Good afternoon all and welcome to this first post following the start of the 2024/25 season.

St Andrews B and Bradford Deaf Centre were very quick off the blocks when they agreed to play their match a week early, due to St Andrews B being aware they would not have players available for the start of Week 1. Thanks to Bradford Deaf Centre for agreeing to this.

There were just 15 points in it for the aggregate point, but not all games were that close. There were comfortable wins for Peter Wood (BDC) and Steve Boocock (St A B). Peter beat Steve Clark 200-160 and Steve B beat Ian Ford 200-148. The closer wins were Jeremy Dixon for the Deaf Centre (over Dave Smith) by 168-153 and St Andrews B's debutant, John Bedford (over Ijaz Hussain) by 169-151. So, a 3-2 win for St Andrews B to give them a winning start.

At St Andrews on Thursday, their A team welcomed Princeville. It was an even closer one for the aggregate point, with only 10 points separating the two teams, and 2-2 in terms of player wins. Nigel Brayshaw and Gary Rogers were the winners for St Andrews A, with wins over Graham Bentley and Martyn Britton respectively. The winning visitors were James Butcher against Neil Lee and Keith Tomlinson over St Andrews league debutant John Rider... welcome to the league John... not a bad effort for your first match... I'm sure a first win is just around the corner.

At Littlemoor, the league title holders, Pudsey Congs were the visitors. It wasn't a great start for the home team, when there was last minute confusion about who was actually playing! Thankfully, Littlemoor have had Club Steward Alan Mazurke registered for a number of seasons, for such an eventuality. So, yet another league debutant was hastily called into the fray... and he made a very good fist of it as well, going down by just 200-181 to Congs John Hirst. In the other three games, Littlemoor's Dave Howarth beat Dave Hirst 171-140, John Allan beat Mick Hirst 153-131 and Peter Allan defeated Phil Hirst 200-148 and included a 23 break in that, taking just 35 minutes to complete his win! So, a very good win for Littlemoor, despite the earlier confusion, which gives them the early advantage in the race for the title.

This coming week, there's a derby at St Andrews, and I have been advised this one is being played on Monday evening. Littlemoor are away at Princeville and Pudsey Congs will be attempting to drag themselves off their unfamiliar spot in the table, when Bradford Deaf Centre will be calling in.

I'll be posting a Players Table after Week 3.

Good luck all for the coming weeks and I'll be seeing you all again soon.

David Howarth

League Secretary