My first announcement of this week is to sadly report the passing of Mick Cockroft. Previously an Eastbrook player and more recently playing for Princeville, he unfortunately lost his long battle last Monday. He bravely played his last match in the Bradford League only the Tuesday before. Mick was also the Secretary for our League for a number of years. I am sure Stephen Kershaw will be writing a tribute to him on the Bradford League website in the next day or two.  We will all miss him and send our condolences to his family and friends. I will post something on here and on the Facebook page when the funeral arrangements are known.

Onto this weeks action... St Andrews A, who had a bye last week, started their season off well with a 4-1 away at Princeville. Graham Pearson had a 20 point win over James Butcher. Neil Lee beat Graham Bentley by just 7 and Nigel Brayshaw had a 16 point win against Ian Tomlinson. Steve Gatenby, making his first appearance this season for Princeville saved their blushes with a 200-191 over John Rider.

At Littlemoor, the home team faced Pudsey Congs A. After last week's surprise home defeat to St Andrews B, Littlemoor got their season back on track with a 4-1 win with Ralph Allan leading the way with a 52 point win against Phil Hirst and Graham Tudor and myself having 20+ wins over (pool reserve) Peter Allan and John Hirst respectively. Congs A's winner was last season's Individual Merit winner Dave Hirst over John Allan. 

Bradford Deaf Centre now lead the table with 7 points from 2 played. This week they won away at St Andrews B with a thumping 5-0 scoreline. Ian Ford and Brian Robinson had 30+ wins over John Oyston and Steve Clark respectively. Brian also registered a 30 break, getting him onto the highest breaks table. The other 2 games were much closer with Ihjaz Hussain beating Steve Boocock by 9 and Jeremy Dixon scraping home by just 1 against John Bedford. 

This coming week sees two derbies at St Andrews and Pudsey Congs, and with Littlemoor travelling to Bradford Deaf Centre. Princeville will likely be getting some practice in to try improve on their one point from 2 matches played.

By Dave Howarth

League Secretary

The new team to the League, Pudsey Congs B, got off to a perfect start with a comprehensive win over Princeville. I'm unaware of the playing order, but their captain Mick Hirst had a 165-104 win over League Chairman , James Butcher. Newbie players to Congs, Roy Denson and Sid Ash had wins over Brian Haigh and Graham Bentley respectively; and to complete the rout, Colin Nelthorpe, who hasn't played for at least a couple of years, had a 200-167 win over, the equally infrequent player for Princeville, Ian Tomlinson. So, the 5-0 clean sweep makes them the early league leaders.

At Littlemoor, last season's champions, on the other hand, had a real struggle... suffering a 4-1 defeat to St Andrews B. Steve Clark, as he often does, whizzed around the table and inflicted a 200-155 over the home team's Graham Tudor. On the other table, John Bedford beat Littlemoor's John Allan (167-138). Then, Ralph Allan was ahead of St Andrews B's Dave Smith by 40 at one stage, and included a 27 break in the process. However, Dave fought back well and was just 5 behind at the 50 minute bell (189-184). In my game, I was simply never at the races, and as a result,  suffered a 200-131 trouncing by St Andrews captain, Steve Boocock. 

At Bradford Deaf Centre, it was a much closer affair. It finished 3-2 to Pudsey Congs A, who took the aggregate point by just 11 (the totals on the scoresheet have been incorrectly added!). It probably looked like The Deaf Centre could win quite comfortably after Ihjaz Hussain beat Dave Hirst 181-166 and Brian Robinson beat Phil Hirst 199-171. However, reserve player, John Rider beat Ian Ford 200-191. Richard Bowes Facebook comment reads "With John's game finished we were 18 behind, so my final visit (29 unfinished) proved vital. I had no idea at the time though, sometimes ignorance is bliss". So, Richard's 147-102 win over Jeremy Dixon won Congs A the aggregate point. The scoresheet also shows that Richard had breaks of 33, 41 and 35.

An interesting start to the season then with the new boys setting the pace... This coming week, St Andrews A start their season with an away fixture at Princeville. Littlemoor will host Congs A and St Andrews B will be at home to the Deaf Centre. Leaders Congs B have a bye... I can imagine there will be some practicing going on though...

Dave Howarth

League Secretary

The pre-season meeting was held on Thursday this week. 

As you will probably already be aware, we now have seven teams in the league and some new players to welcome. The two new players will be playing in the Pudsey Congs B team led by Mick Hirst. They  are Roy Denson and Paul Holt. I'm sure you all will make them both welcome to the league. In addition to the two new players, Sid Ash (who has played for Pudsey in the Bradford League, and played 4 times for Littlemoor last season) has moved Institutes from Littlemoor to Pudsey Congs B.

The Players Handicaps were also re-assessed at Thursday's meeting, based on the final Players Table of the 24/25 league season. The top 8 players in the table were deducted 10 points from last season's handicaps. Graham Tudor was deducted 5 points. Those players who finished 10 to 17 in the table were left on the same handicaps. The ones who finished from 18 to 21 received 5 back and the three finishing 22 to 24 were awarded 10 back on their handicaps. From the 'Also played' table, Edward Lawson and Peter Allan were deducted 10 from their handicaps and John Rider and Steve Gatenby were awarded 5 back on theirs.

Also, at the last league meeting, the Code of Conduct that was suggested at the AGM, was examined and then ratified by the Committee. I have created a new page for it on this website, but for some reason the new page is not yet viewable. This may be due to the fact that although a new page has been created for it, there may be a restriction on how many pages we are allowed to have published on the site. I have referred this query to our website technical expert (James Butcher). Hopefully James will be able to resolve the problem.  For now, I have placed it up above the Fixtures & Results.

Anyhow, the Code of Conduct will be issued to each Institute. Each Team Captain is requested to ensure all his players read and digest it and it should then be displayed on Institute notice boards for every match. You will see that item 8 refers to "the Referee". It is therefore important that, when any of us are refereeing a game, that we ensure the Code is adhered to, and that all points raised in the Code are observed. Should there be any breach of the Code, the Referee should act as directed in item 8. If there are any breaches of the Code then these should be reported as quickly as possible to a member of the Committee.

Good luck to all players for the forthcoming season, and on behalf of the Committee, we hope you all enjoy it.

David Howarth

League Secretary