On Thursday this week, Pudsey Congs continued their quest to gain more ground on leaders Littlemoor, when they visited Bradford Deaf at their temporary venue of Windhill & Daisy Hill Cricket Club. They started off "brightly"... Richard Bowes Facebook comment on the match reads "We were flying after two relatively straightforward wins for Phil (Hirst) and I; and with John (Hirst) starting brightly, it all seemed cut and dried, but then he dried up... and then in Dave's (Hirst) game there were some jangling nerves until he just scraped the aggregate with Ihjaz (Hussain) 170+"

To save you looking at the scoresheet, Richard beat Jeremy Dixon 200-114 and in doing so registered two breaks in the 70's and a more modest 34. Ihjaz beat Dave by an equally massive 200-105. Phil beat Brian Robinson 200-150 and Fordy stormed to a 200-161 win over John Hirst. So, 2-2 in games, but Congs sneaked the aggregate point by just 2 and also claimed the double aggregate point to make it 4-2.

At St Andrews, the A team registered another win (the first time they have strung 2 wins together all season) against their B team stablemates (who haven't won since the middle of November!). Neil Lee, Gary Rogers and Nigel Brayshaw were the A team victors, and it was the ever present John Bedford who save the blushes of the B team. A comfortable 5-1 for the A team, although Steve Boocock appears to have been a bit unlucky in his 2 point defeat against Gary.

At Littlemoor, the league leaders were hoping for a clean sweep... This was obviously not going to be... and quite early on in the piece, when Graham Bentley dominated against Graham Tudor who had won his previous three. 200-154 to the Princeville man. On the other table there never seemed to be a lot in it each time I glanced over. However, Ralph Allan was 160-154 in front against Brian Haigh at the bell, to make it 1-1 and all to play for for both teams. I struggled against Ed Lawson who belied his 95 handicap, with some confident in-offs. There was never much in it, but he held his nerve at the end to win 189-185 at the bell. On the other table, my team-mate John Allan also "dominated" against James Butcher. A confident 196-103 secured the aggregate point on the night, but it wasn't until the scores were added up, that we realised we had also won the double aggregate point by one. I consoled myself on my defeat with the fact that had I not got to the table and scored a cannon when there were just 5 seconds left that the double aggregate point would have been in Princeville's hands! I suppose that's billiards though, and why we love the sport so much... there's always a lot of "ifs and buts".

So, Littlemoor's four point lead remains intact, with now only three matches left. This coming week, Congs will face St Andrews A. Littlemoor have home advantage again to Bradford Deaf and St Andrews B will take on Princeville. Good luck all.

David Howarth

League Secretary