Two Thursday's ago, when the snowy weather was against most of us, just the one Individual Merit match was played. John Bedford managed to brave the journey from Normanton to Pudsey Congs to play Richard Bowes - his Facebook comment actually said "What snow?". Richard. making breaks of 38 and 34, was enough to see John off back home to claim an (apparently) comfortable 200-153 win. To be fair, I think the weather was quite a bit worse in the afternoon than it was a bit later on in the evening. Anyhow, since then, three other Individual matches have been played... Of those, possibly the most surprising result was at the Deaf Centre, where 7th in the Players Table, Ian Ford beat top of the table Ralph Allan 200-171. Also at the same venue, Brian Robinson beat his pairs partner Ihjaz Hussain 200-164 and at St Andrews, Nigel Brayshaw lost 200-149 to Dave Hirst. Well done to them and thanks for getting them played in good time. If you haven't already arranged to play your outstanding Individual Merit match with your opponent, please do so as soon as possible.

On Thursday this week, thankfully, all the scheduled Pairs matches were played. On what seems to have been a busy evening at the Deaf Centre, Ian Ford and Jeremy Dixon suffered a heavy defeat against the new Princeville pairing of Peter Turner and John Bedford. Peter beat Ian 200-164 and John beat Jeremy 400-318. Brian Robinson and Ihjaz Hussain then lost 400-348 to Ralph and Peter Allan. At Littlemoor, John Allan and Graham Tudor defeated Mick and Dave Hirst 400-346.

At Princeville, the holders for the last two seasons, Stephen Kershaw and Edward Lawson, welcomed Littlemoor newcomer Sid Ash and myself. In the first game, it was Sid who was the most consistent scorer between himself and opponent Edward. He ran out the 200-178 winner. Receiving 85 on our handicap difference, plus the 22 advantage Sid had won by, handed me quite a handy start over Stephen. However, making a good 43 break Stephen reduced the deficit by almost half very early on. He eventually caught me up around the 365 mark with a 20+ break and and although I battled away right to the end, I just wasn't able to locate my recent good form, and so wasn't able to stop my opponent claiming a very good 400-376 win. Well done to Ed and Stephen. Will any other pair be able to stop them from claiming a hat-trick of Pairs titles? Only time will tell.

This coming week sees a return to the League programme with all three matches being played in Pudsey. Leaders Pudsey Congs take on second placed Bradford Deaf Centre, Littlemoor are at home to St Andrews B and Princeville will visit St Andrews A. At the time of writing, I am still trying to establish when the postponed match between Pudsey Congs and St Andrews B can be played. I'll be contacting St Andrews B again today/tomorrow. Hopefully, that match will be played in the next week or two, rather than being left until the end of the season.

David Howarth

League Secretary