Happy Easter all. Although we're in a free week, there were 2 of the four remaining Individual Merit matches played on Thursday this week.

Ian Ford beat his Deaf Centre skipper quite comfortably by the look of the scores - 200/146. Also at the Deaf Centre, Jeremy Dixon lost 186-200 to Pudsey Congs Mick Hirst. Well done to Ian and Mick.

This coming Thursday will see the other two Individual Merit matches played. Graham Pearson will visit James Butcher at Princeville and Dave Hirst will play Richard Bowes at Pudsey Congs. So, Congs will have two players in the semi-finals. Good luck to all four of you.

David Howarth

League Secretary

Sorry for the late update - we had a busy weekend visiting family.

In a season where the top two in the league has mostly been Pudsey Congs or St Andrews B; both these teams faced each other once again last week. To win the title outright Congs needed just 2 points from their match on Thursday. However, just to prolong the agony a little longer, they were only able to make one point of the possible five. All the other teams have now concluded their league season but Congs and St Andrews B still need to play the match that was postponed on the 1st February. 

So, this week's match between the two finished 4-1 to St Andrews B with just Richard Bowes being Congs only winner... He beat his old pal Dave Smith 200-160 and within that victory, he made breaks of 48,36 and 51. St Andrews B's winners were Steve Boocock (200-137) over Dave Hirst, Steve Clark (200-165) over Phil Hirst and Norman Procter (200-175) over John Hirst. That 4-1 win now leaves Congs requiring just half a point to ensure they lift the league title for a historic third season on the trot. 

Getting that postponed match played was a matter of some strong discussion on Friday at the league meeting... Despite having quite a successful season, St Andrews B have really struggled at times to have all their (fit and well) players available every Thursday. Although this coming Thursday is a "free week", it was advised that it wouldn't be possible to get the match played due to further unavailabilities. The committee therefore considered all possibilities to get the match played and concluded that as none of the Congs or St Andrews B players are involved in the Pairs semi finals, the match should be played on or before Thursday the 11th April. If some are unavailable on that evening, then both teams should communicate with each other to make arrangements for individual games to be played on alternatively agreeable dates or times. If access to St Andrews is also likely to present problems due to keyholder availability, then the use of the Pudsey Congs venue should be considered. If any contact details are needed then I can help.

At Littlemoor, Princeville came out on top by 4-1, but that wasn't quite enough to get them off the bottom of the table. James Butcher, John Bedford and Martyn Britton were their winners over Ralph Allan, Dave Howarth and Graham Tudor respectively. Littlemoor's winner was John Allan over Brian Haigh. John Allan and James Butcher then played their outstanding Individual Merit match... James came out on top in that one 200-188 and that was despite a break of 29 from John.

St Andrews A finished off their season with a real flourish and got themselves into third spot with a second successive 5-0 win. This time, Bradford Deaf Centre were the victims. Neil Lee beat Jeremy Dixon, Graham Pearson beat Brian Robinson, Nigel Brayshaw beat Ian Ford in the closest game of the evening 200-194 and then Gary Rogers had the biggest win by 200-144 against Graham Lambert.

The next round of the Individual Merit and Pairs semi finals were drawn and they can now be found on the appropriate page. The next scheduled matches will be the Individual Merit second round to be played a week on Thursday, the 4th April. If your opponent agrees, there is no harm in getting your match played before then.

The Players Table has now been brought up to date and can be found on the appropriate page.

David Howarth

League Secretary

For St Andrews B to gain any ground on league leaders, Pudsey Congs, this week; they simply needed to score more points than Congs. As it turned out, they both won 4-1. As a result, Congs grip on the title tightened all the more. So, with 2 matches left to play, Congs need a further 3 points (from the available 10) to ensure they cannot be caught. Their last scheduled match is against St Andrews B this coming Thursday and then (bizarrely!) both teams need to play each other once again, to get the postponed match from the 1st of February done. Third placed Bradford Deaf Centre, and all three teams below them, just have the one match to play and so are all well out of the picture. 

In the match at St Andrews B the Deaf Centre managed just the one point. In the absence of Ihjaz Hussain, their reserve Graham Lambert came up trumps against League President, Malcolm Barnes 200-150. The St Andrews B's winners were Dave Smith 172-133 against Jeremy Dixon, Steve Clark 200-185 against Brian Robinson and Norman Procter in the closest game of the evening 184-183 against Ian Ford. And, although it doesn't appear on the scoresheet, I am advised that Steve Clark had breaks of 20 and 24. 

In Congs 4-1 win, Richard Bowes comments on the Facebook page read... "Dave (Hirst) and then Phil (Hirst) laid the foundations of a substantial aggregate advantage before John's (Hirst) scrappy game. My initial aim was securing a third point, breaks of only 32 and 38 getting me level and then in front, before a tense last 5 minutes when I thought Chris (Jarvis) would pip me at the post."... To actually sum that up, in terms of the results, Richard beat Chris 136-127, Dave beat Brian Haigh 200-117 and Phil beat John Bedford 200-125. Princeville's Martyn Britton was their only winner 200-162 over John Hirst.

At Littlemoor, the home team's evening went from bad to worse... nothing at all went the way of Littlemoor, and fully summed up their pretty dismal league season. Littlemoor's John Allan looked like he would catch and pass Graham Pearson in the closing stages, but Graham played some canny safety stuff to hang on 184-178. On the other table, St Andrews A's Gary Rogers took advantage of some good running, to record a comfortable 200-165 win over Graham Tudor. Next up, Players Table topper, Littlemoor's Ralph Allan suffered only his third defeat of the season, going down 194-180 to Neil Lee. In my own game against St Andrews A's Nigel Brayshaw, I often went to the table with nothing to go at, and then when missing, left Nigel in with a good start. Taking nothing away from Nigel though, he played some good individual shots and scored quite a few double figure runs, to beat me 200-159. Littlemoor will now need to get some serious practicing done if they are to turn around that 5-0 against the same opponents in the Team Knockout final next month.

This coming week, St Andrews B will have their sights set on a minimum of a 3-2 win, to give them any chance at all of catching opponents Pudsey Congs. Bradford Deaf Centre will be visiting St Andrews A and there'll be a foot of the table battle at Littlemoor, where the visitors need to inflict another whitewash on their opponents in order to hand them the ignominy of the wooden spoon.

The Players Table is also now up to date, and I have written a small preamble to that above this week's table. 

Please also be advised that there is a League Meeting at St Andrews this coming Friday the 22nd March 7:30pm start, where we will be drawing the next rounds of the Individual Merit and Pairs competitions.

David Howarth

League Secretary

Pudsey Congs relentless march towards a third successive league title continued this week, with an excellent 4-1 away win at St Andrews A. Nigel Brayshaw was the only home player to win, defeating Phil Hirst 200-193. The Congs winners were Richard Bowes 200-146 over Neil Lee, Dave Hirst 200-133 against Graham Pearson and John Hirst 200-176 over Gary Rogers. Richard was again in good form with breaks of 66 and 39 on a table he has really taken to very well this season.

At Princeville, St Andrews B ensured their efforts to snatch the title from Congs was still a (nothing more than remote) possibility with a three and a half to one and a half point win. The scorecard shows that John Bedford and Dave Smith were level pegging on 171 at the bell, with a 23 from John being the highlight. Steve Boocock continued his good season with a 192-168 win for the visitors over Brian Haigh. James Butcher's win for Princeville by 200-164 over Steve Clark included a 21 break. The best break of the evening though, was a 25 by Norman Procter in his 200-170 over Ed Lawson who was making his seasonal debut for Princeville. Well done to Norman.

Bradford Deaf Centre also kept a very small hope of title success alive with a 3-2 win over Littlemoor. The Deaf Centre put the usual opponents up against each other first off with Jeremy Dixon facing John Allan and Brian Robinson against myself. John took an early lead and at one stage was probably 50 in front. However, Jeremy fought back well and just managed to pip John to the post 180-178 at the bell. A 27 break from him just came at the right time. The least said about my game the better... However, Brian did play very well; thrashing me 200-134 with a good 3 or 4 minutes to spare. So, 2-0 up at halfway, was just what the Deaf Centre needed. A nip and tuck game then ensued between Deaf Centre's Ihjaz Hussain and Ralph Allan with Ralph coming out on top (just) by 191-185. On the other table Littlemoor's Graham Tudor's good recent form continued with a comfortable 200-164 win over Ian Ford, but that wasn't enough to get his team the aggregate point after Brian Robinson's big win over the League Secretary.

This coming week, Pudsey Congs could potentially take the title early, if they can inflict a whitewash over Princeville and the other results go their way. Littlemoor are at home to St Andrews A in a dress rehearsal of the Team KO final and Bradford Deaf Centre will visit St Andrews B.

Mick Hirst also had a good win 200-137 over Stephen Kershaw this week in the Individual Merit. There's now just the one remaining match to play in the first round proper of that competition between John Allan and James Butcher. Arrangements are being made to get that done soon.

Please also be aware that the next League Meeting will be on Friday the 22nd March at St Andrews at 7:30pm and at which we will be drawing the next rounds of the Individual Merit and Pairs competitions.

David Howarth

League Secretary

Last week Bradford Deaf Centre got themselves to within two and a half points of leaders Pudsey Congs when defeating them 3-2 at Congs. However, this week proved the theory that in this league season "anyone can now beat anyone"...  as they actually went down at home by three and a half to one and a half points to bottom of the table Princeville. The Deaf Centre's only winner was top board Jeremy Dixon who had a comfortable 154-115 win over James Butcher. Ihjaz Hussain and Princeville's Brian Haigh couldn't be separated at the bell when both were on 145. In another relatively low scoring game John Bedford beat Deaf Centre's Brian Robinson 180-159. Martyn Britton was the only player all evening to reach 200 in his win over Ian Ford who scored 168. Jeremy had the highest break of the evening with a 34.

In the St Andrews derby, it was the A team who finished on top by 4-1. I'm guessing though that they came from one down as Neil Lee lost 200-161 to Dave Smith, who is St Andrews B's regular "first up". The A team then followed that up with wins from Graham Pearson 200-198 (close!) over Steve Boocock; Nigel Brayshaw had a strong looking win over Steve Clark by 200-164 and then Gary Rogers beat League President Malcolm Barnes 180-172. 

At Pudsey Congs, the home team were looking for revenge for their 4-1 defeat at Littlemoor in the second week of this year. Their revenge was indeed sweet, as they returned the favour with a 4-1 home win. Arriving early, and with some uncertainty about whether John or Peter Allan would actually be playing due to John being tied up elsewhere, and with no one else from Littlemoor present; I was pitched into the fray against... Richard Bowes. I'm not generally known as one for "blowing his own trumpet" (I hope!) but considering where I've been in the Players Table all season, I thought I did okay. I set off with 3 early breaks into the late teens, which (Richard later said) put him under pressure. However, with five good breaks into the thirties (31,35,32, 33 and 38) Richard eventually beat me 199-185. Phil Hirst was then rampant over Littlemoor's Graham Tudor (who has been in some good form recently) 200-141. By this time John Allan had arrived and was probably happy to see that Richard had already played. However, Dave Hirst played very well to beat him 194-172 and included a 33 break in doing so. Now Littlemoor were staring down the barrel, Players Table topper, Ralph Allan, came to the rescue against (second in the same table) John Hirst with a 200-176 win to save a few blushes for the visitors!

That 4-1 win gives Congs a 5 point cushion and with a match in hand, it now looks like they have one hand (at least) on the league trophy. However, they have a potential banana skin to side-step this week at in-form St Andrews A. Littlemoor are at Bradford Deaf Centre who will be trying to hold second spot and bottom of the table Princeville will be trying to overcome St Andrews B who have struggled lately with player availability.

David Howarth

League Secretary