THERE were a couple of surprise results in the fifth round of the Premier League, held at Ferryhill.

The Ferryhill home rink inflicted the first defeat of the season on joint league leaders Stanley. The match started well for Stanley as they took a six-point lead, but Ferryhill then settled down and went on to take nine of the next 11 ends to move into a seven-shot lead. Both sides produced some terrific bowls, but Ferryhill took the points by eight shots and were worthy winners.

The second upset saw Gateshead the unlikely winners over third-placed Darlington A. At the halfway stage, Gateshead were nine shots up and looking comfortable. Darlington then staged one of their trademark comebacks to close to within one point, but that was as good as it got. Gateshead kept their nerve and won four of the last five ends, including a five, to win by eight shots.

Darlington B moved two points clear at the top of the league with another decisive win over a strong Durham rink. It took Durham seven ends to make a mark and the game was over by the 11th as Darlington held an 18-shot lead. A late run enabled Durham to score eight shots and give some respectability to the scoreline, which saw Darlington earn a 16-shot victory.

Houghton improved their points tally with an emphatic 15-shot victory over Great Aycliffe. The score was close after eight ends, but Houghton pulled away and won eight of the last 10 ends.

Final scores: Darlington B 26 Durham 10; Ferryhill 17 Stanley 9; Great Aycliffe 9 Houghton 24; Gateshead 21 Darlington A 13.

Durham & District Triples League

The Ferryhill B squad, hosts to league leaders Great Aycliffe, were eager to reverse the 0-5 away defeat earlier in the season and were not disappointed as they turned in a tremendous display to take all the points. C Larcombe's rink were ahead throughout and never under threat, J Gleghorn's rink restricted the visitors to a mere three scoring ends and H Wilson skipped his rink home by one after taking two shots from the last end.

But Aycliffe are still clear at the top and, barring any major upsets, look odds on to take the title.

Final scores: C Larcombe 17 M Ormerod 9; J Gleghorn 21 K Dunning 4; H Wilson 14 P Payne 13.

Durham hosted Ferryhill A in the other game played in this league.

With only one point in favour of Durham in the overall aggregate score, the final points tally was 4-1 to the home side. But this was a strange game as the result could have gone either way. R Jefferson's rink, arguably Ferryhill's best so far, incredibly dropped five and eight shots at ends three and four and left themselves too big a deficit to overturn.

Durham skip S Smith turned in three shots from the last two ends to edge home by one shot when defeat looked on the cards and the final twist came when the Durham rink skipped by J Taylor, who were leading by five shots with three to play, saw their lead disappear as Ferryhill scored 13 shots to win by eight.

Final scores: J Taylor 12 E Hope 20; S Smith 11 K Weallans 10; M Barkess 18 R Jefferson 10.