City of Sheffield finished top of men's Championship 1 for a second year when they hammered Exeter 20-8 at Haberdashers - and then watched as nearest rivals Polytechnic crashed to an 11-8 defeat against Caledonia.

While Sheffield can relax on the final day tomorrow (Sunday) - they play Poly - the main interest will concern the two teams that qualify to join them in Division 1 next season. Currently, four are in contention, including Caledonia, who enjoyed a dominant period against Poly when they charged from 5-4 up to lead 10-6. There were two goals apiece for Logan Shepherd, Finlay Nesbitt and Chris Campbell.

Zach White collected his usual haul of goals - seven on this occasion - as Durham Palatinates beat Portobello 15-7. Ryan Symington scored five in Sutton & Cheam's 15-4 defeat of Welsh Wanderers.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Dominique Zahra scores for Polytechnic against Caledonia at Haberdashers today.

Castleford and City of Birmingham will clash tomorrow (17 March) at Marlborough to decide the winners of men's Championship 3. 

Six goals from Matt Lawtey ensured Castleford's 12-9 victory over Tyldesley, although Tyldesley missed a hatful of chances to make the game much closer. Castleford go into the finale with a one-point advantage over Birmingham, who beat Rotherham Metro 12-10, including six goals from Nathan Wilkes. A feature of the game was the excellence of two young goalkeepers - Simon Halstead, of Birmingham, and Robert Kucharski.

Cambridge defeated Bridgefield 13-10 to claim their first points. There were hat-tricks for Ben Walker and Gellert Peresztegi-Nagy.

Best game of the day saw Cheltenham Spartans edged through 11-10 against York City to join Castleford and Birmingham as the promoted teams. A York victory would have put them up instead of Cheltenham and they almost did it, recovering from 9-5 down at the start of the last period to 10-10 - only for Simon Almond to notch a man-up winner for Spartans with 1.34 remaining.

The meeting of the top two teams to decide the women's Championship 1 winners produced a comfortable 12-6 victory for Hucknall over Sheffield Sharks at Liverpool.

After an even start, Hucknall steadily took control, India Wilkinson leading the way with four goals. Other scorers were Katelyn Fairchild (2), Anna Lord (2), Marta Gasso, Cara Saunders, Charlene Piquard and Eda Colliver. Larissa Partridge was outstanding for Sheffield, scoring all their goals.

The other matches during the final session all ended in single-goal victories. Mid Sussex Marlins won for the first time, 14-13 against Tyldesley, scoring vital goals late on by Lauren Hand (2), Isobel Bates and Eve Tidy. 

Liverpool Liver Birds beat City of Bristol 7-6 thanks to Katie Bowater's fifth goal just seconds from the end. City of Birmingham ended their campaign in style, beating Leeds Sharks 7-6, including four goals from Sancha Tonks. Hucknall, Sheffield and Leeds start next season in Division 1.

Photos (Trevor Hyde). Above: All smiles from new champions Hucknall at Liverpool. Front, L-R: Mia Lovell, Eda Colliver, Giorgia Bosworth, Naya Patel, Anna Loyd. Second row: Katelyn Fairchild, Cara Saunders, Helen Reader, Marta Gasso, India Wilkinson, Carlene Piquard. Back: Tim Dunsbee (coach), Mary-Clare Endy.  

Below: Eyes on the ball . . . Hucknall goalkeeper Naya Patel and defender Helen Reader take on Sheffield's Tara Smith.

Watford beat City of Bristol 13-10 at Grantham today to take the men’s Championship 2 crown - but only by the narrowest of margins.

With Worthing winning their final match earlier on - 7-6 against Penguin – it meant that Watford, Bristol and Worthing all ended on 12 points. Finding the champions then involved creating a mini-table of matches between the top three – they all won one and lost one. So it was all down to goal difference in those games – which worked out at plus 2 for Watford, evens for Bristol and minus 2 for Worthing!

All three, of course, will start next season in what should be a particularly strong Division 2.
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Bristol led 4-3 early on against Watford, but once Watford edged ahead at 5-4 at the start of the second quarter, they never looked back. Nandor Czeh was their star performer, scoring seven times.

Worthing and Penguin were level at 5-5 before Worthing gained the edge in the last period with goals by George Wood and Sam Cooper. Albie Duffy replied late on for Penguin.

Picture: Celebrations today for Watford at Grantham. Front, L-R: Ramon Fernandez, Steve Chambers (team manager), Adam Page, Cameron Baker, Jared Baker, Steve Behr. Back: Jack Warman, Will Eggleton, Nandor Cseh, Peter Pickford, David Koncz. Absent: Edi Brkovic (Head Coach), Jack Pickford and Petar Djordjic 
 

Stand by for another dramatic finale to the British League season tomorrow! Both women’s Championship 1 at Liverpool and men’s Championship 2, at Grantham, will be decided by crunch games in the very last session of each campaign. Here’s how things stand:

In the women’s competition, Hucknall and Sheffield Sharks, both with 100 per cent records from six games, go head-to-head after comfortable wins today. India Wilkinson scored six and Katelyn Fairchild five as Hucknall beat Tyldesley 16-7; then Sheffield Sharks defeated Mid Sussex Marlins 16-8, ensuring the points by scoring six in the final period through Danielle Elliot (3), Larissa Partridge (2) and Amber Linney.

Leeds Sharks ensured the third promotion place to Division 1 next season but only after Emily Pilkington's goal eight seconds from the end clinched a 9-8 victory over City of Bristol.

The men’s situation is a little more complicated. Yes, City of Bristol will win the title if they take a single point from their final game against Watford. A Watford win would complicate matters – because Watford would be champions only if Worthing lost or drew their last match against Penguin. Victories for Watford and Worthing would leave those two clubs and Bristol all on 12 points – with goal difference to decide who tops the table!
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Bristol beat Otter 15-13 today, easing to a 15-7 lead before allowing the opposition to score six without reply in the final stages. Worthing and Croydon reached the final quarter locked at 1-1. But a hat-trick in the last period from George Wood took Worthing to a 6-1 win.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Katelyn Fairchild fires in one of her goals for Hucknall against Tyldesley.

With two matches still to play, unbeaten City of Manchester today clinched the men's Super 5s title at Haberdashers.

Manchester opened day two with a resounding 22-7 victory over winless Lancaster, featuring five goals by Lewis Daly and four each for Andrea da Caro (Photo: Trevor Hyde) and Spilios Kaloudis. The title was confirmed in the next game when Invicta and Solihull drew 10-10 - which meant that no team could overhaul Manchester during the televised finale weekend at Lancaster on 23/24 March. 

​From start to finish, there was never more than a goal separating Invicta and Solihull. With just over a minute to go, Scott Martin edged Invicta 10-9 ahead from a man-up opportunity. An Invicta exclusion led to a Solihull equaliser by Jordan Elliot - just 18 seconds from the end.

Manchester's girls, who began their day with a 22-8 demolition of Caledonia - including seven goals by Isobel Howe - will now bid to complete a winning double for their club in the women's Super 5s. But this is very much a three-horse race after Coventry, led by six-goal Kimberly Watson, pulled off a thrilling 9-8 victory over champions Otter in the final match of the Haberdashers programme.

​In the final period, Otter hit back from 8-6 down to 8-8 with goals by Lily Turner and Isabelle Dean only to concede a winner by Ella Cotton 1.46 from the end. Manchester play Otter and Coventry at the Lancaster finale.

Welsh Wanderers had no difficult in claiming the point they needed to make sure of the women's Championship 2 title - they beat Liverpool Water Beatles 11-2 in their final game at Northampton and finished the campaign unbeaten.

​Nia Sanders once again led the way with five goals and the other scorers were Rose Griffiths (2), Lowri Skyrme (2) Megan Curtis and Faye Warren.

Sheffield Stingrays defeated Southampton 11-8, with Anna Motley again making her mark. She scored six - repeating her tally against Penguin Emperors on day one.

​Photo: Welsh Wanderers’ winning line-up with coach Rohan Monico. Back row (L-R): Faye Warren, Katherine Jones, Nia Sanders, Lowri Skyrme, Anna Jenkins-Delf, Jo-jo Chesworth-Rickards, Emma Bailey, Megan Curtis. Front: Margaret Daly, Sophie Pearce, Dani Nice, Rosie Griffiths, Breeanna Quine.