Just a brief update today as there was only two Individual Merit Preliminary Round matches played (on Monday) this week, both at Pudsey Congs.

The first match was between brothers Mick and Dave Hirst. This was a repeat of last season's Merit semi final. In that one it was Mick who progressed to the final. However, this time around it was Dave who exacted his revenge. The match had just started when I arrived and at that stage, Dave was already around 20 in front (received 10 on the handicaps). That lead was just about maintained, until Mick had a good spell, drawing to within just a handful of points around the 130 stage after a break of 20. But Dave played his best billiards in the crucial stages and although he won 200-169, in reality I always felt the match was quite a lot closer than the score-line suggests. It was definitely a good one to watch with both players scoring regularly.

The next match, also at Congs, was between myself and John Hirst as I had given up the home advantage. After a cagey start, I got the early running and extended the 5 points received on the handicap to 20. As the good running continued in my favour, the lead was soon extended to 40. Each time I went to the table, there was nearly always a start available. Then two or three outrageous flukes combined with a couple of good shots extended my lead even further, whereas John struggled to get anything going at all, mostly due to being (accidentally) left safe by me. I was soon well clear, and although I was stuck on 198 for what seemed like 5 minutes and with John finding a couple of scoring opportunities, I eventually got the required score with John still on 144.

This coming Thursday there's a Pairs match at Princeville between the recent previous double winners of this competition, Stephen Kershaw and Edward Lawson against father and son, John and Phil Hirst. That should be a good one. At St Andrews, there's a couple of Pairs matches, firstly a "derby" between the B team-mates John Bedford and Steve Clark against their A team counterparts Neil Lee and Nigel Brayshaw. The second one features, the A team's two Johns (Rider and Oyston) against the Deaf Centre's Brian Robinson and Ihjaz Hussain. (I do know that Brian and Ihjaz are away for the holiday period, but I'm not sure whether they will be back in time to play this one, I'll check today and will let the relevant players know as soon as I can). There's also three Individual Merit matches still to be played. Hopefully, the one between Graham Pearson and Sid Ash will be played on Thursday, but as the other two involve both Brian and Ihjaz, they are still in doubt. 

By David Howarth

League Secretary