ahead of next year's major restructuring of the league tables.

With Seaton Burn losing, Stocksfield returned to the top two in Division A2 knowing that a win over Annfield Plain on the final day of the season on Saturday would guarantee they will be playing Division One cricket in 2018.

To jump ahead of Seaton Burn, they put in an excellent performance with the ball to restrict Cowgate Sports to an innings total of just 77. Despite a big scare which saw them at 11-4 in reply, it was plain sailing in the end.

Andrew Wood will take all the plaudits as he claimed five wickets at the cost of just one run from his 28 deliveries, but Ryan Chamberlain deserves huge credit for his pivotal role which had Cowgate struggling from the beginning.

Stocksfield captain Dan Whiley turned to the teenager to open the bowling on a soft wicket, hoping his slow pace with plenty of variation would leave the Cowgate batsmen struggling to second guess him.

And he played the role to perfection, setting up the victory as he rattled through his 12 overs on the bounce and saw off Balakrishnan Krishnan, Max Moss and Ahtsham Mehmood.

At the other end, Chris Scandle and James Doneathy bowled tightly without finding the wicket taking delivery, with Wood and Luke Doneathy coming in as change bowlers.

The latter claimed the big wicket of dangerman Jaswinder Singh for a duck, and he also added Ankush Kumar to his belt.

But it was Wood who came to the fore as he ripped through the tail with five quick wickets, including that of opener Naeem Anjum who had made inroads into the bowling.

Rizwan Ashraf and Mohammed Khaliq were both caught behind by Sam Beedle, Asad Bokhari clean bowled and Sadhu Kanakarajan lbw to give Stocksfield a big shot at victory.

But their reply started in disastrous fashion with Whiley, soon after hitting a four, going to a great catch at mid-on by Moss off the bowling of Singh. The bowler struck again to see off Ben Archer, who was caught a first slip by skipper Singh.

Luke Doneathy was trapped by Mehmood as he faced his first delivery, and Adrian Marrison suffered the same fate to Singh as Stocksfield slumped to 11-4.

Their fears were put to bed as Steven Henderson and Chris Patterson formed a match-winning partnership, finding the required 67 runs between them to end the game in the 28th over.

Henderson batted particularly well as he got his eye following a slow start, but both were in good form to make sure promotion is in Stocksfield's hands going into the final day decider.