Cricket: PROMOTION RACE GOING TO THE WIRE.

Byline: Liverpool Competition by RICHARD WILLIAMSON

THE race for promotion from Division One of the Chelmere Homes Liverpool Competition is going down to the wire.

Five teams go into tomorrow's penultimate round of matches still harbouring ambitions of a step into the Premier League.

Newton le Willows and Huyton are the teams in the driving seat in the top two positions but third-placed Hightown are only four points adrift of a promotion place while St Helens Recs and Colwyn Bay know they will probably need two wins to overhaul their rivals.

None of the final round of matches pair any of the promotion rivals and while they all face opposition below them in the table, the fact that the top three teams all lost last weekend sums up the unpredictable nature of the first division.

Leaders Newton take on Highfield, having reached the summit with a run of seven wins in nine games, while Huyton, who have lost top billing, will be looking for their first win in four against in-form Southport, who have reeled off four successive wins.

Hightown's late charge has been fuelled by a run of three wins, a record matched by tomorrow's opponents St Helens, who can do neighbours Recs a favour with a victory. Vinny Wood's side take on Caldy while Bay, with only one win in their last six games which has put the skids under their promotion campaign, will be hoping to add to bottom club Haydock's misery in their debut season.

Huyton skipper Lawrence Wilson is still confident his side can make an immediate return to the Premier League, but is well aware of the threat posed by teams who are out of the promotion shake-up.

``If any of those teams are up for it they are capable of beating the teams at the top,'' he said.

``Southport have been in very good form and we are mindful of that but teams like Newton still have a lot of cricket ahead of them. Highfield and Haydock have already shown this season they have the ability to upset teams while St Helens are finishing the season strongly.''

Huyton welcome back Peter White, Simon Brown and Michael Rust tomorrow - Anthony Withers, Ted Birch and David Platt make way - and Wilson is happy he is finishing the season with his strongest side available.

``We have been hit by holidays and the fact that we have had a number of games rained off has not helped,'' he said. ``We could have been anything up to 60 points better off.

``I am just hoping we can get back some of our early season form which has given us 13 wins already this year. We have got to make sure we go into the last game of the season with a chance of winning the league, but the main priority has got to be to finish up as one of the promoted clubs. It would be a massive disappointment, not only for the players but the club as a whole after all the work that has been put in to getting us into this position if we did not go up. If the top three all win tomorrow, that would rule Recs and Bay out of the reckoning as they are effectively a win behind. But as Maghull showed last year, anything can happen.''