The curtain came down on the 2024/2025 season this week, as the Individual Merit Final and Presentation Evening took place at a very pleasant and sunny Littlemoor.

An excellent attendance of players and supporters firstly watched the Individual Merit Final between St Andrews B's John Bedford and Pudsey Congs David Hirst. John began quite brightly scoring an early break of 13 to extend the 10 point advantage he receives on their handicaps. He looked very good early on with some confident in-off play. Then, when there wasn't any obvious scoring to be had, he cleverly potted his opponents ball a few times and played safely into baulk. At one stage he was 30+ in front and looked like he could run away with it. 

Dave, though, is very experienced, and with no panicking he gradually grew into the game, making double figure breaks (including a 22) which got him nicely back into contention. He managed to draw level at around the 145 mark and now, as his scoring became more consistent than John's, he took the lead. With John anxiously looking at the scoreboard, Dave made another teens break which got him to within 7 of the 200 required. Very soon after, the 7 points were scored by Dave at one visit, to reward him with the Individual Merit for the 5th time! Congratulations to Dave and commiserations to John, who had been playing very well on the run-up to the final, but just stumbled slightly at the final hurdle.

Following the billiards, the pie and peas were very popular with everyone...thanks again to Alan Mazurke who, not only worked hard behind the bar, but also served up the food. The mint sauce and onions in vinegar may have caused a few frowns, particularly from one person from the wrong side of the Pennines, but they were very tasty additions for me and many others...

The prize presentations were then made by our good friend, Stephen Kershaw, who has been the League Secretary and main mover and shaker in the Bradford League for over 50 years (absolutely amazing!). After the season Littlemoor have had, it would have been far too embarrassing for me to make the prize presentations; so thanks very much to Stephen for stepping up to the plate.

The date for the AGM was set at the last league meeting, but due to the Treasurer not being available on the 3rd of July, I have moved it provisionally to the Thursday the 24th July 2025. I will confirm that on here, on the Facebook group and on the WhatsApp group nearer the time.

Finally, thanks to all for making this season another successful one.

David Howarth

League Secretary

St Andrews staged the Individual Merit semi-finals this week. My first job is to apologise about the fact that I couldn't be there - I was needed at Littlemoor to referee a Pairs semi-final match in the Bradford League. 

The news I have from St Andrews is that Richard Bowes beat Neil Lee 200-142 and in doing so, he made two breaks of 44 and 42. In the other semi-final, Dave Hirst beat John Bedford 200-164. 

At the last League meeting at the end of April, we decided that as Littlemoor would possibly be available on Thursday the 22nd (and definitely on Friday the 23rd May), we chose it as being the venue for the Individual Merit final and presentation evening... It's the most popular venue amongst the majority of you, mainly because of it's ability to provide good refreshments. 

Please be aware that we DO NOT make any firm plans at the start of the season for where the Presentation Evening will be, as Littlemoor's availability is often in doubt at this time of the year, due to the crown green bowls being in full swing. So, at the league meeting, and in the knowledge that should Richard win his semi-final; and that he would be unlikely to attend the presentation evening; we took the decision that the two losing semi-finalists should have a 'qualifying play-off game' to decide who would play in the final on the presentation evening. Without having a 'play-off' in this situation, we wouldn't have had a final to stage, and would probably have had to award a 'walk-over'... not an ideal situation, but it's far better than having no billiards to stage on the night. 

In the game between the two losing semi-finalists, it was John Bedford who was the winner. I am unaware of the scores in that one. So, the finalists for the Individual Merit next Thursday the 22nd are David Hirst and John Bedford. 

We do hope to see you all there... pie and peas will be available, in addition to the usual liquid refreshments and I do still need to know from some of you team captains how many attendees you are likely to have, so we know how many pies to buy!

David Howarth

League Secretary

Littlemoor's amazing season continued this week with Graham Tudor and John Allan winning the Pairs final at St Andrews.

Up first against Congs skipper Dave Hirst, and with a 25 point advantage on the handicaps, Graham Tudor was quickly off the mark. Invariably being left with a starting shot, he took full advantage of the fact that the opposite was the case for his opponent. Dave was up first in last week's Team KO final for Congs and did struggle with the table then. It somehow does seem to be playing differently to how it did last season. The balls were often drawn to the cushions, for at least the first 30 minutes. This didn't seem to trouble Graham as much and he was often able to fashion a scoring shot from just a few quite difficult starts. A handful of good pot reds, by Graham, definitely helped him to his significant 201-153 win.

Playing up to 400, meant that, with the handicaps added, John was starting on 231, whereas Mick Hirst started on just 198. So, Mick faced an uphill battle in conceding 33 to a player from whom he would normally be receiving a start of 15. On a good number of occasions, Mick seemed to be getting the same luck with the starting positions that had befallen his brother! John did play pretty well though, scoring 10's and an occasional 20 points at quite a few of his visits and with only minimal responses from Mick. John's more regular scoring simply increased the gap, which at one stage reached 90 plus. Mick continued to scrap for every point, and did look to be making some progress at one stage, but in the end his determined efforts were futile, as John ran out the comfy 400-313 winner.  Congratulations to Graham and John.

This coming Thursday will see the Individual Merit semi-finals, which will both be played at St Andrews, where Neil Lee will face Richard Bowes and John Bedford will play Dave Hirst... Hopefully, Dave will find the table being a little kinder to him than it has been in the last couple of weeks... "Third time lucky, Dave?" Anyhow, the very best of luck to all the four of you.

The final will be played at Littlemoor on the prize presentation evening; and although it's currently scheduled for Thursday the 22nd May 2025, this may need to be changed to Friday the 23rd. The reason for this is that the crown green bowling at Littlemoor has increased in popularity, to the point where the only available evening most weeks now seems to be Friday. I will post something to Facebook and to the WhatsApp group if the presentation evening date is changed.

David Howarth

League Secretary

League champions Littlemoor completed the double this week when winning the Team Knockout Cup. The Team Knockout page shows the full scorecard. The rule of who plays whom, plus the actual playing order was drawn from a hat and the scorecard shows the actual order of play as well. As is strangely (but often) the case, the regular opponents ended up playing each other anyway; and so the only large handicap difference was the one involving the two top board players, John and Richard.

Ralph Allan and Dave Hirst started the proceedings, with Ralph getting the early running he extended the ten point lead he had on their handicaps. Dave often went to the table with not much to go at and although this happened to Ralph as well, he was probably the one who was assisted with quite a bit more good fortune to help him along the way. Dave just seemed to be ill at ease with the table for the whole game and so Ralph got Littlemoor off to an excellent start with a 39 point win. 

Graham Tudor and Phil Hirst were up second. For a lot of the way, this was a closer game than the first. However, with about 15 minutes left, Phil suddenly found himself almost 40 adrift. However, gritting his teeth, he reduced that to just less than twenty at one visit. Graham played well though and was able to maintain a good lead with some excellent individual pot reds, winning by 24 to extend Littlemoor's lead even further. 

Next up were John Allan and Richard Bowes. Being far and away the league's best regular player, Richard was having to concede 120 points to John, and with that added to Littlemoor's 63 point lead, to give Pudsey Congs any chance at all, he needed to win by over 200 (not an impossibility for him but a big ask). He started off really well with a break of 58 before the clock had even showed 40 minutes were left. ("Here we go!"... I thought). With Richard attempting to disappear over the horizon and John trying to cling onto his coat tails, it was always going to be a cat and mouse affair. A 33 break soon after from Richard got me looking at the clock, which I was sure was slowing down. But, once John got into some rhythm, his "clinging on" game was doing a lot better with a few double figure breaks of his own. Richard's visits to the table just weren't happening as often as he would have wanted, but although three 20+ breaks followed the earlier breaks, when the 50 minutes were up, Richard had scored a valiant 236, but John had managed a pretty commendable 74. This meant that Littlemoor's lead was now 46 going into the last game.

Last up was John Hirst and myself. I got off to my customary slow start, but I knew full well that John needed to beat me by more than 46 for Congs to snatch the cup from our grasp. He started really well with a nicely worked 21 break and this somehow jolted me into buckling down properly and finding some better concentration. A couple of low double figure breaks got me back to around level, and although it was close, and a bit scrappy, for most of the rest of the game, I had the better running close to the end, once I knew we'd got both hands on the prize. I think this gave me the confidence to play a bit more openly to win me the game by 16 points in the end. It capped a great finish to the season for Littlemoor. Pudsey Congs should consider themselves very unlucky as they pushed us all the way to the last week in the league contest and then just losing out to us in the KO Cup. I'm positive they will be hungry for full revenge next season.

This coming Thursday will see the Pairs final... and again, this will be contested by the holders John Allan and Graham Tudor and the Congs pairing of Mick and Dave Hirst. It will be played at the neutral venue of St Andrews with a 7pm start. All spectators are welcome.

At the league meeting on Friday, we drew the Individual Merit semi-finals and the draw for these can be found on the appropriate page.

David Howarth

League Secretary