By: Chris Gill
1st Division
First placed Tarleton A beat Fleetwood Hesketh A 4-2 in a match that lacked any great quality but had loads of tension, missed pots and grateful chances. In the opening frames Andy Bolton came from 20 behind to beat Neil Rimmer on the green, as John Nelson beat Gavin Douglas on a re-spotted black. Gavin was 18 up with 18 left on, but John took all the colours and a tricky but gettable re-spotted black to give Tarleton a 2-0 lead. Chris Gill beat Mike Roberts with a bit to spare, 61-12, which left Rob Iddon to fight it out in a right royal battle with Gareth Hibbott. Needing a snooker going into the final colours, Gareth eventually got Rob to miss, giving him the chance to take blue pink and black and snatch an unlikely win 62-61. Ste Harrison fell to Danny Murphy on the blue, leaving Ste Crane trying to beat Marcus Jackson for the draw. Ste had Marcus tied up in all sorts of trouble early on, and he even had first shout of winning the frame, but he missed the brown off its spot. Marcus dished up to claim a superb comeback win and add 4 points to Tarleton’s title challenge.
Mere Brow A cut the deficit to one point behind Tarleton after smacking the Cricket Club 6-0. Andy O’Hara and Danny Jassi got comfortable wins against Tom Palmer and Mark Fletcher, leaving John Greenwood and Andy Booth the task of beating Tony Milner and Barney Newton to increase the lead to 4-0. This became the fifth straight defeat for S&B in the league and was topped off when Alan Wareing beat Paul Parker 65-31 and Martin Brown taking his frame 55-45 over Dave Palmer. This win keeps the pressure on at the top with only 6 matches left as Mere Brow look to chase down their third straight league title.
Waddington Cons inflicted more pain on Mere Brow B, thumping them 5-1 and so move into 4th place in the table. The Mere Brow pairing of Dale Roberts and Harvey Webster struggled in the opening frames against Billy Evans and Gary Flynn, both losing of their opponents. Paul Wilson made short work of David Forshaw, beating him 71-25 as Paul Crabtree jnr got their only point on the night when he beat Ali Iddon 75-47. This win puts the Waddy only 4 points behind Fleetwood in third, with the two yet to play again this season. For Mere Brow after playing the top four in the division now they might be hoping for easier games and that first league win in the near future.
After losing their last two league matches Birkdale Cons got back to winning ways turning over Banks A 4-2 to record their 8th win of the season. Andy Bridge saw off the attentions of Phil Fitzgerald 70-40, recording a 28 break in doing so as Tony Roberts got the better of Banks debutant Paul Abram 44-33. Mick Wardle lost to Matthew Wetton 63-34 while John Melvin won his first match for two weeks when beating Andy Hardisty 61-39. Another Birkdale player getting back to winning ways was Ricky Webb when he beat Trevor Wetton 63-34, this after losing his previous two league matches. Ronnie Brooks then got the better of Roy Cookson in a low scoring frame to give Birkdale their third away win of the season.
Churchtown Cons thumped Tarleton C 6-0 to record their best win of the season. Their home form has been good this year, only losing twice out of the nine played at home, and things could not have started better when Craig Rice and Les Prescott turned over the hot shots of Tarleton Jamie Wane and Peter Halsam. Colin Boston stayed unbeaten for 2015 when beating Phil Keep 63-43 as Dave Harwood recorded a 51-20 win over Jimmy Jones. This was Tarleton’s 5th away defeat of the season and became their heaviest score line after Shaun Fisher and Mark Rollins failed to gain anything from Mick Coxon or Dan Matthews.
2nd Division
Waddington Cons B stay unbeaten in the league after a 4-2 win over Scarisbrick A. The card has yet to be sent in.
Banks C will be wishing that they could play Bretherton A every week as they recorded their second full house 6-0 win over them this season. With frames scores that indicated it was a bit all one way traffic on the night Banks outscored their opponents by over 150 points. Alan Johnson and Martin Sephton started the ball rolling beating Ron Dickinson and Gordon Russell, Martin doing the double over Gordon in this fixture. Billy Cummings and Cliff Arnold doubled the lead when beating Mick Powell and Dave Cottam, Billy giving Dave only his second home defeat of the season since the opening fixture of the season. The 6-0 sweep finally came when John Prescott beat Harry Haslam 72-39 with Rennie Culshaw beating Jim Holden 52-29.
Les Dodd’s B travelled to Our Lady’s hoping to repeat the 5-1 score line they handed out to the Formby side back in October. Although it looked like a repeat of that result could happen at one stage, Our Lady’s fought back admirably to gain a very creditable 3-3 draw. Lee Holmes brought up his 10th win for the season when beating Keith Turner 62-35 as Peter Parkinson got the better of Phil Fellows 57-15, 2-0 to Doddy’s B. The middle frames were shared, as Dave Brown got the better of Tommy ‘Tick’ with Andy Reynolds going down 62-17 to Luke Marshall, Luke’s 10th win of the season. But it was the Formby side who took the last two frames as the seasoned pair of Alan Parker and Paul Heery took the honours, and three points, in beating Paul Rogers and Joe Wade.
Churchtown Cons B claimed only their second 3-3 draw away from home of the season putting a spanner in the works for St.Teresa’s promotion push. Teresa’s looked the most likely to win the match racing to a 2-0 lead after Martin Jones and Trevor Ford played impressively for their wins over John Smith and Dave Pritchard respectively. But that all changed after Colin Tennant edged past John Cromwell on the black 30-28, with Paul Connor beating Craig Jones 51-39. The Con club have yet to win away from home this year, with Teresa’s failing to win one at home since their relocation to Bath street, leaving all possible results going into the last pairings. Jamie Barton got the better of Stephen Cromwell, giving the Con club hope of that elusive first away win, but Lee Cromwell got the final black in a close match against Guy Hudson 53-40.
British Rail won 4-2 at Les Dodd’s A, their third win for the season, of which all have come away from home. This third away win wasn’t exactly on the cards after the opening frames as the Doddy’s pair of Martin Matthews and Alan Harley both won beating Paul Varney and Colin Nuttall. The middle frames were close affairs as Eddy Cracknell took the final black to beat Ken Dumican 59-53 with John O’Malley edging past Graham Marshall 52-42 for the Rail. The frames now sat at 2 apiece the momentum was all with the Railway and they steamrollered their way to the win when Robinson Junior beat Mike Lount 58-23 and Colin Peet saw off the challenge of Jordan Scutt 52-43 and so registering Les Dodd’s fourth 4-2 defeat on the trot.
3rd Division
Southport Cons moved back to the summit of the 3rd division after their 5-1 thumping of Fleetwood Hesketh B as other results helped their cause. Fleetwood had only dropped 1 point out of their last 12 but came up against a Bath street side determined to try and claim top spot in the division. Jeff Wainwright and Ste Mawdsley got the Con club off to a flyer beating Brian Kimberly and Ian Brownhill. Colin Paul continued with his good season, 13 wins now, when beating Terry Gowland as Mark Beaver showed some resistance to the Con clubs onslaught by beating Peter Yates 71-35. Southport Cons secured their fourth away 5-1 win when Larry Swindells beat Mick Orme, Larry’s 10th win of the season, and John Blackhurst got the better of Phil Marrow.
Last week’s league leaders Bretherton B got whacked 5-1 at St.Teresa’s, their first away defeat this season, and open the door for the chasing pack. The usually reliable Moultons, Simon and William, both lost in the opening frames to Aiden Quinn and Nobby Lee, Nobbys 10th win of the season too. John McGee then produced the ‘come back of all come backs’ when beating Ste Fiddler 77-68 when needing five snookers with the blue pink black left on the table. Phil Iddon got one back for Bretherton, beating Mike Langford 53-35 but the damage had been done. Bretherton’s last pair, John Gornall and Nev Marsden, probably still in shock at John McGee’s heroics, fell tamely to Ted Weir and Peter McGee and so to their worst result of the season so far.
Churchtown Cons D kept in touch near the top after going to Birkdale Cons and beating the C team 4-2. Mick Pickles made short work of Phil Green beating him 54-22 as Dave Quinn and Martin Calvert served up a battle that would eventually be settled when Martin forced a mistake out of Dave, he went in-off when getting out of a well laid snooker, handing the frame to Martin. Al Graham moved to 13 wins for the season when beating Andy Day 49-23 with Russ Walsh making it three wins out of the first four on the night after beating Graham Ward 52-11. Paul Rimmer played well to beat Steve Mentha, running out a 46-24 winner, while Tony Wakefield edged out Mark Green 55-45. Churchtown sit out an Open Week next as Birkdale face league leaders Southport Cons.
Les Dodd’s C drew 3-3 apiece with Birkdale Cons B with Martin Cusack starring on the night for Doddy’s when setting a new break target in the division. Kyle Woodfull got his 10th win of the season after beating Peter Wilding 54-38 as Harry Wilby struggled against John Stringfellow losing 51-15. Reg Dobson joined Kyle on 10 wins for the season when edging out Kevin Woodfull as Anthony Dodd took the win against John Warnick beating him 69-35 helped by a nice 25 break. But that break was to be put in its place when Martin Cusack stepped up to play Charlie Turner and knocked in a superb 52 break, his highest in any competition. This was a five point improvement on his previous high, a 47 break against Jim Bradley back in January 2013, and leaves him sitting at the top of the break charts in the division. David Robinson beat Wayne Pudge 46-17 to share the spoils on the night.
Churchtown Cons C beat Scarisbrick B 4-2 to do the double over them in the league this year. John Brown got Scarisbrick up and running when beating Richard Butterworth 46-31 as John McCabe returned the favour by beating Eric Stockley 49-23. The middle pairings both went the way of the home side as Peter Milford easily got the better of Ian Lowery 68-12 with Jim Bradley equally impressive beating Billy Wilson 72-3. Brian Sheil brought up his 10th win for the season when beating John Hardisty 71-32 as Peter Simpson replied for Scarisbrick when getting the better of Roger Hughes 52-22.
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