Coddon B moved to within a point of leaders Dawley A when they took all but one of the points on offer as the two teams came face to face in the match of the day in the second division of the Telford Snooker League (sponsored by Romeo and Juliets) last week.

Simon Yeats led the way with an excellent 42 break in his opening frame victory over Sean Nolan and the Donnington side rode their luck to take the next two frames on the black for a 3-0 lead.

The battle of the Jones’s went the way of Coddon’s Andy Jones as he edged out Dawley’s Mark by 57 points to 54 before an even closer frame saw Mark Wall overcome Pete Nolan by just two points to put the home side well and truly in the driving seat.

Rick Bailey’s 60-45 defeat of Steve Downs salvaged a point for Dawley and ensured that they retain top spot for at least another week - but their lead over Coddon at the top of the table was reduced to a single point when Nick Pearce took the last frame for Coddon with a fine win over Chris Woods.

Dawley’s total of 49 points from 16 games sees them head the second division table ahead of Coddon B who have 48 points and Bayley A who have 46 points after letting a 3-0 lead slip at home to Little Dawley G.

Chris Adams was in his usual potting mood as he took the first frame against Darren Leneveu. Steve Nicholls and Roy Vickery then fought out a tough second frame which was eventually decided on the black thanks to a good long pot from the Bayley man – and when Steve Fletcher took the third frame too against Chris Leneveu the Wellington side looked set for a good win.

However Little Dawley had other ideas and Graham Copson held his nerve to fend off a determined challenge from Arthur Burrows, pulling a frame back on the pink before Roy Leneveu potted some good balls on the way to claiming the final frame, also on the pink, against Spencer Rowley.

Maddocks B lie fourth on 41 points despite falling to a rare defeat in the derby clash with their C team.

Doug Morrey gave the D team the perfect start with a 59 -13 win over skipper Graham Hoof and Nev Whitehead made 1-1by beating opposing skipper John Archer before an excellent win by Jim Hill over veteran Wally Harper put the C team 2-1 up.

Bill Rushton then stepped up to secure the match for a C side by beating Steve Pritchard 55-28.

If ever there was a competition for the over eighties then the bookies would have to make Les Hicks odds on favourite. He put on a brilliant display for a gentleman of 83 clocking in a 24 break on his way to rescuing another point for his side by clinching the last frame against Colin Smith with a performance his club colleagues were proud to witness

Minnesota Fats B lost ground on the leaders though when they fell to a 3-2 reverse away to Wellington Billiard Hall C who did supremely well to record their second win of the season.

And what’s more they came from behind too after Mick Pearson had given the visitors the lead with a 44-21 win over Chris Morris.

Telford United fan Rob Palin was no doubt expecting to be watching his heroes at the New Bucks Head but with Telford’s FA Cup clash with Millwall postponed he duly turned out for Minnesota only to find himself on the wrong end of a 55-20 scoreline as the Billiard Hall’s Craig Davies levelled the frames scores at one apiece in some style.

The visitor’s lead was soon restored thanks to Kirk Stephenson’s close 48-33 win over Wayne Weeks but the Billiard Hall achieved a well-deserved win courtesy of final frame victories from James Price and Aaron O’Donnell.

James wasted no time in drawing his side level with a fine display of potting against Harry Jones which included a break of 30 whilst Aaron won a high-scoring decider by beating Neil Pearson 64-55.

However despite their brave win the Billiard Hall still find themselves rooted to the foot of the table some seven points adrift of Anstice C who lost 4-1 at home to Little Dawley C.

John Bowen gave the visitors the lead with a fine opening frame display against Michael Musgrave only for Jason Mills to draw Anstice level with a 59-28 defeat of Steve Farrington.

Graham Wiley and Rob Withington put Little Dawley in the driving seat by beating Steve Camp and Frank Williams respectively before Colin Gittus made it 4-1 with a 61-22 win over Dave Harper.

Dawley B moved away from the relegation zone with a good 3-2 win at home to Coddon C who had Don Bayliss in fine form early on, taking the first frame for Coddon against Alex Jones.

Kev Jones’ fine win over John Whitehouse levelled matters for Dawley who then took the lead as Don Pugh knocked in a 23 break to deny Alan Hedgecock.

Frazer MacKinnon’s 49-35 success against Barry Roden meant the match went to a deciding fifth frame and despite a brave performance from Ray Whitehead, it was Dawley’s Steve Hewitt who took the frame and with it the match.

FIRST DIVISION

There was no doubting the highlight of the evening’s play in Division 1 – and not surprisingly it was the in form Ian Duffy who provided the spark for yet another sizzling display by champions-elect Anstice A.

A superb 80 break gave Ian the first frame against Dave Lloyd as Anstice made the potentially tricky trip to play Coddon A.

However, tricky it may have seemed going there – the journey back must have been made all the easier for the Madeley side after yet again taking all five points from a tough encounter.

Neil Price added to their tally with an 88-32 win over Ian Ferriday before a 33 break from brother Keith against Adrian Smith moved the score on to 3-0.

A black ball win for Noel Stones over Zenon Lembicz made it four in a row and the Anstice duly secured the final frame, again on the black, courtesy of Nick Oakley’s 44-41 win over Terry Brenthall.

Anstice’s lead over second-placed Maddocks A is now thirteen points after the Oakengates side fell to an unexpected defeat against Wellington Billiard Hall A.

Ian Eldridge’s 51-20 success over A Khan gave Maddocks an early lead but they soon found themselves in hot water as the Billiard Hall reeled off the next three frames in quick succession.

Graham Darrell’s 58-47 defeat of Darren Wincott made the match all square and wins from Alex Turnbull, who beat Phil Davis, and Andy Kendrick over Dave France, put the home side 3-1 up.

Things almost got worse for Maddocks – but they hung onto their hopes of claiming the runners-up spot thanks to a superb long pot on the final pink which gave Leigh France the opportunity to sink the final black to take the last frame of the evening from John Rawlins.

Shifnal A will need to do better than the 3-2 win they took from their derby clash with Shifnal B if they are to make up ground on Maddocks and challenge for second spot.

Their efforts may have produced a tenth win of the season – but they are still some ten points behind the Oakengates club with just six games left to play.

John Fallows is in good form for the A team though and a 32 clearance underlined his side’s determination and they went on to open up a two-frame lead when Linsay Knox defeated Ray Evans 69-51.

The B string were unlucky not to pull a frame back when A Ali’s 23 break saw his frame with Angus Way go all the way to a re-spotted black. However the former Billiard Hall player was unlucky to see the white go in off leaving Angus to stretch the A team’s lead by taking the frame by 59 points to 52.

Nigel Stallard hasn’t been having much luck himself recently – and he picked up his first win in a short while when his 22 clearance saw him over the line against Andy Easthope to record his first win since the two teams met earlier in the season.

And with M Dabbs winning the final frame for Shifnal B with a 61-29 triumph over Roy Martin the A team were left having to settle for a narrow 3-2 win which keeps them three points ahead of Minnesota Fats A who lost out by the odd frame at Little Dawley A.

Jon Wright’s narrow 60-50 win over Rich Heighway gave Minnesota the lead but Rick Cousins’ win over Steve Collins and a 58-32 triumph for Jesse Lowe over Jamie Morris saw the home side turn the tables in their favour.

Lee Elcock’s 61-24 defeat of Kev West made it 3-1 to Little Dawley – but a fine 53-28 win for Paul Devey over Ade Henry limited the damage for Minnesota to just a single frame difference.

Shifnal E also lost out by a single frame as Simon McLeod took the decider from Dave Peplow by 65 points to 42.

Aaron Sparkes had earlier given Shifnal the lead only for Richie Hulme to level with a good win over Arron’s dad Jeff.

Matt Davies then weighed in with a 78 break against Carl Walker to put Shifnal back in front only for Mick Brezwyn to take the next from Rob Wright 63-30.

DIVISION THREE

Bayley F closed the gap on Third division leaders Maddocks D as the Oakengates side lost for the second time in two weeks when they entertained Wellington Billiard Hall B.

Mick Wincott’s opening frame win over Gareth Hughes looked to be just the tonic for Maddocks after they lost last week for only the second time this season.

But John Thornhill triumphed 72-61 against Mick Lucas and then Kevin Whitehead beat Fred Spragg to give the Billiard Hall the lead at two frames to one.

Ken Davies did draw Maddocks level again by beating Alan Francs but the visitors were not to be denied their seventh win as Iain Atkinson won a nerve-wracking decider 59-46 to secure a memorable win for the Billiard Hall boys.

As a consequence of their defeat, Maddocks’ lead over Bayley F at the top of the table has been cut to just three points as the Wellington side completed a morale boosting 4-1 win over Shifnal D.

Tom Maxfield was in unstoppable form to take the first against Terry Askew and although Shifnal drew level through the impressive Sanjay Chauhan, who had a 25 break in his victory over Chris Shaw, it was the home side who took all three of the remaining frames.

Eddie Whitehead made short work of the next against Arthur Aston and further wins for Andy Summers over Geoff French and Paul Maxfield against George Nelson ensured the Bayley of a tenth win this term.

Another side now on ten wins are Bayley D – and they are now just two points behind Bayley F after they too dropped just one frame at home to Anstice B.

Darren Rhoades’ 44-25 triumph over Danny Weaver was followed up with victories for Dave Williams and Brian Aberdeen, the latter on the black against George Hammond, as the Bayley took control.

Craig Whitehead piled on more pressure with a good win over Billy Watson and it was only due to the late intervention of Stew Wimbush that the Anstice left with anything at all for their troubles.

Stew’s final frame win over Dave Dudley salvaged a point for the Anstice who lie some 8 points adrift of the promotion places.

Bayley B lost ground slightly on the pacesetters as they fell to a 3-2 reverse at Minnesota Fats C.

Danny Oliver gave the Bayley side the early lead by beating Bob Lane 46-24 but Toby Welsh cancelled out that advantage by beating Chris Haycox in the next.

Dickie Oliver restored the Bayley’s lead only for Mike Thompson and Neil Robinson to secure a 3-2 win for Minnesota by taking the last two frames from Bob Tracy and Dickie Beddall respectively.

There is often a fine line between winning and losing – and that was precisely the case when Wellington Billiard Hall F defeated Newport British Legion B by the odd frame.

The Wellington side’s first point came from Pete Smith’s single point win over John Yapp and the next three frames were all decided on either the pink or black with the Billiard Hall winning two of them.

Keith Gardner’s 55-45 defeat of Rob Cook levelled the match at 1-1 but Steve Wetherall’s 53-45 win over Alan Davies and Richard Tranter’s black ball finish against Mike Doverskog meant that the Wellington side began the last frame 3-1 up.

However Les Stirling produced a stirling display to salvage a second point for Newport who were left wondering what might have been?

There was not so much tension though when Little Dawley B defeated Hadley A 3-2 to claim their eighth win of the season.

Garry Clements made no mistake to take the fist for the home side against Dave Barnett and they were soon three frames to the good as Phil Cottey got the better of Stuart Dicken and Mike Rhoades beat Shane Dicken 41-32.

Any thoughts the home side had of taking all five frames were soon dashed though as Rich Goldie stole the fourth frame from Craig Darrock 55-25 before Dave Barnett claimed another for Hadley with a 68-25 final frame win over Rob Barlow.

STEVE FLETCHER    

Steve.Fletcher@telfordsnooker.com

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