NORTH Midlands clin-ched promotion to next season's Tetley's County Championship and booked a place in a Twickenham final with a 33-3 win over Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire at Stour-bridge last Saturday.

The win in the Tetley's County Shield semi-finals secured North Midlands a title showdown with Eastern Counties at Twickenham on Saturday, May 29, kick-off 11am, and ensured a top-flight place. It also ended two years of disappointment after consecutive defeats in the Shield semi-finals and then in promotion play-offs. Stourbridge winger Tom Beechey was the hero of North Midlands' win with a hat-trick of tries, two of them before the break.

But it was very much a team performance with the Sigley brothers, Terry and Rob, outstanding in a pack that soon subdued the much-vaunted NL&D forwards.

The other North Midlands try was scored by Moseley flanker Steve Halbert.

Skipper Duncan Hughes, the Stourbridge fly-half, landed three penalties and also converted two of the tries.