As we have moved into the Christmas month, the league title race is put on hold as usual, in favour of the Team Knockout competition, followed by the Individual Merit and Pairs Preliminary Rounds.

On Thursday there were two Team KO matches... 

Second in the league, Bradford Deaf Centre, were at home to 4th placed St Andrews B and so ought to have been pre-match favourites. However, the scorecard shows a 773-705 win to the visitors. St Andrews B had just a 10 point advantage on the handicaps, so there wasn't that much of a difference between the two sides. Dave Smith outscored Jeremy Dixon (143-131) despite their handicaps being 55 and 5 respectively. A 32 break by Dave was probably the winning contributory factor there. John Bedford was just edged out 125-123 by Deaf Centre's Ihjaz Hussain, but with five points advantage to John on the handicaps, the overall win can be credited the other way. In the other two games, with handicaps added, St Andrews B's Steve Boocock beat Ian Ford (110-81, with just a 10 point advantage to Ian) but Graham Lambert's score of 88 was enough to "beat" Steve Clark who scored 107, but the handicap difference between them was 35 in favour of Graham. Very well done to St Andrews B though, who will have a chance to get some practice in this coming Thursday.

At St Andrews A, league basement dwellers, Princeville will also have been the outsiders, based on league positions. Again though, the tables were turned, as the scorecard shows an excellent 99 point win to the visitors. Princeville's Martyn Britton outscored Graham Pearson 111-108 and with the handicap difference of 50 in Martyn's advantage, this equates to a handy 53 point win. St Andrews A's Nigel Brayshaw had an overall win over Ed Lawson, but Neil Lee's 95-75 win over Keith Tomlinson wasn't quite enough, as Keith's handicap advantage was 25. The "performance of the week" though, by far, has to be awarded to Princeville's James Butcher, who overwhelmed Gary Rogers 201-49 (handicap difference 80 in favour of Gary). Although the scorecard doesn't show any breaks, Gary's comment on the Facebook page was "I know he definitely got a 34. I was totally outplayed, James will know more". Well done to James and to Princeville, who will also have a week off this coming Thursday.

There were also two Pairs matches played this week with mixed fortunes for Littlemoor's players. On Thursday at Pudsey Congs, there was another overwhelming win, but this time it was for brothers Mick and David Hirst. Dave beat Peter Allan 200-189, so a close one, going into the second game... However, the scoreboard photo that Peter sent me shows a 200-107 win for Mick over Ralph Allan... there's no details from (man of few words) Pete, other than "Hirsts beat Allans". Well done to Dave and Mick.

At St Andrews on Wednesday, Graham Pearson and Gary Rogers were up against John Allan and Graham Tudor. John's message to me reads "Graham and I won. Graham just lost to Gary 201-197. Second game, one-way traffic, I won comfortably"... again, no other details, so well done to Graham and John.

This coming week, in the second round of the Team KO comp, the Deaf Centre will be visiting Littlemoor and at School Street, Pudsey Congs will welcome St Andrews A. Please remember that the decision on who plays whom, should be drawn from a hat, but as players arrive at different times, initially, a bit of compromise and common sense should be applied. Usually, though, it's best that all players are present before the second game begins.

Please also remember that if you have an opportunity to get your Pairs and Individual Merit matches played early, then there's nothing to stop this happening. If you need any contact details for opponents, then just get in touch with me for assistance.

The Players Table will remains "as is" until the league programme resumes in January. 

By David Howarth

League Secretary