THE race for the Skipton League First Division title had a twist in the tail.

Long-time leaders Cononley A lost out to lowly Broughton Road A by a narrow margin, while nearest challengers Cross Hills A thrashed an almost lifeless Gargrave A to regain the title they won in 2012.

Returning to Division Two are both last season’s promoted sides, Keighley B and Oakworth.

The Second Division title race was over some time ago as Colne Legion A returned to the top flight at the first attempt, along with Devon B.

Going down to the Third Division are Broughton B and either Grassington or Lund B, who finished neck and neck at the bottom and may need a play-off.

The finish in the Third Division matched the excitement in the First as consistent front-runners Whinfield B collapsed in their last two matches, allowing Addingham A to come storming through and snatch the title. Cross Hills C ended up as wooden-spoonists.

The Valley’s over-60s team, in the Federation League, managed to snatch the title from Halifax at East End Park, and now go on to the national finals at Haw Hill Park, Littleborough on Friday, September 5 .

They nearly made a hash of things, however, narrowly losing to Leeds A before demolishing Leeds C. Ken Brenkley and Trevor Hargreaves won both matches to contribute to this success.

There was a slight consolation for Cononley when B team star Andrew Town won the Skipton League’s Dick Keighley Cup, held in memory of a popular secretary and played for by lower-league players.

He had a fairly easy passage at Gargrave in the last eight and comfortably beat rising junior star, Faye Ellis (Craven), 21-9.

The Skipton Inter-District team played exceptionally well to reach the Yorkshire ABA’s Inter-District event in the Aire-Wharfe area last Sunday.

They reached the semi-finals after qualifying at Grove Hilll with a good win over the hosts, with only two losers.

After Aire-Wharfe had dented he hopes of a strong Wakefield team, Skipton then lost to Wakefield but secured qualification by two points, despite having only three winners as a strange scoring system was in place.

The semi-final was at Rawdon Park, where the locals excelled again to beat the West Riding.

The final was at the popular Rufford Park against holders and favourites Huddersfield and, although the locals battled hard and had four winners and some narrow losers, they lost by 18 points in the gathering gloom.

There were some great individual scores in all the games but veteran David Scott remained unbeaten all day in matches to remember.

The Valley Handicap Doubles were completed on Sunday at Broughton Road, and Chris Wilson picked up another doubles title, teaming up with David Jacques to beat Lennie and Janet Buxton (Highfield) 15-8 in the final. Losing in the semis were D and P Wilson and S Wrigley and M Demain.

The preliminaries in the Norman Johnson Floodlit were held last night at Cross Hills, Keighley, Steeton and Cononley, and the final is scheduled for next Thursday (August 28), while the Skipton Veterans' Handicap preliminaries are at Addingham and Sutton tomorrow at 1.30, with the final at Oakworth a week tomorrow (August 29).

The Skipton Mixed Doubles are on Sunday at Skipton Devon from 1.30, with the draw on the day from 13 pairs (to date).

Yorkshire Parks' veterans' team lost their recent match against East Midlands, with only Barry Turnbull tasting success among the locals in the away leg.