A HOST of worthy winners have accepted their accolades at the annual presentation night of The Clitheroe and District Pool League.

The Ribble Valley town and its outlying area is fast-developing into a hotbed of the sport and the Rose and Crown was packed to the rafters with players and supporters as the honours were dished out.

In addition to the presentations, one title was still up for grabs as Stork A and Royal British Legion A contested the Challenge Cup Final.

Both sides put on a great show for the enthralled audience yet the Legion eventually proved too strong for their opponents and earned a 7-3 victory. But there was some reason to cheer for the Stork after their player Stuart Tyrer picked up the Michael Humphries Trophy, staged to commemorate the young cueist who unfortunately died in an accident, after his 3-0 success over Eric Barnes from Buck A.

Roger Hope of Clitheroe A and Buck A picked up the player of the year along with Beverley Brunker after both recorded the highest number of wins throughout the course of the season. The league winners also stepped up to great acclaim including the Premier Division's top team Buck A and Division One front runners Brown Cow at Chatburn.

The newly-installed league secretary Wendy Prosser was in attendance and said: "There was so much going on it was hard to keep up -- people clearly love their pool in this town!

"It was a great night with the only disappointment being the change of heart of our proposed sponsor - thankfully though we have two more interested parties lined up. We've scheduled a meeting for next week and hopefully we may have sponsors in place for both the league AND the cup, which means we can buy a few more trophies.

"The new season cues off this Thursday and if the commitment of the players and organisers are anywhere near as good as last season then we are in for a belter!"

The first set of matches in full are:

Premier Division: Brown Cow Chatburn v Buck A; Legion B v Rose and Crown; Castle v Legion A; Craven Heifer A v Stork Hotel B; Stork Hotle A v Billington B.

Division One: St Peters v Brown Cow Clitheroe; Wagon and Horses v Pendle Hotel B; Pendle Hotel A v New

Inn; Dog Music bar; Bay Horse Barrow; White Hart v Bye.

Division Two: Billington B v Craven Heifer B; Legion C v Royal Oak A; Bridge A v White Horse A; Buck B v Pendle Witch; Buck Wrinkley v Bye.

Division Three: Kings Arms v Dog Music Bar B; White Horse B v Bridge B; Royal Oak B v Legion D; White Lion v Buck in Bronco's; Station Hotel B v Bye.

Ladies League: (May 6) Pendle Hotel v Legion Ladies; Dog Inn A v Bridge Ladies; Billington A v Billington B; Buck Ladies v Dog Inn B; Royal Oak Ladies v Bye.