Predictably, this week, the top three in the table beat the bottom three. Littlemoor's 5-0 demolishing of St Andrews B increased their lead by one point at the top to 6.5 as Pudsey Congs could only beat Princeville 4-1. In third spot, Bradford Deaf travelled to St Andrews A, and scraped the coveted aggregate by just one point (766-765) with all four games impressively reaching 200. Their winners were Jeremy Dixon and Ihjaz Hussain. For St Andrews A, Nigel Brayshaw and Gary Rogers claimed a point each to lift their team off the bottom.

At Pudsey Congs, Princeville's ever changing line-up returned to Bradford with just the one point. Making his fifth appearance of the season, Edward Lawson edged out Congs John Hirst 200-196. Gareth Kershaw, making just his second appearance and Steve Gatenby, making only his fourth, both lost out to Dave and Phil Hirst respectively. Richard Bowes was back in good form for Congs, making breaks of 50, followed by a decisive killer-blow - an unfinished 42, to take down James Butcher 200-139. Incidentally, glancing at the Players Table, James is one of just five players to have played all 15 league matches. Three of the others are all from Bradford Deaf.

Littlemoor's relentless march continues, with the aforementioned 5-0 home win against St Andrews B. Top board man John Allan had a convincing 200-132 win over Dave Smith. On the other table, Graham Tudor had a bit more of a struggle, but came good close home to edge out Steve Boocock 190-179. Ralph Allan was always in command against John Bedford. John fought back well close home, but just too late to make any serious threats. In my game against Steve Clark, it was quite close up to half-way, but after that, some more good running enabled me to win quite comfortably in the end (200-163) with 12 minutes to spare.

This coming week the race for the league title takes a break whilst we compete for the Individuals and Pairs over the next two weeks. Ian Ford, will be up against it, facing Richard Bowes at Congs, but receiving 180 points (!!) may well help him in his cause to retain the title. Also at Congs, in arguably the tie of the round, Dave Hirst will face John Allan. Both have (incredibly) won this competition four times. 

Please remember that in the Individual Merit and Pairs competitions, the clock stays in the cupboard, with the matches NOT being restricted by time. Good luck to all of you still involved.

By David Howarth

League Secretary