They say it's tough at the top - but try telling that to the teams at the bottom of division one of the Telford Snooker League as they battle to preserve their top flight status for at least another year.

Three of the four teams at the wrong end of the table started the New Year with a bang by recording 3-2 victories - and the other strugglers, Bayley A, didn't do too badly either, coming to within a whisker of defeating reigning champions Hills Lane A.

But it's Little Dawley who have the best chance of surviving the drop after a magnificent 3-2 away win at last season's runners up Wellington Billiard Hall A put them three points ahead of Bayley teams A and E and Dawley A who all share bottom place with 23 points.

Some solid play from Richie Heighway saw him give the visitors the lead with a narrow 53-42 win over Morton Hughes and they soon doubled that advantage when Jesse Lowe took the next against young Ian Eldridge.

Buoyed by his team mates' early form, captain Rick Cousins muscled in on the act to claim the next frame too with some excellent long potting to deny Nigel Fletcher by 72 points to 30.

A close tussle ensued in Frame 4 when Graham Darrell just edged out Ade Henry by 64 points to 42 to pull a frame back for the home side and the scoreline took on a much better complexion from Wellington's viewpoint when, despite some friendly barracking from the visiting captain, Andy Kendrick took the last frame of the evening against Graham Wiley.

Bayley A almost produced the shock of the season when they came close to defeating reigning champions Hills Lane A on their own patch.

Steve Fletcher had to put his glasses back together before taking on Shaun Harris in the opening frame. However, after a quick repair job he took the frame to give the visitors an early lead.

However, Darren Pountney, sporting some Bjorn Borg style glasses of his own, wasted no time in levelling matters as he took the next against Arthur Burrows and the Madeley side took the lead with Ian Duffy's 38 break against Bob Mason.

Steve Nicholls then embarked on a titanic struggle with Tim Hicks which saw the home player take an early 20 plus break to seize the initiative. However the Bayley man never gave up and looked to have clinched the frame when he potted the green to leave his opponent requiring a snooker only for the cue ball to knock the brown into the corner pocket.

It took a superb brown to black clearance from Tim to then clinch the frame for Hills Lane and put them into a 3-2 lead before Chris Morgan-Adams stole the show with a fine display of potting to claim the Bayley's second point of the evening with a 65-41 defeat of Matt Bailey.

Bayley E secured their fourth win of the campaign when they entertained Minnesota Fats and ran out 3-2 winners.

Mark Watkins put the home side ahead with a fine win over Paul Smith but Steve Collins replied by taking the next frame by just eight points against Andy O'Brien.

The Bayley went back in front courtesy of John Squire's victory over John Wright and they made sure of the win when Ali Jones secured the fourth frame too with a 52-39 triumph over Kevin West.

But with Paul Devey taking the final frame 62-48 against David France, the Bayley were left with a 3-2 win to leave them level on points with Dawley A who also won 3-2 away at Shifnal A.

They fell behind early on though as John Fallows took the opening frame from Chris Woods. Linsay Knox then put the home side two up with a 33 break against Gaz Bradshaw before the wheels fell off for Shifnal as Dawley produced a fighting comeback.

Mark Jones' fine season continued as he notched a 30 break on the way to beating Andy Easthope and Barry Roden chipped in to deny Roy Martin as the visitors drew level.

The ever-dependable Rick Bayley then took centre stage to claim the deciding frame from Simon Biddulph to complete a brilliant comeback and Dawley's third win of the season.

At the other end of the table second placed Coddon A took advantage of Hills Lane's slight slip by defeating third placed Anstice A by four frames to one.

Lee Szklarzewicz set them on their way with a 38 break against Keith Price before two players in the hunt for the most wins trophy came face to face when Darren Weston and Neil Price took on each other in what was always going to be a tight frame.

And so it proved with the Donnington man coming out on top by 55 points to 39 to record his eleventh win of the season, to head the race for the averages, one ahead of his Madeley opponent.

Zenon Lembicz then popped up to make it 3-0 against Phil Reynolds only for Nick Oakley to salvage a point for the Anstice with an excellent 63-22 win over Adrian Smith.

However, with Ian Ferriday taking the final frame on the black against John Jones, the Coddon now look certain to take at least runners-up spot as they are now seven points ahead of Anstice and just three behind the leaders Hills Lane A.

DIVISION 2

League leaders Shifnal F started their second half of the season the same way as they finished, by beating Anstice B 3-2.

Wally Harper and Nev Whitehead soon put Shifnal 2-0 up as they won with scores of 72-28 and 77-16 respectively. A 40 lead on the yellow for Wally was enough for him to overcome Danny Weaver and breaks of 16, 20 and 23 saw Nev take frame two from Steve Smallwood.

Johnny Darrock pulled one back for the Madeley side by outpotting Brian Painter 70-40. Brian playing only his second game of the season, found himself 22 behind on the yellow but a cruel in-off gave John just the fillip to polish things off.

Spencer Rowley then put the match safe for Shifnal as a 29 break helped him over the line against George Hammond 66-21.

The last frame was a sad one for the memorial men as they had to see their hero Dave Peplow lose his hundred percent record against Nigel Wallcroft. Dave started well and a break of 22 soon helped him to an early 35 lead but Nigel wasn't ruffled and rallied with his own run of 22 and slowly ground Dave down until he wanted a snooker on the blue.

Nonetheless, their victory leaves them sitting pretty at the top of the table some four points ahead of their fellow Memorial Club-mates Shifnal E who fell to a surprise 3-2 reverse away to Pot Black A.

Paul Crooks to the opening frame for the Oakengates side by just a single point against Arron Sparkes before Neil Robinson continued the trend with a 23 break against Chris Petford.

Jeff Sparkes gave the visitors hope as he replied with a 53-29 win over Mike Thompson to pull a frame back for the Shifnal and they drew level soon afterwards thanks to Rob Wright's 48-35 win over Dave Welsh.

The tide may have looked to have turned Shifnal's way but Toby Welsh was having none of it as he calmly took the deciding frame on the pink from Fred Harper to give bottom of the table Pot Black A only their third win of the season so far.

Wellington Billiard Hall E join Shifnal E in second place after a 3-2 win over Audco A sees them on 42 points from thirteen games.

Nigel Stallard's opening frame victory over Pete Smith was matched by Andy Heathcote's 53-24 success over John Powell as the first two frames were shared.

Chris Morris put the Wellington boys back in front by taking the next from Ray Hendy giving Ray Evans the opportunity he needed to secure his side's eleventh win of the season with a close 61-56 defeat of Mark Matthews.

However, three points was all they could muster as Chris Austin took the final frame of the evening against Pete Wilkes with a 32 break to leave the home side the winners by the odd frame in five.

The Billiard Hall's X team started the New Year in similar fashion as they defeated Coddon C by the same score.

D Khan's 20 break came just at the right time for him to deny Matt Bothwell in a close finish - the Wellington player taking the opening frame 63-48 to give his side the lead.

John Whitehouse drew Coddon level soon after in another high scoring encounter, as he took the next 64-45 from B Hussain.

A 23 clearance against Ray Whitehead saw A Ali put the Billiard Hall back into the lead only for Mick Stokes to pull the Donnington side level again at two apiece.

However M Shadab made certain of the deciding frame with a 55-22 win over Don Bayliss to secure the X men's fourth win so far.

There was better news for Coddon B as their hopes of a return to division 1 received a boost with a 4-1 win away at Shifnal D.

Steve Morse had given Shifnal the early advantage by beating Steve Downs by 64 points to 40 but it was all downhill for the home side from then on as Mark Wall levelled matters and Andy Jones got the better of Sanjay Chauhan to put the visitors 2-1 up.

Nick Pearce made it 3-1 with a 69-40 victory over Geoff French before Phil Szklarzewicz went into overdrive with a brilliant display of potting to seal a fine performance which leaves the Donnington side well placed in the promotion race with 40 points just six off the lead.

DIVISION 3

The third division table is looking a little murky at the moment with Little Dawley C currently occupying top spot with 39 points - five ahead of Maddocks B who have played two games fewer.

The current leaders maintained their promotion charge with an excellent 4-1 win in the derby game with their G team.

Byron Mitchell set the perfect example by taking the opening frame from Graham Clements but Ray Leneveu drew the G side level courtesy of a fine win over Lee Drinkwater.

However Steve Farrington put the "away" side back in front with a 62-21 success over Dave Leneveu and the C side never looked back from then on as Lee Elcock took the next frame too against Graham Copson and Mike King wrapped things up with a 39 break to boot to leave the final score 4-1 to the title favourites.

With 33 points Bayley B are by no means out of the title race, although their 3-2 defeat away to Anstice C was hardly the start to the new year they had been hoping for.

Paul Jones, ever the entertainer, soon put the Bayley in front by taking the first frame by 55 points to 27 against John Smith.

Paul Easthope potted well to double the visitors advantage by taking frame two 47-31 from Steve Ward only for Kevin Smith to hit back for the Anstice by beating Bayley captain Bob Tracey 54-31.

Danny Oliver could do nothing to prevent Jason Mills from drawing the Madeley side level and with Steve Camp taking the decider on the black against Dickie Beddall the visitors were left to reflect on only their fifth defeat of the season.

Bayley D also came a cropper when local rivals Wellington Billiard Hall F made the short trip across town to the Bayley.

The visitors went ahead thanks to Richard Tranter's 62-39 win over Dave Williams. The Bayley replied with captain courageous Steve Lane living up to his name by inadvertently potting the final black whilst attempting a safety shot to deny Steve Weatherall by 54 points to 49. With the black tantalizingly close to the middle pocket, Steve had the option of trying the thinnest of cuts or leaving the black in the middle of the side cushion. He opted for the latter only to over-hit his shot but he was happy to see the black drop into the corner pocket to square things up at one frame all.

Former Bayley man Steve Williams put the Billiard Hall in front again with an excellent win over the Ice Man Bill France and although Darren Rhoades set off with a 25 break it was Chris Fletcher who secured the next frame for the Billiard Hall with a 22 clearance to win by a single point.

And with Rob Cook taking the last frame too for the visitors the Billiard Hall were able to complete a fine 4-1 win.

It was back to the domestic struggle of Division 3 for Bayley C, after their impressive cup performance against Anstice B before the festive break.

However, normal league service was quickly resumed as the home side soon found themselves 3-0 down at the hands of visitors WBH B.

Gareth Hughes took full advantage of two timely flukes to record the Hall's first chalk of the night by overcoming Chris Haycox 50-21.

Allan Francis made it 2-0 for the visitors, by beating young Craig Johnson 63-13. The match was soon out of the reach of the home side, when Kevin Whitehead finished much the stronger, to take the third frame against Les Frances 61-23.

Both the Whitehead cousins were hoping to be pitched in against each other, but it was Iain Atkinson who stepped up for the Billiard Hall to take on Bayley skipper Craig, and both players enjoyed a super frame of snooker. The game started slowly, and with the options for potting becoming limited, a re-rack was offered, but the visitor declined, albeit suffering from a deficit of 20 points at the time. However the game soon opened up, and it was looking like a good decision by Iain to continue the frame as he relentlessly clawed himself back and obtained the snooker he required on the final yellow. One by one, Iain collected the final colours, only for the Bayley man to sink the final pink to end Iain's brave fight back, and record Bayley's first point of the night.

In the final frame, Pete Woodcock continued his fine run of form with another talented potting display, although Billiard Hall anchorman Roy Francis, fought doggedly to take the frame to a re-spotted black.

After a fine opening safety from Roy which any professional would have been proud of, the only conceivable shot available to the Woodcock potting eye was a "do-or-die" double across the table. Pete, ever willing to please the crowd duly obliged, albeit he slightly mis-calculated the number of times the black was to travel across the table, before the black dropped into the pocket on the third attempt!

At the end of a thoroughly entertaining match, both teams seemed content with a 3-2 split of the spoils in favour of WBH.

There was a sad end to the year for the Telford League with the news that one of it's longest serving players, Ken Holden sadly died on Christmas Eve following a short illness. Ken will be sadly missed by all his friends at Shifnal War Memorial Club and fellow players from throughout the league.

INTER-TOWN DATE

Telford A have been given a tough draw in the second round of the West Midlands Inter-Town competition. They will play local rivals Oakengates with the match to be staged at the Sir John Bayley Club in Wellington this Sunday, January 20th (Start time 7.30pm).

The Telford team are to be selected from:
Steve Fletcher (Bayley) (captain), Ian Duffy (Hills Lane), Shaun Harris (Hills Lane), Darren Pountney (Hills Lane), Keith Price (Anstice), Neil Price (Anstice), Richie Hulme (Broseley), Mick Brezwyn (Broseley), Graham Darrall (WBH), Martin Watkins (Bayley), Jesse Lowe (Little Dawley)

STEVE FLETCHER    

Steve.Fletcher@telfordsnooker.com

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