So far this season Princeville's fortunes have been mixed, but this week they outscored everyone else with a handy 5-1 home win over St Andrews A. James Butcher has sent me the following:-

"A very honest Gary (Rogers) realised his handicap was 5 too many before proceedings got underway. The respective captains were completely oblivious to this. First up was Nigel (Brayshaw) (of St Andrews) v Keith (Tomlinson) and Steve (Gatenby) (Princeville) v Neil (Lee). Nigel started very brightly. Playing some impressive one cushion cannons, leading to another scoring shot. He reached to 133 before Keith could get off the mark. Keith had very little to play at, mostly low value two ball shots at long range. When he did get a more easier shot, a short red loser in the middle bag, this opportunity was spurned. Nigel kept adding to the points tally, although his scoring started to slow down. Keith had better running in the 2nd half and enjoyed some table time, but could only reduce the deficit from 40 to 20. Nigel found his trademark cannon game again and moved on to 198. Keith picked up a few more shots before the bell went. On the other table, the lead kept changing by 10 points to either player. It went to the very end, but Steve occupying the table with over a minute to go and scoring half a dozen proved vital.

Next up was James (Butcher) v Graham (Pearson) (St Andrews A) and Martin (Britton) (Princeville) v Gary (Rogers). The top board game started steadily, as both players regularly accumulated points. There was a pattern of whether James went on a small scoring run, Graham tended to match it and maintain the core handicap difference. The game was relatively open with a view of either player trying to find the next gear. Though that type of fluency proved difficult to build, as neither player got into full flow when the balls were nicely placed. At halfway, the game went into safety mode as both players exchanged a range of safety shots. James was the first to blink, but little damage was done. With less than 15 minutes to go, Graham still held a lead of above 30 and forced James to take high risk shots. These weren't fully executed and presented Graham an opportunity to win. Three, if not all four remaining points were still to play for. But uncharacteristic misses came to the fore. Possibly due to a skiddy table, warm conditions and shiny new balls. James knuckled down, dug deep and chipped away at the deficit. A controversial refereeing moment occurred, when the red ball was spotted in the middle after an in off red, pot red into the middle bag and another one from the black spot. The cue ball was positioned for a half ball in off, from the middle pocket. This was corrected after both players were bemused. With around 6 minutes to go, the other match concluded to 200 up. Gary reduced his handicap deficit to begin with, but Martin found his playing rhythm from last week and restored the original difference and a bit more." 

That big win for Princeville lifted them from being 2 points adrift at the bottom into a far more respectable fourth spot, so well done to them. 

Bradford Deaf Centre were at St Andrews B and had 3 winners from the four games with just Steve Boocock winning for the Pudsey men. His win was by 44 which clearly helped his team in claiming the return fixture bonus point. The Deaf Centre's winners were Jeremy Dixon, Ijaz Hussain (by just 1) over John Bedford and Ian Ford (again, by just the 1 point!) over Steve Clark. 

At Congs it was another changed line-up for league leaders Littlemoor. It finished honours even at 3-3 as Littlemoor brought a handy 86 point advantage with them from Week 1. Graham Tudor and Peter Allan were the visitors winners over Mick and John Hirst respectively (by 194-123 and 200-182) which went a long way to assisting them in holding onto the bonus point. Congs winners were Richard Bowes 200-133 against John Allan and Dave Hirst with a 200-161 over Sid Ash. Richard managed to increase his highest break for this season to 58. He also recorded a 50 and two breaks into the 30's.

The Players Table is also right up to date. I'd be happy to get some feedback on it - maybe there's far too much detail on there? 

This coming week, there's a derby at St Andrews, where the A team have a 39 point lead from week two. A good win by them could left them off the foot of the table. At Littlemoor, the home team will have a 24 point carry over from week two, but Princeville look like they could now be on a march. Congs will visit the Deaf Centre taking with them a hefty 91 point lead for that very crucial bonus point. Good luck all.

David Howarth

League Secretary