Now the half way point has been reached in the league season, the Team Knockout competition takes centre stage. At the last AGM, following a suggestion from Nigel Brayshaw; we voted on, and then changed the rules of the competition, in an attempt to "make things more interesting". The rule change was to draw names from a hat to decide who plays whom... However, that seems to have backfired somewhat, in that at Bradford Deaf Centre, there weren't any real changes at all in who were the "regular" opponents. Also, at Littlemoor, because of the fact that 3 of their 4 players are on the same handicaps, the same situation occurred. John Allan and James Butcher were also drawn out together, with both usually at top board. Who would believe that when given a 75% chance of playing someone different, you still end up playing who would probably be your regular opponent anyway? Ah well, at least we tried, and hopefully, in the next round matches, we might just end up with something we were trying to achieve!

Anyhow, looking at the result sheet from the Deaf Centre; although Jeremy Dixon beat Graham Pearson by 60 (160-100), it wasn't enough to stop a net win for Graham, being on a handicap of 75. However, Deaf Centre's skipper Brian Robinson (75) beat Nigel Brayshaw (95) by more than the 20 difference (127-94) and the net result of Ian Ford (95) v Gary Rogers (105) was level (118-108), but St Andrews A's most decisive performance of the evening was Neil Lee's (90) 133-89 win over Ijaz Hussain (60). Both players had notable breaks with a 21 for Ijaz and a cracking 28 from Neil. 

At Littlemoor, Dave Howarth (75) really struggled to get much table time against Keith Tomlinson (95) and although I (sluggishly!) "won" 86-74, it was an 8 point net loss. But, on the other table my team mate Graham Tudor (75) was taking good care of a very out of sorts Brian Haigh (45) with a superb 135-89 win which gave Littlemoor a handy lead at the break. Next up were regular opponents Ralph Allan (75) & John Bedford (60) and John Allan (30) against James Butcher (30). These were another two games that were a bit of a "plod". Princeville's John Bedford achieved a net win of just 1 point (110-94) but Littlemoor's John Allan finished the game better than James with a 26 break to get him into the lead and to win 125-107. Graham Tudor's win was the decisive factor in this particular contest.

The scoresheets from the two matches are in the usual place.

This coming week, in Round 2 of the Team Knockout, Pudsey Congs are back in action against Bradford Deaf Centre who must now win if they are to stay in the competition. And, at St Andrews B, last season's winners, Littlemoor will be the visitors and with some renewed vigour. St Andrews A and Princeville will be able to either put their feet up, or have the opportunity to get in some practice.

Good luck to all for the coming week.

P.S. The Players Table is now fully up to date following the rearranged match that was played on Monday of this week.

Dave Howarth

League Secretary.