There were two 3-2 away wins this week and, for the first time this season, the other one finished all square, at 2.5 each.

Bradford Deaf's home matches continue to be played at Windhill & Daisy Hill Cricket Club and this week the visitors were Princeville, who have won all their matches so far in 2025. They were able to keep that winning run going, with wins from Graham Bentley and, making his seasonal debut, Stephen Kershaw. Brian Robinson and Ihjaz Hussain were the home team's winners. A 32 break by Ihjaz (the highest of the evening) over James Butcher ,went a long way to securing him a handy 200-143 win. However, it wasn't quite enough to secure the aggregate point, as Princeville edged that by just 2.

At St Andrews, the B team got off to the best possible start against Pudsey Congs, as Dave Smith beat Richard Bowes by a convincing 200-105. A 43 break from Richard wasn't enough to claw back the 155 start he had to concede. However, it was a downhill struggle after that for the home team as there were wins from three Hirsts... Mick beat John Bedford, Phil beat Steve Boocock and then John beat Steve Clark. Dave Smith's big win over Richard though, was enough to keep the aggregate point in St Andrews B's pocket, by 34.

St Andrews A always seem to save their best for visits to Littlemoor and this time around it was no different. In the top versus bottom clash, it was a struggle for the league leaders. Littlemoor's John Allan and Dave Howarth only managed half a point between them, as John drew his game at 171 apiece with Neil Lee and Dave suffered his first defeat of the season to the quickly improving John Rider (200-165). So, it was up to Ralph Allan and Graham Tudor to rescue something for the table toppers. Graham's excellent form continued and took around 42 minutes to see off Nigel Brayshaw 200-146. On the other table, it was closely fought, but Graham Pearson finished best of the two with a 200-185 win over Ralph. The crucial aggregate point went the way of Littlemoor by just 4 points. Pudsey Congs are therefore, bit by bit, edging closer to Littlemoor, who still sit at the top but now by 5 and a half. The top two will face-off in what could be a season decider at Congs in the first match of next month.

This coming week is the last of the matches in the third quarter before we get back into the Individuals and Pairs first round matches. Congs will be at home to Princeville, Bradford Deaf will be at St Andrews A and Littlemoor will be looking to get back to winning ways against St Andrews B.

By David Howarth

League Secretary