1st Division
Mere Brow A took over the baton at the top of the table after they beat Tarleton BC A 5-1, taking a two point lead over the long time leaders with just five games remaining in the league. The opening frames were shared after Tarletons Chris Hoare beat Andy O’Hara 57-36 with Martin Brown replying for the Brew when making three breaks in the 20’s to beat John Nelson 75-36. The middle pairings saw Rob Iddon & John Greenwood played one of those frames that always looked destined to finish on the black, and it did, as Rob took brown, blue & pink only to miss the black leaving John the chance to take the frame away from Rob. Chris Gill lead from the start against Alan Waring but a missed yellow with the reds opened the door for Alan who took his chance to make it 3-1 to the visitors. The final pair for Tarleton, Andy Bolton & Marcus Jackson both had their chances against Mark McDonough & Danny Jassi but ultimately came up short as the Brew pair played solidly to extinguish any come back from the home side. The Champions proved why they are the team to beat once again and now look favourites to hold aloft their 4th consecutive title come March the 17th.
Banks A, who are having one of their best seasons in the league for a while now, drew their 3rd home match on the trot now when they shared a 3-3 result with the visiting Tarleton BC C team. The home side got off to a flyer when Andy Bridge & Andy Hardisty both won, Bridgey especially, who made breaks of 35 & 32 to ton Russ Rigby 106-11. But Tarleton responded when Jimmy Jones beat Trevor Wetton 52-26, surely one of Jimmy’s best results in the 1st division with Al Sutton beating Phil Keep to restore the two point lead. Tarletons last pair of Mark Rollins & Dean Bond brought home the last two points on the night after they beat Andy Bintcliffe & Roy Cookson respectively and so give hope of getting off bottom spot in the league.
Birkdale Cons A won their first match in five after thumping the visiting Waddington Cons B team 5-1 last week, the Waddy’s 5th such score line this year. Birkdale dominated early on as Phil Fitzgerald beat Phil Kitchen 83-25 helped along with a break of 34 & Les Sullivan completing a 56-9 victory over Phil Gaskell. The Waddy’s Andy Linaker compiled his beat break in the division this year, one of 46 in his 76-24 win over Paul Shawcross but Mick Wardle edged out Graham Wragg on the final black 48-41 to keep hold of that 2 point lead. John Melvin beat Denis Woodward 64-37 with Saul Kemp completing the 5-1 rout when beating Steve Cobb 72-43.
The chickens came home to roost for Argyle LTC as they beat Waddington Cons A 6-0 last week, their first 6-0 thrashing since December 2011 when they turned over the Stanley club to nil also. Ste Cooper & Ste Forshaw set the ball rolling when turning over Mark Tomlin & Gary Flynn in the opening frames with Brian Jarrett & Ryan Curry following up in the middle frames as they beat Billy Evans & Paul Taylor. Following on from toppling the then leaders Tarleton BC A last week, Argyle went on to record only their 5th and biggest win of the season when Paddy Tyndall beat Alan Tomlin 81-10 with Jon Holms beating Ali Iddon 61-11. It was the Waddy’s first 6-0 drubbing since leaving British Rail in 2014, where their last score line to nil was against Mere Brow A back in the February of 2013.
Tarleton BC B took apart the Les Dodd’s B team 5-1, though disappointingly Doddy’s only turned up with just the 4 players on the night. It certainly didn’t affect Tarleton as Ste Harrison beat Andy Rae 54-14 with Ian Gautrey completing a 86-27 victory over Dave Brown. Alan Harley did managed to get his side a vital win when beating Ray Forshaw 65-48 but John Gautrey beat Danny Clegg 60-31 to complete the fixture 5-1 winners with those two missing players. Doddy’s now face a fight on their hands to retain their top flight status with Tarleton C now level board with them in the league though they do have a re-arranged match to play yet with Waddy Cons A.
Fleetwood Hesketh A v Churchtown Cons A – No scorecard received
2nd Division
League Leaders Banks C made it 10 unbeaten in the league now as they beat Bretherton A 4-2 and strengthen their chances of returning back to the 1st division next year. Billy Cummings & Martin Sephton gave the visitors the perfect start going 2-0 up after beating Ste Fiddler & Gordon Russell, Martin making a break of 27 in his frame against Gordon. Steve Harris got the better of John Hart 66-13 as Arthur Wareing took on Dave Cottam only to go down a 91-15 loser making it a 3-1 score line to Banks. Jim Richards managed to get Bretherton one more point on the night after beating Dave Martindale on the final black but Mr Dependable Alan Johnson took his frame 42-30, to post his 15th victory of the season, and remain unbeaten still in the league this year. The fixtures suit Banks now in the run in as they only have S&B to play from the teams trying to chase them down as they look to win the division once again like they did back in 2012.
Southport Cons A kept up their challenge in trying to haul Banks C back in as they too completed a 4-2 victory over Banks B last week. Southport Cons last played in the 1st division way back in the 2003/04 season and are making great strides in trying to make it back to the top flight with this current side, though the chasing pack aren’t that far behind. Nobby Lee went down to Banks’ top stick Michael Marsh 53-44 as Mike Langford replied for the Bath street side when beating Dave Turner 50-28. The Cromwell pair of Lee & John both went on next with Lee losing out to John E Gearie 69-23 as Big John beat Andy Griffiths 51-26, Johns 10th win of the season. The last two frames saw Ste Cromwell & Matty Pollock secure the 4-2 win after they beat John Gearie & Harry Caunce to leave them just 4 matches left to secure one of the top two spots.
Formby’s Our Lady’s made it back-to-back wins in the league for the first time this season when they defeated Les Dodd’s A 4-2 after the 5-1 thumping of Churchtown Cons B last week. It was an improbable score line after the opening frames both went the way of the home side with Karl Bellman beating Paul Heery 60-51 & Jordan Scutt narrowly beating Alan Parker 40-32. But the visitors fought back to take the remaining frames on the night as first Luke Marshall beat Peter Parkinson 60-46 with a black ball victory for Michael Houghton over Graham Marshall. Mike Lount was now the only obstacle left in the way of Our Lady’s wining the match as they could only field 5 players to which Keith Turner made sure of the 4-2 win when completing a 68-30 victory over the Doddy’s player.
Mere Brow B fought out a hard fought 3-3 draw with the visiting Bretherton B team seeing them go unbeaten at home now in their last 5 home games. The opening pair for the Brew, Matthew Greenwood & Dale Roberts got off to a great start when both won to put the hosts 2-0 up. But that advantage was soon eroded as Bretherton’s Nev Marsden beat David Forshaw 67-24 with Simon Moulton completing a 64-30 win over Kyle Prescott. The Crabtree family took centre stage in the last frames with Paul junior beating Phil Iddon 58-19 and Paul senior losing 25-42 to Alan Venables.
Scarisbrick A are fast becoming the draw experts as they drew their fourth game on the trot 3-3 this time when they went to play Churchtown Cons B. The draw might have been the last thing on the minds of the Churchtown players after going 2-0 up with wins for Dave Pritchard & Paul Connor in the opening frames as Scarisbrick looked down the barrel of their 7th defeat this year. The middle frames were close as Norman Hallsworth beat Colin Tennant 58-47 with Chris Starkie going down to Jamie Barton 47-23. Three one down was soon turned to 3 apiece when the Scarisbrick pair of Paul Horner & Ian Tinsley saw off the challenge of Gary Hudson & John Smith to leave the two sides sharing the honours on the night.
3rd Division
The 3rd division title is very much on now as Les Dodd’s C slipped up at home last week when they could only manage a 3-3 draw with the visiting British Rail team. Doddy’s were playing a team who despite being in contention near the top of the league up to Christmas have now gone 8 league matches without a win drawing half of those matches in the process. Doddy’s on the other hand have been flying at home recently having only dropped 5 points out of their last 5 home fixtures. Liam Wright edged out Kyle Woodfull on the final black 63-61 in one of the opening frames as Jamie O’Shaughnessy squared things up when beating Nick Wright 72-24. This was to be replicated in the middle frames as the Railways Eddy Cracknell beat Martin Cusack on the final black 63-58 with Chris Rae beating John O’Malley 51-33. Harry Wilby scored 70 points in his match for the second match running as he beat Colin Nuttall 71-18 but the Railwaymen secured the draw after Peter Robinson beat Gary Hardwick 71-51.
With the leaders possibly dropping a few points Churchtown Cons D made sure it wasn’t all one way traffic at the top when the demolished the visiting Birkdale Cons B side 6-0, leaving them just the 2 points behind now. The dependable opening pair for the Con club of Dave Quinn & Trevor Ford made it the best start possible when both winning, Trevor’s win over John Warnick coming courtesy of a doubled black to win when needing a snooker to win as well. Close games followed as Al Graham beat Peter Wilding 49-29 & Reg Dobson losing out to Steve Mentha 54-40 to leave it a 4-0 score line. The whitewash was completed after both Russ Walsh & Billy Pye both won, though Russ can be grateful for his win over David Robinson after beating him on the final black 43-41. Both teams will be looking at the last match of the season where they both meet in what could become a final match title decider. It can’t be better set up than that.
Southport Cons B stay unbeaten in 2016 after they completed a 4-2 victory over the Scarisbrick B team last week, who themselves are looking for their first win in three now. The opening frames were shared as Colin Paul put the visitors on up when beating Ian Lowery 55-38 with Eddie Stockley replying for Scarisbrick when beating John Blackhurst 52-33. Wayne Cooper made it 7 wins from 7 at home this year when beating Peter Yates 58-30 as Ian Higgins beat John Brown to once again square the match up. But the Bath street side took the match away from their hosts as Larry Swindells & Jeff Wainwright completed close victories over Mick Hodge & Peter Simpson.
Formby Sports & Social brought up their 10th win in their debut season, this one a 6-0 demolition job on the visiting Churchtown Cons C team. Mark Abbott & Tony Brookfield set the ball rolling when they both won their opening matches against Adam Rothwell & John McCabe with Steve McCluskey & Adrian Morris doubling up the score when beating Roger Hughes & Peter Milford. The points where finally wrapped up when Mark Winkley beat Joe Perberdy just, 41-39, and Alex Fairley getting the better of Brian Sheil 51-40. This was Formby Sports 3rd 6-0 win with this one coming after they had beaten Waddy C 6-0 last week as well.
Birkdale Cons B completed a 5-1 win double over Waddington Cons C after they recorded the same score line over them back in October last year. Birkdale’s Paul Murphy beat Max Riley 49-28 as Bob Fairclough kept Ted Coghlan to a miserly 9 points in his 52-9 point’s victory. But Birkdale reeled off the remaining frames with Geoff Wright beating Stefan Whyte 76-69 & Phil Green beating Dave Brown 56-14. Birkdale’s last win came three weeks ago when they overcame their B team 4-2, which is always good, but this would turn out to be their best result in the league at home after wins came for Eddie Tennant & Paul Rimmer. It’s the basement battle next week for the Waddy as they take on Churchtown Cons C with Birkdale going away to play Banks D
Banks D v Fleetwood Hesketh B – No scorecard received
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