An eventful week to report... At Pudsey Congs, the first derby match took place... well, for a good few years anyway. And, the points were shared as although the A team had only one winner (Dave Hirst) and the B team had 2 winners, (Sid Ash and reserve John Rider). It was Paul Holt, who was making his debut for Congs B that lost to Dave Hirst by 200-135. The other game was tied - between Richard Bowes and a Mr T Smith. At the time of writing, I am still trying to fully establish the identity of Mr Smith. I am led to believe though that he is one of our welcome new recruits to the league from Rochdale. Unfortunately, his name doesn't appear on the Players Handicaps page, and I believe this may have been an oversight or a misunderstanding when we assessed all handicaps at the pre-season meeting. Anyhow, what I have decided to do (for now) is to leave the scores as recorded on the scoresheet, but the matter will be discussed at the next league meeting on the 17th October 2025 (St Andrews 7:30pm) and a decision will be made about the score-line. I have left the game between Richard and his opponent off the Players Table for now, until a formal committee decision is made.

At the Deaf Centre, last season's champions, Littlemoor, were 2-0 down at the half-way stage with wins by Ihjaz Hussain over myself (by a useful 30 points) and Ian Ford with a huge 61 point win over Peter Allan, standing in for his Dad (John). Graham Tudor and Ralph Allan therefore had a lot of work to do if the bonus point was to be won. But win it they did! ... Was it Brian Clough who coined the phrase "A game of two halves"?... Anyhow, Graham beat Brian Robinson by a handy 189-166 and Ralph had a massive 193-89 win over a shell-shocked Jeremy Dixon. Ralph played really well and scored teens breaks at almost every visit; but I have to sympathise with Jeremy, who most of the time had nothing to go at, poor lad!

At St Andrews, in the other derby, the scoresheet shows 2 close ones and two not so. Nigel Brayshaw was the best winner of the night with a 36 point win for the A team, but Steve Boocock wasn't too far behind that with his 17 point win for B. John Bedford and Neil Lee battled out a 169-164 win for John (B team) and Gary Rogers (A team) scraped home by 2 against Steve Clark.  (3-2 to the A team)

The league table is taking shape now with only St Andrews A still undefeated, but they have a game in hand. Although losing this week, Bradford Deaf are still on top by a point with Littlemoor close behind. This coming week, Bradford Deaf will be at Congs B, Littlemoor will visit St Andrews A and Princeville will host St Andrews B.

Please note the next league meeting will be at St Andrews at 7:30pm on Friday the 17th October 2025.

By Dave Howarth

League Secretary