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