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