AFTER a poor start to the season Cartmel are gradually moving up the Premier Division and have reached fifth position.

They played very well to beat Morecambe Royals 4-1 and were so dominant they could have been in double figures. As it was Tim Brooks, Joel Drinkall, Ben Clarke and Craig Davidson scored the goals.

Ingleton, although having one of their better seasons, made hard work of beating relegation threatened Slyne-Hest 2-1. Ingleton played the better football for most of the game but had problems containing Slyne, but two goals from Duncan Sullivan were just enough to take the points.

Division One LEADERS Swarthmoor Social Club had to pull out all the stops to win 2-1 against well-organised Grange, who battled all the way.

Swarthmoor were much faster to the ball and had a match-winner in leading scorer Graham Wilcox, who scored both goals for his side and posed a threat every time he had the ball.

This was a much-improved performance by Grange as they had lost 12-1 to the same opponents earlier in the season. Grange never gave up and replied with an excellent Steve Porter goal.

With seven games to play it looks as though Swarthmoor Social Club and Carnforth Rangers will fight it out for the first division championship.

Second-placed Carnforth, as expected, beat relegation-threatened Ingleton Res-erves 5-0.

The young Ingleton side could not get a footfold in the game against Carnforth, who are hoping to gain a second successive promotion and are just one point behind Swarthmoor.

Goals for Carnforth Rangers came at regular intervals from Lee Watson (2), Alec Gorton (2 including a penalty) and Matthew Garwood.

Bentham. the only team with a chance of catching the two leading sides, lost valuable ground on them when held to a draw by Morecambe Royals Reserves.

The excellent Bentham striker Daniel Briggs-Calvert cancelled out an early Royals goal with a superb shot.

A header then gave Royals a 2-1 half-time lead. Briggs-Calvert scored his second to level the game up at 2-2, which brought the best in his side and it was no surprise when Ben Dawson fired in from a free-kick to give Bentham a 3-2 lead.

Royals pressure brought an equaliser, but in the 90th minute Bentham broke away. It was odds on leading scorer Gary Louth finding the back of the net, but a superb save kept his shot out.

Burton Thistle are fighting for their lives to stay in the division and have tightened up their act.

Against a good strong Storeys Reserves side they battled from the first whistle to the last and came away with a point in an amazing 4-4 draw. Thistle goals were scored by Chris Plevey, the excellent Matthew Longden (2) and young Danny White.

Division Two THE most exciting game of the day was at Bolton-le-Sands where the home team played fourth-placed Arnside.

The game had almost everything, good open, fast football, goalmouth action, good skills but sadly no goals.

Both keepers did exceed-ingly well to keep clean sheets.

Middleton overpowered Swarthmoor Reserves from start to finish, winning 7-1.

Jamie Donald scored the lone Swarthmoor goal.

Division Three GRANGE Reserves were trounced 10-1 by promotion candidates Central Pier. Dave Grundy scored the Grange goal when Pier were surprised by a quick breakaway.

Arnside Reserves, with only one win all season, came within minutes of recording a second.

They were much the better side against Allithwaite Rangers and opened a deserved 3-1 half time lead.

Goals scored by Jamie Bonnar and a double by Dean Liddiate had set up the lead, with Gary Porter netting for Allithwaite.

Rangers started the second half much brighter than Arnside and reduced the arrears to 3-2 after long- serving Brad Thompson scored.

It then looked as though Arnside Reserves would hold on, but Rangers substitute Daryl Lomas equalised with almost his first touch.