Young footballers from Cramlington beat all-comers in a national competition to claim a prestigious trophy.

The young players from Cramlington Town juniors won the final of the Blackpool Seven tournament with a convincing 5-1 scoreline.

They beat teams from Yorkshire and Manchester as well as others from the North East.

The Beacon Lane Estate will be a focus of Cramlington police in their latest drive against youth disorder.

The town's Neighbourhood Policing Team recently announced the start of Operation Riverside, in which they would tackle an increase in reports of youths acting in a disorderly manner in the town, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. They planned to stop and speak to youths, use powers to move them on and provide reassurance to locals.

Now the estate is the focus, where residents had raised concerns about anti-social behaviour. Working closely with antisocial behaviour officer Graham Knowles for Places For People, the group which manage the tenancies for the Beacon Lane estate, the neighbourhood team have signed four problem youths up to Acceptable Behaviour Agreements in an effort to address their behavioural problems.

Anti-social behaviour and criminal damage are the targets in the latest police special operation to hit Cramlington streets.

It follows an increase in reports of youths acting in a disorderly manner in the town, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

Operation Riverside will see officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team specifically tackling these issues as a priority. They say extra patrols will be carried out with police stopping and speaking to youths, using powers to move them on and providing reassurance to locals.

Police listened to people's concerns in Cramlington after their latest 'Cuppa with a Coppa' event.

People were able to take their concerns to officers when they met at the town's Sainsbury's store.

It was the second 'Cuppa with a Coppa' day to be held in Northumberland, and enabled residents to receive useful crime prevention advice and discuss policing issues.

People living in Northumberland are being targeted in a phone scam claiming to offer them a council tax refund.

Fraudsters pretending to be from Northumberland County Council have phoned up people living in the county with different stories to try to get bank details out of their victims.

The latest problem comes on the back of a spate of e-mails sent to small businesses in the county trying to get hold of bank and credit card details by telling them they had over or underpaid council tax and could face a fine.

Northumbrians can order their old garden waste to be delivered to their door thanks to a county composting scheme.

Household waste recovery centres in the county are launching a scheme so that households can buy back their old composted garden waste.

Last year the council collected almost 20,000 tonnes of leaves, grass and hedge and tree cuttings for processing into compost at local farms - saving this material from being buried in landfill sites, reducing greenhouse gases and also reducing the need for peat based composts.

The Northumberland Ladies Netball Summer League is into its fourth round of matches out of five, and there were some high scoring games happening at Cramlington.

In Division One, Concordia A were outclassed 19-11 by Prudhoe A while Division Two saw two games. Croftway A cruised comfortably passed Wansbeck B 32-17, while Amble A lost 20-15 to Hexham A.

In the ladies' Division Three, Seaton Burn B were no match for Astley C, who won 29-7. In Division Four, Amble B won with more than double their opponents' score, beating Astley D 32-15.

Division Five also saw two games. Hexham B beat Croftway B 27-15, and Morpeth C were outclassed 35-6 by Wansbeck D.

Walker Central, unbeaten in the league since October 1 and yet to lose at home, look set to claim a second Northern Alliance Premier Division title in successive seasons.

They have banged in eight goals in each of their last two games to indicate what their rivals are up against. John Campbell, Ian Dunn and Dave Thompson have found the net eleven times between them in those two matches.

This weekend the Central will be protecting their home record against Blyth Town, the latest visitors to 'Fortress' Monkchester. Blyth are unlikely to be intimidated after taking maximum points from their three most recent outings and at Peterlee on Wednesday night they had Danny Beresford claiming a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory with Chris Taylor also on target.

Blyth Town became only the second team to claim the NFA Senior Benevolent Bowl in successive seasons with a 2-0 victory over league colleagues Percy Main at Whitley Park.

Joe Race's 75th minute free kick gave Blyth the lead and it was doubled nine minutes later by Danny Beresford.

Gillford Park have played one game more than Walker and Gillford in the Northern Alliance, and after beating Heddon 2-1 in the Challenge Cup Final in midweek extended an unbeaten run to eleven games with a 1-1 draw at home to Alnwick Town.

Carrying forward a winning spirit from their midweek game, Ponteland United came back twice against the frantic pace of hosts Shankhouse to draw 2-2.

Shankhouse were fast out of the blocks, hustling and closing down the visitors and played some excellent football in the opening 20 minutes. With former Pont player Darren Naylor giving the Pont defence a torrid time it only seemed a matter of time before they scored.

This came after only 12 minutes when a corner was headed down into the goal by an unmarked Anthony Moran, and three minutes later Shankhouse doubled their lead from another set piece. A freekick from Martin Bell was headed home by Paul Armstrong.