This is the North East | Sport | Cricket | Darlington Building Society NYSD League

In recent seasons Darlington RA have spent much of the time looking over their shoulders but they go into this afternoon's game with Richmondshire at Brinkburn Road comfortable in mid-table.

And captain Phil Crowther is confident they will not be involved in another relegation dogfight.

"We took 34 points out of a possible 40 from last weekend's double programme even though we played at Normanby Hall without our professional Ashar Zaidi who picked up a groin strain the previous day.

"He has been fantastic. He chalked up another half century at Great Ayton and there's no doubt he's a class player," said Crowther.

The skipper is confident that Zaidi will return today but James Middleton is unavailable and Richard Hill is drafted in.

Richmond's overseas player Shanoka Dissanayake is also in commanding form and so is Clive Layfield who hit an unbeaten century in last Saturday's win which lifted the team off the bottom.

Ben Biker has returned from holiday and lines up with Dave Mathias to the exclusion of Jamie Stead and Clifton Jacobs, both of whom are named in the seconds.

Saltburn can extend their lead because they are one of two sides also playing tomorrow.

Today, they are at home to bottom-of-the-table Billingham Synthonia who were heavily defeated in both games last weekend when they managed only a total of 165 runs in two innings.

Although David Fairley cannot play, Synners are strengthened by the return of Keith Hewson and Keith Martin.

Tomorrow, Saltburn host Redcar in a re-arranged fixture.

This afternoon, Redcar are at Marske where Shaun McGarry and Andy Hassack take over from Stephen Hutchinson and Ross Douglas.

Marske show two alterations for the derby, with Ben Walker and Jack Hugill named in place of Kevin Welch and Chris Gibbon.

Guisborough are 26 points off the top ahead of their visit to Middlesbrough where Stephen Pennock comes in for unavailable opening batsman Saul Clifford.

Boro recorded a double last weekend enabling them to steer clear of the drop zone and, as they aim to make it a hat-trick of victories, show a number of changes.

Colin Haslett, Guy Whatmore and Omar Shahid all resume to the exclusion of Danny Evans, Johnny Spillane and Anthony Taylor.

Darlington line up against Hartlepool at Feethams with Danny Morgans and Mark Dobinson in for Ricky Hopwood and Lee Craggs. Skipper Gary Tebbett is named as 12th man for Pool and Michael Gough will lead the side which includes Andy Smith.

Bishop Auckland are on the fringe of the championship race and against Northallerton at Kingsway are considerably weakened by the unavailability of Matthew Brown, Andrew Bowman and Ben Usher who took eight wickets in last Sunday's game. In addition, a doubt surrounds the availability of Phil Timmens.

Captain Ian Gill and John Place cannot play for Northallerton. John's brother Ian and John Sample will deputise.

Normanby Hall are at home to Great Ayton minus brothers Talib and Najeeb Ramzan so Dave Austin and Graham Robinson are recalled. Ayton, enjoying an excellent second season in the Premier Division, should field a strong side.

* The League has selected the following side to play the South Yorkshire League in the semi-final of the Heron White Rose Trophy at Warmsworth tomorrow: J Alderson (Darlington), R Bentley (Northallerton), J Conway (Marton), R Evans, P Johnson, J Wilkinson (Hartlepool), J Hussain, B Roberts, C Veazey (Middlesbrough), R Lazenby (Marske), S Pennock (Guisborough).

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