Southport & District Snooker Round Up

by
1st February 2015

By Chris Gill

Division 1

Tarleton A came out on top in their ‘Derby’ match with Tarleton C, winning 4-2 to stay unbeaten in the league and remain top of the table. The C team started well after Peter Haslam produced his best form and highest break, a wonderful 64, to beat John Nelson 71-12. But luckless Jimmy Jones could not stop Rob Iddon in his match, even failing to trouble the scorer, losing 78-0. Like the opening frames the middle frames were also shared as Chris Gill raced to a 60 point lead with a couple of decent breaks, a 38 being the better of the two, with the C teams own wizard, Mark Rollins getting the better of Andy Bolton 82-48. Marcus Jackson played well to limit Dean Bond to minimal chances coming out a 58-21 winner leaving Shaun Fisher to fight it out with Ste Harrison for the last frame and point. Shaun made a good start getting some 25 points ahead of his rival, but Ste hung on in there to claw his way back into the frame ball by ball. It always looked like going to the death and Ste eventually stepped up to slot a good black right into the heart of the pocket to give the A team a 4-2 win.

The other ‘Derby’ match going on in the division was the one between the A team of Mere Brow and their winless B team, a stat that didn’t change here when the A team won 5-1. Martin Brown and Andy O’Hara got the A team off to a flier gaining wins over Harvey Webster and David Forshaw. With both of the Crabtree’s on next for the B team it was left to Paul junior to gain something out of the night when he saw off a very out of sorts Danny Jassi 45-35. Paul senior could do nothing to stop Andy Booth, going down 21-78 in the process and a 3-1 score line. Matthew Greenwood took on his dad, John, in one of the final pairings but it didn’t go well for the young lad, losing 59-15. Dale Roberts put up a decent fight against Jack Wilby but fell short of his challenge losing narrowly 45-35.

Birkdale Cons went to Argyle on an unbeaten run of five games but were thumped by the Tennis club side 5-1 in what was an eventful night. Ste Forshaw played well against an out of sorts Phil Fitzgerald in the opening frame to post an easy 79-26 victory. Next up were the ‘spring chickens’ of the two teams, Brian Jarrett and Mick Wardle, as they battled to gain the upper hand on each other. Brain fell behind early on and looked like he had lost the frame, but come the final pink and black he only needed two snookers to win. The fouls came, and Brian took his chance when cutting in the black to take the frame 66-59. A good shot, but Mick wasn’t happy. The other ‘spring chicken’ in the side, Colin Coffey, could do nothing to stop Les Sullivan getting one back for the Con club leaving it a 2-1 score line favour of the home side. Birkdale’s top winner this year, Ricky Webb, suffered only his third defeat of the season when Ryan ‘The Snake’ Curry produced his best form of the year to beat him on the final black 61-59. With Paddy Tyndall beating Ronnie Brooks 60-26 and Peter Callaghan, who was making his Argyle debut, beating John Melvin 58-21 it became the Tennis clubs best win at home so far this year.

Waddington Cons A extended their unbeaten run in the league to 5 wins with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Banks A team. Billy Evans took a dramatic opening frame off Alan Sutton, with both players having a sizeable break in their match. Al made his best break of the season a 41, but Billy replied with his own break, a 29 to take the frame on the final black 66-58. Alan Tomlin moved to 10 wins for the season after beating Andy Bridge 61-32, and so open up a 2-0 lead for the Waddy side. Paul Wilson made short work of Roy Cookson, limiting him to only 4 points in his win as Andy Hardisty made the most of his chances to gain a creditable 70-44 win over Ali Iddon. Gary Flynn moved to his 10th win of the season after beating Matthew Wetton, who was making only his 4th appearance for Banks this year, as Andrew Bintcliffe claimed the 6th frame on the night to get Banks their second point. The Waddy go to play Tarleton B next as Banks entertain Argyle in this week’s coming fixtures.

Tarleton B made the trip to Churchtown Cons knowing that any sort of loss would put them further behind the pack as they try to get out of the bottom two. Things started off ok as they shared the opening frames with Craig Rice beating Andy Marsden 69-41 with Ian Gautrey levelling up the frames with a good 81-23 victory over Les Prescott. The middle pairings went the way of the Con club as Dave Harwood stole a march over Ray Forshaw to gain a 63-23 win as Colin Boston moved to 11 wins for the year when beating John Gautrey. Mick Coxon proved too strong for Neil Rigden and beat him 63-25 to claim the win and 4th frame on the night as Ste Gautrey gave Dan Matthews very little beating him 76-1. Tarleton face a tricky match versus Waddy A next as Churchtown take on the basement team Mere Brow B.

Fleetwood Hesketh A beat S & B cc 4-2. I do not have the card to hand, though I do know Ste Crane produced breaks of 40 & 35 in his match.

 

Division 2

Waddington Cons B kept up the pressure on the chasing pack when they won 4-2 at Banks B keeping their lead to six points over the rest. Mike Marsh got the home team up and running early on with a solid win over Alan Ashworth as Keith Percival got the better of Bob Ashcroft 57-32. The top two winners in each side faced off in one of the middle pairings with Banks’ Andy Griffiths gaining a good win over Steve Cobb 64-53, this was only Steve’s second defeat of the season so far. Andrew Linaker made short work in beating John E Gearie to level the frames up, 2 apiece after the first four frames had been played. The Waddy have yet to lose away from home this year and kept this record up by claiming the last two frames with wins for Ray Highton and Phil Gaskell. The Waddy team face Les Dodd’s A next up at home while Banks travel to bottom of the table British Rail.

The ‘Dodd’s Derby’ match went the way of the B team after beating their A team 4-2. The B team, who are second in the table, got off to a flier when going 2-0 up with wins from Dave Mills and Lee Holmes. Dave beating Karl Bellman 59-35 with the help of a 21 break as Lee eased past Brian Hardy 73-33. Andy Reynolds bounced back from last week’s defeat to Mike Marsh to gain his 10th win of the season when beating Graham Marshall, producing his best break of the season, a 30 in doing so. Joe Wade could do nothing to stop the A team get their first win of the night, losing to Alan Harley 24-50, leaving the last two frames to be fought over, and to which team would have the bragging rights for a while. In the first fixture the teams could not be separated, and drew 3 apiece, but the B team need the points to stay within touching distance of the Waddy. Their cause was helped when Paul Rogers beat Ken Dumican to gain the win and fourth point on the night as Peter Jackson got one back for the A team when he beat Peter Parkinson 59-32.

Banks C slipped a place in the table to third, after only gaining a 3-3 draw away to Scarisbrick A. Chris Starkie may well have made his best break of the season, a 28, but could do nothing to stop John Prescott, who himself made two 20 breaks in the frame to go down 82-40. Billy Cummings added a second win for his team when beating Trevor Mason 56-29 to see the visitors in a strong position. The middle frames though, went the way of Scarisbrick when Peter Fenwick beat Arthur Wareing by 10 points, 58-48, with Norman Hallsworth getting the better of Martin Sephton 64-15 to level the frame scores up. Ian Tinsley and Paul Horner both took the last two frames for the home side, Ian gaining a 45-26 win over Cliff Arnold as Paul beat Alan Johnson 58-22. This defeat for Banks meant that they have yet to add to the one win away from home this year, as Scarisbrick made it 5 wins out of 8 played at home in their season.

Our Lady’s suffered their biggest home defeat of the year when losing 5-1 to St.Teresa’s A last week. It was a Jones 1-2 in the opening frames as Martin Jones beat the Formby ‘warhorse’ that is Tommy Tickle 48-26 as Craig Jones saw off Paul Heery 54-8 to leave the home side very much on the back foot. The Formby side responded by putting down their best two sticks this year down on the card, Michael Houghton and Luke Marshall, but even they could nothing to stop the visiting players Trevor Ford and John Cromwell from increasing the frame score to 4-0. Phil Fellows lost to Stephen Cromwell 49-26 as Keith Turner stopped the potential whitewash when gaining a 55 points to 20 win over Lee Cromwell. Teresa’s stay in touch with second placed Dodd’s B, sitting only 1 point behind them, and take on Bretherton next, with Our Lady’s hoping for a change in fortune when they travel to play the out of sorts Banks C team.

Bretherton A threw their name into the hat for a potential promotion push after beating Churchtown Cons B 5-1, to sit only 2 points behind second place in the table. The Con club are still searching for their first away win of the season and didn’t help themselves when losing the opening two frames on the night. Ron Dickinson beat Dave Pritchard with a 53-27 victory, as Paul Connor lost out to Gordon Russell on the final colours 52-44. The 2-0 score line became 4-0 but only after Jim Richards managed to gain a final black ball victory over Jamie Barton 48-44, with Dave Cottam providing the other win beating John Smith 53-18. With the 4-0 score line a touch harsh on the Con club it was down to Guy Hudson to produce his best break, a 29, and his highest frame score of the season to beat Jim Holden 77-24. It could have been a second win for the Con club but they lost the third close frame on the night as Harry Haslam edged past Colin Tennant 63-56. The Con club get next week off because of the Open Week as Bretherton go to play Teresa’s A.

 

Division 3

Bretherton B gave their title ambitions a real boost when handing out a 6-0 thumping to Birkdale Cons C. It was pretty solid stuff from the league leaders as the closest frame on the night was in one of the opening frames where Phil Green lost out to Simon Moulton 52-42. Phil, who was 25 behind with green to black left on, got all the colours required to force a re-spotted black, but that was all in vain as Simon gained his 12th win of the season when potting the black. With only Paul Rimmer managing to get a score of over 30 in any of the remaining frames for the Con club, it was easy pickings for the visitors to claim the whole 6 on the night. This was the third such result at home for the Con club and Bretherton’s 2nd away 6-0 of the season. Bretherton sit out next week’s fixtures, with Birkdale travelling to the Waddy to play the C team.

It was a much tighter affair in the match between Churchtown C and Southport Cons, with both teams sharing the spoils on the night. Nearly all of the frames went the distance in trying to find a winner, four of the frames only being settled by 10 points or less. Jim Bradley managed to edge past Jeff Wainwright on the final colours 59-51 with John Blackhurst only just beating Richard Butterworth 42-33. Only 10 points separated John McCabe and Colin Paul, Colin winning 60-50, with 8 points being the difference between Peter Milford and Matty Pollock, Peter gaining the upper hand 52-40. The remaining two frames were equally as tight and tense as again the two sides battled for the two points left on the night. Brain Sheil beat Larry Swindells 61-54 for the home side as Peter Yates secured a 60 points to 41 win over Roger Hughes to square the match up 3 apiece. The Bath street side face Scarisbrick B next as sit out a Open Week.

Churchtown Cons D made their move to join Southport Cons in 2nd place after coming away from Scarisbrick B with a 5-1 victory. Dave Quinn kept up his great form this year beating John Brown 59-17, and post his 10th win of the season in doing so, with Mike Pickles getting the better of Colin Rimmer 58-37 and a 2-0 lead. Al Graham won his 7th straight match in the league when beating Ian Lowery 45-27, as Russ Walsh moves one short of 10 victories for the year when he defeated Billy Wilson 64-26. Scarisbrick, now 4-0 down, and no chance of gaining their first win at home gained some consolation when Peter Simpson beat Tony Wakefield 67-38, but it was the only point on the night for the hosts as Steve Mentha completed the 5-1 thumping by beating John Hardisty 47-30.

A full hose of 6 wins came for Fleetwood Hesketh B in their match against Waddington Cons C, their first ‘real’ six of the season as Banks D didn’t turn up for that particular match…!!! The home side produced their best effort in the league for many a while when racking up 343 points in their 6 frames, compared to the visitors 148 on the night. Mark Beaver beat Dave Brown with the help of a 20 break 49-15 as Lawrence Renshaw made Guy Riley wish he was still on holiday beating him 53-10. Mick Orme and Phil Marrow doubled the lead when beating Steve Whyte and Max Riley with the full set of 6 frames won when Brian Kimberley and Terry Gowland gained solid victories over Bob Fairclough and Stefan Whyte respectively. Things will be tougher next week for Hesketh as they travel to 2nd placed Churchtown D, with the Waddy hosting Birkdale C who themselves struck out 0-6 this week.

Stop Press. Breaking News, Banks D won their first match in the league…!!! Banks put an end to the horror show of this year’s season by beating St.Teresa’s B 4-2, even though they received the bonus of the home team only fielding five players. Nobby Lee opened the account for the home side, beating Wayne Johnson 57-33, as Gerry Stone edged past Ted Weir on the black 67-59 to level the scores up in the opening frames. Aiden Quinn went down on the final black to Dave Eatough 40-46 as John McGee got the better of Captain Coakley 55-30. As Teresa’s could only field five players, Banks were guaranteed at least the draw, but Darren McDonnell had different ideas as he potted his way to a 60-16 victory over Mike Langford and so making a nice bit of history for the new team to the league. They may not be around next year but at least they can say they won one…!!! They host Les Dodd’s C next up, while Teresa’s go to play Birkdale Cons B.

 

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