BELL Inn 98 consolidated their position at the top of the league with a convincing win over Ledbury Rangers.

They scorched to a 9-3 victory, and led 7-2 at the interval, but only needed the help of three players to score the goals. Lee Cooper and Dan Herbert both scored four with Chris Grubb also getting onto the scoresheet. Rangers did not acquit themselves badly and their goals came from Ally Barnes, Darren Cook and Blackie Smith.

Cross Keys kept in touch with the leaders, winning 6-1 at Oak Misfits. With four games in hand over the Bell, Keys are very much in the race for honours.

Morgan's life is hard nowadays, thanks to their own recent cup successes. It means they are well behind on league games, but winning those outstanding could have them breathing down the leaders' necks. They kept on track on Sunday, beating Ganglands by 5-3, but not before their opponents had given them a scare.

Morgan burst into a 3-0 lead, goals coming from Dave Lawrence (2) and Martin Philpotts but before half-time, Ganglands had drawn level after goals from Tom Bethel, Neil Cadmore and Ian Hill. A half-time talking-to revived Morgan and they came out strongly and a further two goals, to complete his hat-trick, from Dave Lawrence sealed a 5-3 victory.

Talbot Head and Oak Academy were involved in another high-scoring game. Academy are going through difficult times and were forced to field a depleted side. Hence the more experienced Talbot team took full advantage. The scoreline of 13-0 was remarkable for three hat-tricks by Talbot players. David Schooling scored three during each half, a double hat-trick, and Adam Webb also got three. Four others had to be satisfied with just one goal each, Graham Martin, Danny Briscoe, Michael Roberts and Andrew Roberts

In the bottom half of the league, the two Fromes Hill sides met to play a game postponed from Christmas. The Reserves went ahead after only two minutes through Chas Jones but their opponents equalised ten minutes before half-time.

The second period saw no change to the score. Although very even, the game hardly looked like seeing another goal and both teams had to be happy with a 1-1 draw.

Keyz 04 were hoping to jump one position in the league table while Oak All Stars were on County Cup duty. However, despite dominating the game, they gained only one point from a 2-2 draw with Belmont Keys. They were leading 2-1 towards the end after goals from Tom Holland and Andy Lancett but a late equaliser killed their hopes of three points. Anthony Holden-Jones and Dave Pereira were on target for Belmont.

The league's interest in the Herefordshire Cup ended when both Dynamo Ledbury and Oak All Stars were eliminated. Dynamo went out 5-2 against White Lion Marden but performed creditably against strong opposition. Marden went 2-0 ahead in the first-half but were pegged back when Mitch Preedy scored before the interval.

Marden increased their lead soon after the break but Dynamo came back again through Adam Thomas. Afterwards Marden's extra experience told and they found the net twice more to reach the next round.

All Stars were left to wonder what might have been. On paper they had much the easier task against Carlsberg Athletic and seemed to be having no problems at the break, when they were 2-1 ahead.

Carlsberg were down to ten men but as All Stars tired, they rallied to score two goals and leave the Ledbury side stunned at a 2-3 defeat.

The next league meeting takes place at the Civil Service Club on Monday (February 13), starting at 7.30pm.