The scene is set for a battle royal at New Lane on Wednesday night (7.00pm) between York RI and Malton and Norton.

Both kept their promotion hopes alive by winning away on Saturday and if Malton win the midweek encounter they'll clinch promotion while dealing a hammer blow to RI's own hopes of going up.

RI enjoyed a great 17-10 win at Heath on Saturday - a result which effectively ended Heath's own promotion hopes.

But the whole question of who goes up has been clouded by reports that lowly Sheffield Oaks have folded.

They failed to fulfil their fixture against another promotion hopeful, Skipton, on Saturday.

With RI due to complete their programme against Oaks on Saturday, the whole promotion picture may have to be sorted out by administrators.

RI roared back from 10-0 down at half-time against Heath, whose points came from a Tom Garrett try after a lineout with Mick Gleeson kicking the conversion and tagging on a penalty.

Matthew Yates kicked a penalty to get RI on the board and then Ian Hassell went under the posts to give Yates the easy chance to level the scores with the conversion.

With five minutes left RI created an overlap down the left and Jon-Paul Wong steamed over to clinch victory.

It was back to earth with a bump after last week's heroics at Twickenham for Tetley Vase holders Malton, who found themselves playing on a small second team pitch at Old Otliensians.

But Malton stuck to their task against rugged opponents to win 29-12 and capture top spot on points difference from Heath and Skipton.

Centre Tim Chapman opened the scoring with a try after 20 minutes and Andy Newsome added the extra points.

The next score came when Ed Gwilliam pressurised the home scrum-half and charged down a clearance kick 20 yards out before gathering to romp over.

Because of the small playing area Malton were forced into playing a more limited game but when the ball was passed wide the backs always looked threatening and wing Neil Gilbertson profited with a well deserved try.

More was to follow before the break when Phil Ryan, on as an injury replacement for Dave Knaggs, showed his power with a typical drive over under the posts. Newsome again converted to give Malton a healthy 24-0 lead.

The second half was marred by a serious injury to Malton scrum half Andy Newsome which required the services of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, just one of several incidents during a scrappy second half.

With the injuries mounting Malton eased off the gas slightly to let Otliensiens in for two tries, one of which was converted.

The game ended in farce when, with three separate brawls taking place, play was allowed to continue and Ian Mansell cruised over for Malton's fifth try.

Victory at RI and at Halifax Vandals on Saturday will see Malton go up as champions unless the Sheffield Oaks situation alters matters.

Updated: 13:03 Monday, April 30, 2001