This week's matches featured the top three in the table against the bottom three; and it was second placed Bradford Deaf Centre who prevailed overall. They were at home against St Andrews A and secured a convincing 5-1 win. Jeremy Dixon had breaks of  35 and 25 in his 200-154 win over Graham Pearson. Ihjaz Hussain's 186-175 over Neil Lee was a little closer, with both players registering breaks in the early 20's. The Deaf Centre's Brian Robinson also had a bigger win (200-146) against Nigel Brayshaw. Gary Rogers spared the visitors blushes though with a 200-180 win against Ian Ford. 

Congs were at Princeville and returned to Pudsey with 4 of the 6 points. Richard Bowes Facebook comment this week simply read "My miserable form continues but a good team result". James Butcher, has sent me the following (more comprehensive) assessment of proceedings:- 

"First up was James (Butcher) v Richard (Bowes) and Keith (Tomlinson) v Phil (Hirst). The top board game got off to a bright start. Richard scored consistently with good command of the balls. Break building looked very promising, but the top cushion pockets were not kind when a big conversion was on. James countered reasonably and a 20 break may have been more had a regulation in-off red did not stray out of play. Richard had momentum in the middle and latter stages. clearing the deficit whilst James scoring lost all momentum. After a further 31 break by Richard, the scores were level.  James played a high-risk long range cannon, then stayed on the table with a sequence of in-offs until the bell went. 

On the other table, Phil caught up with Keith and got into the lead. But the second half was nip and tuck, Keith registered a 16 break and could not find another gear. Phil edged the win.

Next up was Martin (Britton) v John (Hirst) and Ian (Tomlinson) v David (Hirst). John caught up with Martin slightly before the 130 mark and powered on from there. Martin did find some late rhythm, but John was comfortably in the 190 mark, to close out soon after.

Ian started off with a 16 break but had very little run of the balls afterwards. David was up and running after his first proper visit.  Turning around a near 40 deficit to a 40 lead.  David's cannon play was on point, en-route to a 23 break towards the end."

See the scorecards page should you need to see more details. Although Littlemoor retained the top spot, they are now being hunted down, as they could only manage a 3-3 at St Andrews B. They started off brightly when John Allan edged out Dave Smith 197-157 with breaks of 29 and 21. Graham Tudor then looked likely to make the score 2-0 especially after a 29 break, but was pipped at the post 200-191 by John Bedford who finished off very well. Dave Howarth then pulled one back for Littlemoor and retained his 100% record this season in a "to-and-fro" battle with Steve Clark to win 200-188. Following that, with by far the strongest performance of the evening, came from St Andrews B's skipper, Steve Boocock. He gave Ralph Allan few chances to get in. He powered his way to a 200-131 victory, scoring double figure breaks at almost every visit.

Littlemoor's 7 point lead will stay that way until 2025 as we now move into the Team Knockout competition. So, this coming Thursday, in Group 1, Bradford Deaf Centre are at home to St Andrews B and in Group 2 St Andrews A will entertain Princeville. Please remember that all players scores start on zero and the handicaps are added at the end. Also, the decision on who plays whom, will be made by drawing names from a hat. We realise that not everyone always arrives at the same time and so initially, to get things started, a little bit of compromise and common sense should be applied. Usually, though, it's best that all players are present at least before the first game is over. 

Please remember also, that the Individual Merit and Pairs have now been drawn and so these could be played during any free weeks or evenings you may have... just contact your opponent(s) if you want to re-arrange - these matches don't have to be played on the specified date if you mutually agree to something earlier.

David Howarth

League Secretary