Last weekend’s 15-7 defeat at home to Northampton was Sale’s eight consecutive defeat and with fellow strugglers Leeds beating Saracens, saw them hit rock bottom for the first time since the inception of the professional league.

Sinclair was rightly dismissed while Kearney was stretchered off with his leg in a brace.

Bedians earned vital points at the bottom of the table despite going a goal behind to Govan Athletic.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the BHF was their representative Shirley McNally who thanked the club’s ladies.

Sale FC moved back to the top of the Premier Divison but had to overcome a strong Broadway Brook side to edge the game with a winner in the last minute.

The team finished as the top team in the North and third overall to pick up bronze medals.

The season begins on April 7 and other fixtures include the Eric Dale Pairs, a one-day event at Brooklands, on June 5, Merit finals at Cringlewood on July 18, the Team KO finals day on September 12 at Longsight.

Dan Martell and Niall Flynn completed a 235-mile cycle ride to south London over three days and arrived a couple of hours before their side kicked off against AFC Wimbledon.

It’s no coincidence that the dramatic slump in fortunes since the New Year, which has seen them plunge into the relegation mire after losing seven games on the bounce, coincided with an injury crisis which last week saw 25 players on a crowded treatment table.

One reason for this was that Grays had strengthened recently, with manager Julian Dicks bringing in numerous new players, while Alty had experienced three long trips in the previous fortnight.

News of the 29 year-old’s contract extension was just the tonic director of rugby Kingsley Jones and his squad needed following a depressing run of league results which have seen Sale drop into the Guinness Premiership relegation zone.

Govan Athletic fluffed their lines as they let slip a 2-0 lead against Hooley Bridge Celtic to lose 4-2.

Sale’s seconds also shared the spoils as they drew 1-1 with South Cheshire, Paul Masterson on target for Sale, who were punished for a defensive lapse.

The A side posted a seventh straight win with a 5-2 defeat of Rileys Chorlton A to stay well clear at the top of division one.

Starting on Thursday, March 11, Rileys Chorlton will hold 14 different tournaments from which the champions will team up with Bristow and Deller to form a 16-man Grand Final on Thursday, June 17.

The 2006 Cheshire County Ladies captain – who is still the county representative on the six Northern Counties regional committee – played a big part in Cheshire staging the Northern Counties championship at Heswall in 2009.

The young hooker, pictured below, who has been tipped as a future Welsh Test star by his club boss Kingsley Jones, put pen to paper on a new two year deal with the Edgeley Park club earlier this month, keeping him in the North West until the summer of 2012.

The Sussex side make much play of having a small squad but Altrincham went into this game in a weaker position than their hosts, having lost Matt Doughty, Dale Johnson, Colin Little and Robbie Lawton to injury while John McAliskey was only fit enough to warm a bench, whose other four members had just one league start between them.

The plan was working as Ashton unsettled the opposition with an early penalty and continued to pressure this lively Ruskin Park side.

But on Saturday, they more than compensated with an away victory. Lymm are riding high as league leaders and hadn’t lost at home since September 2008 until Saturday.

Range were looking good as they led 3-1 at the break with Danny Heffernan (2), and Leon Hamilton netting with Azuka Otutu replying for South. Range stayed in control until Dave Hamnett received a red card. Danny Booth then reduced the arrears and a super strike from Nathan Coppin earned South a vital and deserved point.

In the under-14s girls, Kamesha Nicholson won gold in the one-lap and three-lap sprints as well as the long jump, making her the Athlete of the Match.

She will be so happy to see her 25-year-old grandson Thomas take centre stage at the Games in Vancouver when he performs his incredible routines as a ski acrobat.

The firsts won a thriller 4-3 at South Wirral.

The Sharks director of rugby has been working overtime of late to try and retain several key members of his squad with James Gaskell and Marc Jones following hard on the heels of Dwayne Peel in being the latest to re-commit to the club and with more retentions hopefully in the offing.

The plea was made by Stockport Council leader Dave Goddard, who turned his attentions to the rugby club while addressing fans of Stockport County.

The former Trafford AC heptathlon is recovering from the same eye disease that almost cost the United star his career in 2006.

This was done by retiring officials; Captain David Howard, President Ian Berry, Lady Captain Liz Brook, Junior Captain Tom Conroy and professional Nick Ryan before new Captain Peter Collard drove into office.

Without injured captain Robbie Lawton and perennial top-scorer Colin Little, Alty took the lead after 16 minutes.

AFC Quarry, Old Alts, Salford AFC and Sale Amateurs joined fellow Sale Rovers and Heatonmoor Phoenix in the last eight, while AFC Partington and Trafford United maintained second tier interest.

Andy McKinney has been promoted from the Trafford Metros to bolster the Phoenix bench during home games at Altrincham.

Crewe scored first but George Sterlini soon had Sale on terms and Danny Pratt put them into the lead with a smart finish.

The league’s KO competitions are now through to the semi-final stage, and in the main competition, there was a close finish between Openshaw A and Albert B before the former prevailed.

The Sale Sharks outside centre, who turns 24 on Saturday, received the perfect birthday present on Tuesday when he was named in the starting line-up by England manager Martin Johnson.

And the Welsh visitors, much-improved from the side Altrincham dumped out of the FA Trophy before Christmas, deserved their win.

Following the resignation of Alex Gill of Hooley Bridge Celtic, who worked in the role for two seasons, a number of candidates were interviewed and the new manager will be Anthony Vanterpool, who has managed South Manchester for several seasons. He is joined by Govan Athletic’s Jack Norbury, who will be the coach.

Saturday’s focus was at Bowdon where Ashton’s second XV were the visitors.

Adam Sixsmith led the Trafford charge with his best-ever run as a terrific last mile saw him claim the individual bronze medal.

A busy year saw a variety of events such as a fashion show, afternoon teas, raffles and a Christmas Fair helping to raise funds.

A brace from Hayes and a goal a piece for Williamson and Emmett saw Quarry bounce back excellently from their defeat at Alts the weekend previous.

Both internationals had an option to either stay or leave come May and England star Wigglesworth has opted to call time on his illustrious nine-year career with Sale in order to take up a lucrative three year deal with high-flying Sarries.

The London side led 2-0 before the half-hour mark, Altrincham twice allowing their opponents to run at them unchallenged.

A weekend that had begun with Sale still clinging to the hope – however remote – of a berth in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, ended with the consolation prize of a route into the Amlin Cup being crushed into the Stockport mud by a Cardiff try-blitz at Harlequins even before the half-time whistle had sounded at a soggy Edgeley Park.

A brace from Carter and a goal a piece for Gilsenan and Scott fired Alts to a 4-2 victory against the visitors and leaves them nine points off the pace with two games in hand on their opponents.

Sale started the game brightly with an excellent first half performance which saw top scorer Danny Pratt net two goals.

He began extending his repertoire two years ago by introducing the latest high-tech aids at his base at Styal, endorsed by the club’s star player David Horsey.

The 25-year-old forward signed from Sheffield Scimitars on Friday helped Tony Hand’s misfiring team to two points to put their title challenge back on track.

Sale FC are at the halfway stage of their Manchester Shield Semi-Final against Radclyffe Arms with goals from Mark Hughes and a brace from Danny O’Brien take a 3-1 lead into next week’s second leg.

The ladies second team currently second in the Cheshire Women’s League Division Two lost at league leaders South Cheshire Ladies 4-1 leaving them 12 behind in second place, but still have a game in hand.

Scrum-half Peel injured his groin towards the end of Sharks’ Heineken Cup defeat at Cardiff Blues and, for now, has been left out of Wales’ 35-man squad by head coach Warren Gatland.

They even had to contend with an injury to goalkeeper Stuart Coburn in the warm-up which meant that Russell Saunders came in at the last minute – and acquitted himself well in his first game of the season.

James, who was Cheshire’s youngest-ever player to win county colours at the age of 16 when a junior at Didsbury Golf Club, was assistant professional at Chorlton then Northenden before becoming professional at Northenden for the best part of the past decade.

On the pitch, the big thaw came too late to save another day of mass postponements and add to the fixture backlog headache.

Played at Levenshulme Bowling Club, the semis and final produced some real thrills and skills before Rileys eventually won through.

This weekend, the big clash in Division One sees the leaders AFC Quarry travel to second-placed Old Alts, bidding to extend their lead at the top of the table to a massive 15 points.

Despite being long considered one of the brightest attacking talents this country has produced in years, the Sale Sharks outside centre has so far endured something of a chequered international career since making his debut as a raw 18-year-old away at Cardiff in 2005 when he became the second-youngest England player since the Second World War.

The South African batsman, who spent the early part of the 2009 campaign at Old Trafford, will fill in as the club’s overseas player until the arrival of Kumar Sangakkara.

They have been presented with a framed collection of four-hole flags from each of the 2009 Grand Slam tournaments.

When the weather eventually relents to allow fixtures to resume the battle for the Premier and division one crowns looks set to go to the wire at either end of the two top divisions of nine in the league.

The league match at home to Wrexham is now set for Tuesday, February 23 (7.45pm) with the reverse fixture on Tuesday, March 9 (7.45pm).

Although having continued the fine form he showed with England during the Autumn Test series, amazingly for the second-highest try scorer in Sale Sharks’ Premiership history, Cueto has only crossed the whitewash once this season.

Phoenix made the trip to Basingstoke without leading scorer Ed Courtenay, but welcomed back keeper Steve Fone as they looked to keep in touch with Milton Keynes at the top of the EPL table.

Certain areas of the Moss Lane surface were frozen and the match official deemed it too dangerous to play on.

In outside cup competitions, Sale FC are fighting on three fronts they are still in the last eight of the Manchester Shield along with Chorlton Beech.

The 12-year-old went to the Cambridgeshire circuit for the finale, hoping to snatch the title away from rival Toby Reynolds.

The Edgeley Park fly-half has been out in the cold at Test level since playing in the ill-fated tour to New Zealand 18 months ago and there’s a feeling that the national side have never really seen Hodgson, pictured, at his inspirational best.