Pudsey Congs kept up the pressure on league leaders Littlemoor this week with a convincing 5-1 home win against St Andrews A. In fact they managed to reduce Littlemoor's lead to three and a half points - last week it was four and a half. Congs Richard Bowes very brief note on Facebook reads "All four games to 200 and 44 minutes of unused time". All sounds relatively straightforward that; and looking at the scorecard, there could have been an occasional jitter though. Richard recorded breaks of 36 and 56 in his big 200-143 win over Graham Pearson. However, Dave Hirst only beat Nigel Brayshaw by 12 and although John Hirst beat John Rider by 32; St Andrews A's Gary Rogers good season continued with a 12 point win over Phil Hirst.

At St Andrews, Princeville arrived with a massive 219 points advantage for the double aggregate ,after trouncing this evenings opponents 5-0 at the end of January. Last week I pointed out that St Andrews B hadn't won since the middle of November, and quite possibly that message got through and irked some of them, as three of the four of them won pretty convincingly... Dave Smith (with a 21 break) beat Brian Haigh 200-131. John Bedford registered a 31 break in his 158-131 win over James Butcher. Steve Clark also put his poor recent form to one side and defeated fellow struggler, Keith Tomlinson, 200-171. Princeville's Graham Bentley was able to secure a point for his team with a 200-182 win over Steve Boocock, despite a 21 break by his opponent. The double aggregate point was probably never in doubt. A very good return to form though by St Andrews B - 4-2.

At Littlemoor, Bradford Deaf arrived in good heart, but didn't get a great start as John Allan played well to get the better of Jeremy Dixon 168-124. I refereed the game between Graham Tudor and Brian Robinson. Graham started well but was soon overtaken by Brian who took the lead by a good 30 points. Graham fought back really well though to nick it at the end 200-190. So 2-0 to Littlemoor, things were going really well. However, Ralph Allan and myself somehow both snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as both of us lost to Ihjaz Hussain and Ian Ford 170-183 and 193-199 respectively. Thanks to John and Graham's wins added to the double aggregate, we ended up "limping" to a 4-2 and are now glancing over our shoulders for the final two matches. 

Congs will be at home to a resurgent St Andrews B this week and Littlemoor will face St Andrews A on Robin Lane. Princeville will be at home to Bradford Deaf.

I have also now brought the Pairs Table up to date after Mick & Dave Hirst beat Brian Robinson and Ihjaz Hussain a couple of weeks ago. 

Please also note that we have a meeting this Friday - same place, usual time.

David Howarth

League Secretary