Report by Chris Gill
Division 1
Mere Brow A lost their 100% home win record and top spot in the league table after losing 4-2 to Banks A this week. This was the first time that Mere Brow had lost at home since they moved from the old Snooker Centre back in January 2012, a run stretching to 25 games. With the irony being that the last team to beat them at home in the league was the Mere Brow side that was Captained by Paul Roberts and had Ian Burns, Adrian Wilding and Dave Cottam playing for them back in March of 2011. The winners for Banks this week were Andy Bridge, Trevor Wetton, Andrew Bintcliffe and Andy Hardisty as they all managed to gain victories against what is still the top side in the league. John Greenwood and Alan Wareing were the only winners for Mere Brow as both Danny Jassi and Martin Brown missed out on getting to the 10 wins marker this season when they both lost their frames. For Mere Brow, they go to Tarleton next week to take on the B team, with Banks facing the visit of Churchtown Cons.
Taking advantage of Mere Brows slip up the Tarleton A team thumped the Tarleton B team 6-0 to move 1 point clear at the top of the division. Chris Hoare again showed why he is one of the top players in the league when making a 59 clearance in his match against John Gautrey. The way he took the final black with the rest showing the confidence of a player who is at the top of his game. John Nelson fought out a dour frame with Ian Gautrey but came out on top after Ian missed a relatively easy pink to the green pocket. Chris Gill made a 30 break with his first visit to beat Andy Marsden, while Andy Bolton saw off Neil Rigden 69-36 to take a 4-0 lead in the match. Marcus Jackson just had too much for Jason Swarbrick while Ste Harrison, who was 20 behind at the time, made a 39 break to get himself back into a frame that was running away from him for a while. This was the second 6-0 win on the trot for the A team and sees them as the only team in the division who hasn’t lost a match yet so far this season.
Fleetwood Hesketh A made light work of Mere Brow B dispatching them 5-1 to keep them within shouting distance of the top two sides in the division. Ste Crane beat Paul Crabtree jnr, aided by his opponent giving him some 20 points in fouls throughout the frame, as Gavin Douglas completed a 2-0 start beating David Forshaw 65-21. Gareth Hibbott compiled a 58 break in his win against Crabtree snr as Dale Roberts got the better of Stuart Evans beating him 65-46. This would be the only highlight for the vistor’s as Matthew Greenwood and Harvey Webster had no answer to Neil Rimmer and Danny Murphy. For Fleetwood, this leaves them 8 points behind Tarleton A, and only 5 behind Mere Brow. For Mere Brow that first win might have to wait another week as they take on the new leaders Tarleton A at home next week.
Waddington Cons played out a 3-3 draw with Birkdale Cons as neither side managed to gain the upper hand in their match. Phil Fitzgerald showed some good form to beat Gary Flynn 74-50, with breaks of 38 & 21 contributing to his win while Billy Evans snatched a close frame away from John Melvin. Paul Wilson gained a comfortable win against Tony Roberts with Paul Taylor failing to beat Ronnie Brooks in a close frame on the colours. With the frame scores at 2 apiece Birkdales top stick Ricky Webb continued with his good form seeing off Ali Iddon and move to 10 wins for the season now. Alan Tomlin carried on from where he left off last year making it 4 wins on the bounce now in beating Les Sullivan 59-15. The Waddy take on Argyle next while Birkdale play hosts to the Cricket Club in next week’s fixtures.
The Argyle side go into their match with the Waddy on the back of a 4-2 defeat to Churchtown Cons who have now put a little distance between themselves and Tarleton B who are second bottom in the table now. Les Prescott beat Ste Forshaw in a high scoring match 73-59 while Craig Rice scraped past Brian Jarrett on the final black 45-43 to give the hosts a 2-0 lead. Another black ball finish followed, with a win for the Tennis club this time, as Colin Coffey beat Mick Coxon 52-48 and so gain his 4th win of the season. Churchtown’s Colin Boston took Ryan Curry to the cleaners beating him easily 70 points to 21 to give the Con club a 3-1 lead. Paddy Tyndall made short work of Dan Matthews to gain their second point of the night but had to concede the last frame to Dave Harwood because of their missing 6th player.
S & B’s six match unbeaten run was broken as the Tarleton C team gained a creditable 4-2 away win. Dave Palmer joined Ricky Webb on 10 wins for the season when defeating Peter Haslam, this after Shaun Fisher had taken the first frame of the match against Paul Parker. Dean Bond managed to get the visitors in front when he beat Tony Milner only for Russell Thornley to level the scores when seeing off Phil Keep 57-44. With the cricket club one player short it was left to Barney Newton to try and level the frame scores up in trying to beat Mark Rollins, but he came up short going down 40 points to 76. The cricket club make the short trip to Birkdale next as Tarleton take on Fleetwood Hesketh who will be looking for revenge after they lost 4-2 in the first fixture back in September.
Division 2
The Waddington B team made the short trip to play British Rail and came away with a good 5-1 win though it dosnt tell the whole story on the night. Peter Robinson jnr made his best break of the season, a 34, only to go down 46-58 to Denis Woodward, who was making his debut for the Waddy this year as Phil Kitchen saw off the attention of Paul Varney to give the visitors the perfect start. The story of the black ball made the middle pairings as both sides gained a victory but by the slimmest of margins. Colin Peet gained a 2 point victory Andy Linaker, winning 53-51, only for Steve Cobb to win by the 1 point over John O’Malley 47-48. This put the Waddy 3-1 up and looking to put a little more distance between themselves and 2nd placed Les Dodd’s B who were in a Open Week, some 3 points behind. The 5th point came after both Waddy players, Ray Highton and Phil Gaskell, managed to gain victories against Ste Naylor and Eddie Cracknell.
The Banks ‘Derby’ game between the B & C teams ended up in a 3-3 draw as Mike Marsh starred on the night. Martin Sephton beat John E Gearie for the C team only for Ray Swailes to get one back for the B team when he defeated Dave Martindale. The middle frames saw Mike Marsh take apart John Prescott 75-2 to inflict only a second defeat of the season for him, with the help of a well made 40 break, his highest of the season so far. Alan Johnson beat Dave Turner 64-14 to once again level the frame scores up at 2 apiece and leave it to the last pairings to see if they could be split on the night. Cliff Arnold couldn’t get past Andy Griffiths, who moved to 8 wins for the season, as Billy Cummings got the C team their third point of the match when beating John Gearie 61-31. Bragging rights stay with the C team though as they hold a 8 point lead over their B team in the table.
The Les Dodd’s A side secured only their second home win of the season after beating the previously high flying St.Teresa’s 4-2 this week. Martin Matthews played solidly in beating Martin Jones 66-17, making two breaks of over 20 in his frame, as Craig Jones replied for Teresa’s in beating Ken Dumican 52-20 to square the frame scores up. Karl Bellman beat Trevor Ford in only his third match of the season so far as John Cromwell beat Alan Harley aided by his best break of the season, a 28, in his 68-32 victory. The Cromwell’s, Lee & Stephen, couldn’t match big John’s success as both went down to defeats at the hands of Graham Marshall and Peter Jackson. The Teresa’s side will be hoping that there new venue of Southport Cons will bring them a turn-around of fortunes next week when the play hosts to Scarisbrick next week with the Doddies A team going to Banks to play the C team.
The big winners in the division were Bretherton A who scored an impressive 5-1 victory over Scarisbrick A. Gordon Russell and Jim Richards got the visitors off to a flyer taking the opening frames, thought Jim would be grateful for taking the final black in doing so in his frame against David Wright. Dave Cottam and Ronnie Dickinson made the frame score 4-0 after they beat Chris Starkie and Graham Ball leaving it to Norman Hallsworth and Paul Horner to try and get some points on the board in the last pairings. Norman did get a point, but only just, as he edged past Harry Haslam 41-34 with Paul going down by the equally slender margin of 9 points to Jim Holden 56-47. Scarisbrick will be looking to bounce back when they play St.Teresa’s at the Waddy next week while Bretherton play hosts to Our Lady’s.
The Formby side will go to Bretherton next week buoyed by the fact that they managed to gain a valuable 4-2 win over the visiting Churchtown Cons B team this week. The home side made the best possible start when Keith Turner and Michael Houghton got the ball rolling beating Churchtowns Colin Tennant and Jamie Barton to go 2-0 up. Paul Connor and Guy Hudson then replied for the visitors beating Paul Heery and Tom Tickle each by the exact same score line 54-40, and so levelling up the frames 2-2. The equality didn’t last as the last two pairings went the way of the Formby side when Luke Marshall beat Dave Pritchard 66-32 with Alan Parker gaining a 66-44 victory against Lawrence Richards. Churchtown face off with British Rail next week for the right to stay off bottom place in the division, sitting as they do tied on 26 points each at this moment in time.
Division 3
Scarisbrick B fought well to hold the 3rd division leaders Bretherton B to a 3-3 draw especially after losing the first pairings of the match as well. William Moulton and Alan Venables got the visitors off to a perfect start after seeing off the challenges of John Brown and Eric Stockley but it was all Scarisbrick after that. Two nil down became 2 apiece after Billy Wilson beat Nev Marsden 47-15 with Colin Rimmer inflicting only the second defeat of the season to Simon Moulton beating him on the final black 45-39. Bretherton’s John Gornall managed to gain one more point for his team when he beat Ian Lowery 44-17 but Peter Simpson made sure of the draw and 3 points as he took his frame against Stephen Fiddler. Scarisbrick have now gone three unbeaten in the league after losing their opening nine matches of the season, so things are definitely improving for them now.
Southport Cons recorded their second 6-0 victory of the season against Waddington C to go level with Bretherton at the top of the division on 50 points each. In a match that was all one way traffic from the start, Waddington had no answer to their hosts as they were outscored by over 200 points on the night. Colin Paul brought up his 10th win of the season when he beat Dave Brown 67-22 with John Blackhurst involved in the closest match of the night, a 8 point victory over Bob Fairclough. Wins for Larry Swindells and Matty Pollock took the match to 4-0 before Jeff Wainwright and Steve Mawdsley completed the rout with wins over Steve Whyte and Max Riley. They might be tested a bit more next week when they go to play the Churchtown Cons D team, while Waddy C face Scarisbrick B in a bottom of the table clash.
Birkdale B stayed in touch with the leaders, sitting just the 3 points behind them, after they thumped Fleetwood Hesketh B 6-0. Johnny Mullard and John Warnick got the Con club off to the best of starts when getting past Fleetwood’s Mick Orme and Ian Brownhill with a bit to spare. With Reg Dobson beating Phil Marrow 56-29 it was Charlie Turner who breathed a lot easier in his match after beating Mark Beaver on the final black to gain a 63-61 victory. John Stringfellow and Peter Wilding completed the full house of six wins when beating Terry Gowland and Brian Kimberley to see them record their third 6-0 win of the season, the most by any team in all three divisions so far this season.
A bit of a surprise in the Churchtown ‘Derby’ match as the 9th placed C team beat the 3rd placed D team 4-2. Mick Pickles made his highest break of the season so far, a 31 against Peter Milford, to put one frame on the board for the D team with Brian Sheil replying for the C team in beating Tony Wakefield 63-14. The middle two pairings both went the way of the C team as Jim Bradley beat Steve Mentha with the help of a 28 break with Roger Hughes seeing off Russ Walsh 53-33. With the D team only fielding 5 players it was left to Al Graham to secure their second point of the night, of which he duly did when dispatching John McCabe 60 points to 19. The D team face a tricky match next week when they take on one of the divisional leaders Southport Cons, as the C team travel to play the Les Dodd’s C team.
Playing at their new venue of Waddington Cons, it wasn’t the best of nights for the St.Teresa’s B team, as they went down 4-2 to Les Dodd’s C. Mike Langford got the home side’s first point at their new venue beating Kevin Woodfull 54-21 but Nobby Lee could have made it a perfect start had he not lost on the final black 46-43 to Kyle Woodfull. The middle pairings both went the way of the visitors as Ted Weir could only watch on as Harry Wilby potted everything in sight to run out a very comfortable winner 81-17. And when Martin Cusack beat Aiden Quinn 57-36 it meant that the Teresa’s side would not be celebrating at their new venue with a win. John McGee got the home side’s second point on the night when beating Damien Bloomfield in a high scoring match 71-57, but it the win went the way of the visitors after Wayne Pudge got the final black against Peter McGee to secure their third away win of the season.
The Birkdale Cons C team beat bottom of the table Banks D to leave them still searching for that elusive first league win of the season. Not much New Year spirit was given out in the opening frames as both players from Birkdale, Andy Day and Phil Horan beat their opponents comfortably to put the Con club 2-0 up. The middle frames were both tight affairs with Ted Coghlan beating Darren McDonnell by only 10 points as Graham Melvin managed to beat Phil Green by just the 8 points to leave it 3-1 in favour of the home side. Banks only had the five players on the night, which is a shame as they might have got the draw after Graham Ward lost to Gerry Stone 47-22 to see Banks take 2 points away from Birkdale on the night. Banks will have to wait for the first league win as they face an Open week next up, but for Birkdale it’s the big home Derby between the B and C teams, with the C team matching up on the night.
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