CHILD clinched their place in the final of the St Helens Combination's Hospital Cup after a splendid semi-final took place at Hope Street, Prescot.

The St Helens Star Premier Division Champions faced the tough and skilful Hall Street Union outfit from Division Two.

And the game was only 10 minutes old when John Ogden threw away a golden chance of an early Union goal when he failed to chip home a great pass and in fact the Division two side perhaps had the better of the first 45 minutes. After the interval Child seemed more composed and on 61 minutes John Ruddick powered home a neat header after keeper Roberts had deflected a Lee Riley effort.

Two minutes later young Anthony Leyden claimed an untidy goal that followed a goalmouth scramble. On 75 minutes Hall Street were awarded a penalty which Dean saved and from this the ball went straight to the other end where Leyden hit his second goal. Steve Clarke's appearance after this proved costly for Hall Street as he hit two more goals inside four minutes to end the game 5-0.

The second semi final was due to takes place last night (Wednesday) again at Prescot Cables FC, 7.30pm - with an all-Premiership clash between Rainford North End and Shoe FC. In the league games, Gerard Arms won a close Premiership clash 2-1 at Prescot BICC Reserves (Peter Cavalier).

Old Congs (Haydock) failed to move closer to the summit of Division One by letting Sidac Social hold them to a 2-2 home draw - Congs' goals coming from Paul Barton and Justin Fairhurst. Paul Atherton and Dave Robinson replied. College Street (Griffiths, McCarthy), however, went under 2-3 to Clock Face Miners Welfare - (Mark Davock, Colin Whittle and Paul Molyneux).

An Andy Rowe strike saved the Billinge faces as they held onto a 1-1 home draw with Junction.

Division Two Eccleston United slip into joint runner up spot followed a 5-1 away win (Ian Hughes (2), G Hughes, S Dawson, A Wilson) at lowly Trees. Clock Face Miners Welfare Reserves, a hat-trick for John Roby plus goals from Lee Holinhurst and Kev Smith, slammed one time challengers West Bank 5-1.

The rest of the programme was taken up by Divisional Cups Round One games. All these ties had to be played to the finish due to the time and fixture situation. In the D H Griffiths games, three goals for Paul Wainwright and one from Carl Ward gave Chestnut Lodge a 4-2 win over Shoe. Rifle (M Tole (2), A Donald, N Connolly) were made to battle all the way for a 4-3 win over Haresfinch Social. The win of the day was undoubtedly the 0-1 away success - thanks to Kevin Guy's first half goal - for Pilkington Reserves over Child at Child. The Anchor had no trouble in dumping out Rainford North End, 8-2, goals from Martin Hynes (2), Rob Stround (2), Tony Costello (2) Gary Ball and Steve Dearden, doing the damage - replies by Andy Taylor and Simon Cutler. Carborundum caused a minor upset by eliminating Beeches Reserves 6-2 at Beeches.

The Tom Worrall games had two major upsets with Red Star (Rainford), their third consecutive and 'only' wins of the season, putting out in form Cowley Hill Park 3-0 with goals from George Lee, Ian Hennessey and Steve McKenzie, and East Sutton Labour Reserves thumping Leach Lane 1-5, Jim Hampson (2), Mark Welding (2), Carl Unsworth scoring. Pilkington A made it a good day for the Ruskin Drive club by winning 5-2 at Glassblowers (P Telling, A Hull) with goals from Tommy Lawton (2), Peter Hall (2) and Barrie Devlin.

In the Sunday league games Oddfellows won handsomely 6-1 away at Owens Corning Ravenhead, Rose and Crown battled out a 1-1 stalemate with Ex Services (Rainhill) and Toll Bar fared no better, being held at home 2-2 with East Sutton Labour - all these in the Premier Division.

Home clubs on Saturday March 20 please note - Ring your results to Dave Watkins before 6pm. RESULTS

D H Griffiths Cup First Round: Chestnut Lodge 4 Shoe FC 2, Engine FC 0 Child Reserves 9, Rifle FC 4 Haresfinch Social 3, Child FC 0 Pilkington Reserves 1, Anchor FC 8 Rainford North End 2, Beeches Reserves 2 Carborundum 6.

Tom Worrall Cup First Round: Sportsmans 6 Prescot BICC A 0, Glassblowers 2 Pilkington A 5, Rainford North End Reserves 4 Grosvenor Park 1, Nutgrove 1 Hall Street Union 3, Broad Oak 1 Earlestown (Griffin) 2, Rainford Red Star 3 Cowley Hill Park 0, Bull and Dog 4 Agrevo 1, Leach Lane 1 East Sutton Labour Reserves 5.

St Helens Star Premier Division: Prescot BICC Reserves 1 Gerard Arms 2.

Division One: College Street 2 Clock Face Miners 3, Billinge FC 1 Junction 1, Old Congs (Haydock) 2 Sidac Social 2.

Division Two: Clock Face Miners Reserves 5 West Bank 1, Trees FC 1 Eccleston United 5.

Hospital Cup semi final at Prescot FC: Child FC 5 Hall Street Union 0.

Sunday Premier Division: Owens Corning Ravenhead 1 Oddfellows 6, Rose and Crown 1 Ex Services (Rainhill) 1, Toll Bar 2 East Sutton Labour 2.

Division One: Athletico Nelson 1 Brown Edge 5, Penlake 6 Bispham Celtic 0, Racing Rovers 1 Victoria (Rainhill) 1. FIXTURES

St Helens Star Premier Division: Rainford North End v Beeches Reserves (A Barnes), Gerard Arms v Child FC (T Swift), Pilkington Reserves v Engine FC (S Shaw), East Sutton Labour v Shoe FC (D Forber).

Division One: Penlake Juniors v Sidac Social (R McClintock), College Street v Haresfinch Social (M Cammack), Junction FC v Clock Face Miners (R Deakin), Billinge FC v Carborundum (C Tunstall).

Division Two: Earlestown (Griffin) v Glassblowers (T O'Neill), Clock Face Miners Reserves v Bull and Dog (G Barker), West Bank v Eccleston United (M Graham), Hall Street Union v Pilkington A (P Sephton), Agrevo v Sportsmans Athletic.

Division Three: Broad Oak v Red Star Rainford (L Smith), Prescot BICC A v Leach Lane (G R Mallett), Bewsey FC v Grosvenor Park (K Taylor), Cowley Hill Park v East Sutton Labour Reserves (P Hughes), Gerard Arms Reserves v Rainford North End Reserves (E Baines), Ritherhill v Billinge Reserves (J Goodwin).

LCFA Intermediate Cup semi final: REMYCA Reserves v The Anchor FC.

Northern Cup Round Three: Florence Social (Staffs) v Chestnut Lodge, Child Reserves v Frodsham United.

Sunday League Premier Division: East Sutton Labour v Owens Corning Ravenhead, Ex Services v Toll Bar, Rose and Crown v Oddfellows.

Division One: Athletico Nelson v Racing Rovers, Bispham Celtic v Hammer, Brown Edge v Penlake, Victoria Rainhill v Sutton Heath Panthers.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.