This week saw the final of the Team Knockout competition. The venue was decided a couple of weeks ago, when St Andrews A won a coin toss and elected to play the match at their home venue. A copy of the results card can be found on the Team Knockout page.

As per the competition rules, the names of who played whom were drawn from a hat and the playing order was decided by each team captain alternately. Both teams top two players were drawn against each other (which has happened a good few times this season!) and were called up first... So it was St Andrews A's Graham Pearson versus Littlemoor's John Allan. 

John got off to a real flyer scoring 100 points in the first 20 minutes. Graham came back into it a little for about 10 minutes, but John then steamed ahead again, scoring 82 in the last 20 minutes. Three steady breaks into the twenties for John meant that there was little Graham could do, so a net 40 point win got Littlemoor off to a great start. In the next game, Graham Tudor carried on Littlemoor's good form and played probably some of his best billiards all season in defeating Neil Lee by a net 21. The excellent running for Littlemoor continued when I beat Gary Rogers by a net 44 points. To be fair to Gary, he was left many times with nothing to go at though. In the final game, Nigel Brayshaw had a huge mountain to climb if he was going to make any impression on Littlemoor's 105 point lead. His handicap start on Ralph Allan is just 20 points, meaning he needed to beat Ralph by 86 points or more. Although Littlemoor's grip on the cup was still very firm, Nigel made a good effort to loosen it, even just slightly, in a game where the scores maintained parity almost throughout. Ralph eventually held Nigel off to win by just 10 to retain the title in comfortable fashion for Littlemoor.

At the league meeting on Friday, we drew the Individual Merit semi-final matches. There will definitely be a Congs player in the final as Dave Hirst was drawn against his big brother, Mick. The other half of the draw will definitely see a Bradford player in the final, as Bradford Deaf Centre's Ian Ford was drawn at home to play last year's semi-finalist, Princeville's James Butcher. Those matches will be played a week on Thursday the 2nd May 2024. They may, of course, be played before that date if so desired by mutual agreement.

This coming week will see the final of the Pairs competition, in which Littlemoor will dominate proceedings once again, as John Allan and Graham Tudor will take on John's "little" brother Ralph and John's eldest son, Peter. Good luck to all involved... and I suspect yours truly will be called upon to referee what I expect to be a very hard fought "civil war". Any spectators who wish to drop by will be warmly welcomed and, as per usual, bar refreshments will be available at the usual very reasonable cost. I am advised that although the bowls season is now underway, there will not be a match played on Thursday evening... there could well be a few practicing though.

David Howarth

League Secretary