Malton and Norton are expecting a big crowd at The Gannock tomorrow as they hope to take another step along the road to Twickenham.

They are playing Wellingborough Old Grammarians in the sixth round of the Tetley Vase (2.15pm) with a place in the northern quarter-finals at stake.

Malton should be at full strength apart from skipper and fly-half Chris Creber, who is on honeymoon in Australia.

However, Malton have a ready replacement in fellow Aussie Nick Tyson, who has moved from London, where he was with the Esher club, to North Yorkshire.

Malton feel that home advantage will give them the edge and if they can work the ball out to the likes of Neil Gilbertson and Ian Mansell then they could keep the Yorkshire flag flying in a competition in which the white rose county has a good record.

Bradford Salem, Huddersfield YMCA, West Leeds and Sheffield Tigers are all past finalists while Scarborough reached the semi-finals two years ago before going out to Billericay.

The home side, who are top of Yorkshire Three, won't be taking their opponents lightly. Wellingborough are in mid-table in the East Midlands Division One which is thought to be the equivalent of Malton's standing in the rugby union ladder.

Malton players have been queuing up for training this week and Arthur Wilson typified the determination in the Malton camp by returning from a skiing holiday in the Alps so as not to miss out on the excitement.

Malton, formed in 1953, are no strangers to silverware, having won the Yorkshire Silver Trophy in 1986 and the North Yorkshire Trophy in 1985 and 1995.

In order to relieve the pressure on their fixture schedule, the club's second XV will be fulfilling a North Yorkshire Trophy match at North Ribblesdale on Sunday.

The selection of last year's captain Nigel Durham at scrum-half is one of three changes in the York team to entertain fellow strugglers Old Crossleyans. The selectors hope that his experience will be the key to securing a first league win for improving York.

Durham comes in for James Arkle who moves to the bench. Prop Simon Humphries returns in place of Andy Smith and Nick Smart is back at No 8 for Simon Thornton.

Old Crossleyans are just one place above York having won only two games one of which was against York when they won 6-3 with the last kick of the match. This is one of five games that York have lost by a single score.

York RI leave their team selection for their visit to Moortown in Yorkshire Three until the last minute as Tim Barley injured a knee in his first game back as scrum-half last week. Matthew Yates hopes to be fit again after straining a calf.

School teams from Manor and All Saints have been in action this week under RI's New Lane floodlights as part of the partnership between the club and local schools.

Ripon entertain Huddersfield YMCA with skipper Jim Buckley named on the bench after being out with knee ligament trouble. Ben Taylor takes the place of Chris Warters.

Mark Pocock makes his first team debut at centre in preference to Brad Atkinson.

Selby entertain Hull in Yorkshire One but are still without Carl Patterson, because of a knee injury, and Dave Batty is at a wedding.

Hull will include several former Pocklington players, including player-coach Gary Pearce and former Hull RL professional Julian Barkworth.

Revenge will be the spur for Pocklington, who tomorrow travel to Pontefract.

The hosts lie just one place above Pock in the Yorkshire One table and they will not forget their earlier collision at Percy Road when Pock stormed into an early lead and looked set for a comfortable win. But their command evaporated and Pontefract countered to steal the plunder.

Sam Allen is unavailable so John Oxley comes in at centre for the visitors.

Goole, who have moved up from Yorkshire Two to North Two East since the league system started in 1987, travel to Morpeth.

Brian Cook returns on the wing in place of Dave Woodall and Leeds University student Andrew Wilson makes his debut at hooker in place of Sean Kellett.

Yorkshire Two front-runners Scarborough travel to Wath-on-Dearne with Greg Walker named in their squad as Ken Proctor has an injured back.

Updated: 12:11 Friday, January 26, 2001