A dramatic deciding frame saw Fred Spragg emerge as the hero for Maddocks D as they were crowned third division champions of the Telford Snooker League (sponsored by Romeo & Juliets) following a titanic battle with title-challengers Bayley F.

There was just one point separating the two teams at start of play with the Bayley side having displaced Maddocks at the top of the table the previous week. But in the end it was just one shot that ultimately separated the two teams as the deciding frame went all the way to the wire.

The fixture list had conspired to pit the two teams against each other in the final game of the season and a win for either team would see them crowned as champions as Maddocks held a better “goal difference” having won more actual matches.

So with the frame score at two apiece the nerves were beginning to jangle as Bayley’s Andy Summers took on former Bayley man, Fred Spragg who was lining up for the visitors.

In what was to prove a dramatic finale, Andy opened up a 20-point lead and only required one of the last four colours to claim the title for the Bayley.

However, despite battling valiantly it wasn’t to be Andy’s night as Fred displayed nerves of steel to take the frame, match and indeed season to a nerve-wracking black ball finish.

Fate too took a hand as the frame reached an exciting conclusion with Andy going in off the brown leaving Fred with a difficult clip into the corner pocket. Fred duly sank the brown but his attempted pot on the blue hit both jaws of the middle pocket before rolling across the table and dropping into the opposite middle.

The Maddocks man still had two more pressure shots ahead of him if he was going to secure the title for his side but he calmly potted a straight pink in the middle before potting a “Dennis Taylor” type black into the corner pocket to rapturous applause from his teammates.

Maddocks had earlier looked certain to claim the title in style as they opened up an earl two frame lead with Mick (who I’ve been calling Martin for the previous 21 weeks of the season) Wincott taking the opening frame by 62 points to 35 against young Tom Maxfield.

Ken Davies was once again in good form for the Oakengates side as he made it 2-0 by beating Chris Shaw 68-36 as the visitors moved to within a single frame of clinching the title.

However, Bayley captain Paul Maxfield led the Bayley fight back with a fine win over his opposite number Roy Adams before Eddie Whitehead set up the title-decider with a cool 65-31 success over Brendan Wincott.

The Maddocks boys were obviously delighted to have finished the season in top spot, especially as they had led the table for all but one week of the season. However the Bayley will have disappointed to have lost out on the title due to matches won as they missed out on promotion in the same way last term.

They can still be justifiably proud though, having produced a fine all round performance this term which has seen them promoted to division 2 after just two seasons in the league.

Bayley D finished their season with a win as they entertained Minnesota Fats C and overcame a two-frame deficit to win 3-2.

Mike Thompson gave the visitors the lead with a black ball win over Bayley captain Darren Rhoades and they then doubled their advantage through Tom Firmstone’s 60-34 defeat of Brian Aberdeen.

The home side were keen to hold on to third place in the table and they did exactly that after mounting a superb comeback.

Craig Whitehead set the ball rolling with a good win over Dave Welsh before Dave Williams overcame Toby Welsh to set up the decider.

Dave Dudley’s 54-27 win over Neil Robinson completed the turnaround as the Bayley side cemented their position in third spot.

Anstice B finish fourth after they too won 3-2 against fifth-placed Wellington Billiard Hall F.

The visitors were obviously missing the influential pair of Chris Fletcher and Steve Weatherall, who were on holiday in Peru, as they fell behind early on.

Stew Wimbush beat Chris Durham to give Anstice the lead only for Pete Smith to draw the Billiard Hall level by taking the next on the black against John Darrock.

Mick Cahill restored the home side’s lead with a 54-27 success over Martin Chapman before George Hammond, whose break of 47 earlier in the season earns him the award for third division’s highest break, made it 3-1with a 50-30 win over Rob Cook.

Richard Tranter’s 43-31 defeat of Billy Watson salvaged another point for the Billiard Hall who will be looking to maintain their recent form when the season restarts in September.

The other two matches in the third division also ended in 3-2 scorelines with Billiard Hall B beating Bayley B and Newport British Legion B edging out Little Dawley B.

Gareth Hughes gave Billiard Hall B the lead when he took the first frame on the black against Danny Oliver and the home side went two up soon afterwards as Kev Whitehead ensured himself of the most wins in the division by beating Chris Haycox.

Danny Francis then made it 3-0 against Bob Tracy before the Bayley boys began a mini revival.

Dickie Oliver’s 58-34 win over Alan Francis pulled one frame back for the Bayley before Dickie Beddall rescued a second with a 50-40 success against Iain Atkinson.

John Yapp’s 77-47 win over Craig Darrock ensured Newport British Legion B finished their season on a high note by beating Little Dawley C 3-2.

Garry Clements had earlier given Little Dawley the lead when he came out on top against Nigel Simpson only for Alan Davies to reply for the visitors with a 51-30 win over John Evans.

Tom Wotherspoon restored Little Dawley’s lead by beating Mike Doverskog but the visitors took the last two frames through Les Stirling who beat Steve Evans and John Yapp’s deciding frame win.

DIVISION 2

A fantastic 5-0 win for Coddon B saw them claim the second division title ahead of Dawley A who finish the season on the same points but have won one less match following their 4-1 triumph over Little Dawley G.

The Donnington side started the day knowing they needed to gain at least one more point than Dawley A if they were going to lift the title – and that’s exactly what they did by taking all five points from the Dawley club’s B side.

Andy Jones has had a fine season this year and he finished it off in style with a good win over Don Pugh to give the Donnington side the lead.

A 42 break from the ever-impressive Simon Yeats soon made it 2-0 to the home side as he gave Steve Hewitt little chance in the next and the home side continued to dominate with Mark Wall taking the next from Alex Jones.

Steve Downs made it 4-0 with a good win over Barry Roden leaving Phil Szklarzewicz to claim the all-important fifth frame with a 66-48 win over Kev Jones.

Dawley A were also in impressive form recording a 4-1 win over Little Dawley G and even though they missed out on the title can be well satisfied with a fine season which has seen them bounce back to the first division at the first attempt.

Sean Nolan opened the scoring with a 44 break against Darren Leneveu before Chris Woods made it 2-0 with a good win over Chris Leneveu.

Mark Jones has had a fine season this term and he signed off in style by beating Roy Leneveu 55-31 to put Dawley 3-0 up and things continued to go the home side’s way when Alex Nolan defeated Graham Copson 65-55.

However they were unable to complete the whitewash as Roy Vickery won the crucial fifth frame for the visitors, beating Rick Bailey 51-36 to leave Dawley 4-1 winners.

Bayley A’s season petered out as they lost by the odd frame for the third week in succession to a strong Maddocks C side.

Dave Thomas gave the visitors the lead by taking the opening frame on the black against Chris Morgan-Adams but the home side hit back through Spencer Rowley’s 44-32 win over Bill Rushton.

Bill found himself requiring a snooker on the pink and very nearly pulled off one of the shots of the season in attempting to place the white behind the black.

Things did go Maddocks way in the next though when Joe Oliver won a tight tussle with Steve Nicholls and Graham Hoof then put Maddocks into an unassailable 3-1 lead by beating Bob Mason on the pink.

Steve Fletcher’s pink ball win over Jim Hill proved scant consolation as the Wellington side finish the season in third spot – one place short of promotion.

Coddon C will also be playing in the second division again next season, despite ending their campaign on a high note by beating Minnesota Fats B 3-2.

Ray Whitehead gave them the lead by beating Harry Jones 53-34 only for Mick Pearson to draw his side level with a 54-36 success against Mark Tusel.

Rob Palin produced one of his best performances of the season as he swept aside the challenge of Sef Tusel to make it 2-1 to the home side only for Alan Hedgecock to level for Coddon with a narrow 49-48 win over Kirk Stephenson.

And with Don Bayliss claiming the decider for Coddon the Donnington side ended the season with a 3-2 win.

Little Dawley C also ended their campaign winning by the odd frame when they visited Maddocks B.

Graham Wiley’s 53-25 defeat of Doug Morrey and John Bowen’s 61-47 win against Wally Harper put the visitors in the driving seat – and there they stayed as Colin Gittus beat Nigel White to make it 3-0.

Steve Pritchard’s 20 break helped him to reduce the deficit by beating Rob Withington 53-28 before veteran Les Hicks rolled back the years with a 23 break on the way to defeating Steve Farrington 49-27 to reduce the deficit still further to a single frame.

Anstice C recorded only their fifth win of the season when they defeated Wellington Billiard Hall C by four frames to one – but sadly for both teams they will be playing each other again next term as are both relegated to Division 3.

The Billiard Hall started brightly with Wayne Weeks scoring a 22 break in his 54-41 opening frame victory over Frank Williams.

Kev Smith took the next for the visitors with a 42-32 win over Aaron O’Donnell and they never looked back with Steve Camp winning the next on the black against James Price and Mike Musgrave beating Craig Davies.

Jason Mills put the icing on the cake with a 62-24 final frame win over Sean Parks to make the final score 4-1 to the Anstice but it sadly wasn’t sufficient to maintain their second division status.

DIVISION 1

With Anstice A already having retained their first division title and Maddocks A confirmed as runners-up the only issues to be settled in the first division concerned the race for third spot and the relegation battle at the opposite end of the table.

Broseley A must have thought they had done enough to clinch third place when they visited the champions and came away with a highly creditable 3-2 win.

However Shifnal A’s 5-0 victory over Minnesota Fats A sees them – and not Broseley – occupy third spot by virtue of having won one more match.

Breaks of 33 and 30 saw Richie Hulme become only the second player this season to get the better of Ian Duffy as Ian ends the season having won 20 out of 22 league games.

Anstice drew level through Neil Price’s fine win over Carl Walker and they went in front when Keith Price rattled in a run of 36 on the way to defeating Graham Long 69-23.

Mick Brezwyn’s brilliant win over the in-form Nick Oakley forced the decider and this proved to be a frame of the highest quality with Noel Stones’ s 32 break being eclipsed by runs of 20, 32 and 37 as Simon McLeod earned Broseley a super 3-2 win.

Broseley’s efforts to claim third spot were thwarted however as Shifnal A produced one of their best displays of the season to see off Minnesota Fats by five frames to nil.

Linsay Knox was in devastating form to take the first frame from Paul Devey before Chris Painter made it 2-0 with a 56-27 against Steve Collins.

Angus Way’s 78-55 victory over John Morris made it three in a row and further wins for Andy Easthope over Jon Wright and Roy Martin – who beat Kev West on a re-spotted black – ensured Shifnal of finishing third in the table.

Shifnal B were not so fortunate as they ended their campaign with a 4-1 defeat which sees them making a swift return to Division 2.

The Shifnal side were second best in the derby game with their E team and they fell behind when Ray Evans’ teammates rather cruelly wrote down breaks of 1, 7 and 2 on the scorecard as his reply to Arron Sparkes’ runs of 24, 23 and 20.

Things didn’t get better in the next frame either as A Ali’s run of 36 was matched by Chris Petford who eventually took the frame on the black to put Shifnal two up.

Jeff Sparkes made it 3-0 against John Powell before Nigel Stallard, in a final attempt to impress his one fan from across the Atlantic, failed to produce his expected form and went down 61-33 against Rob Edmunds.

M Shadab’s 54-47 black ball win over Dave Peplow was scant consolation for Shifnal B who join Anstice D as the two teams to drop down to Division 2 next term.

The Madeley side ended their campaign is style by winning their ninth game of the season – but with Wellington Billiard Hall A also winning 3-2 any hopes Anstice had of staving off relegation were to prove unfounded.

Indeed their hopes looked to have been dashed within the first two frames as Coddon A opened up a 2-0 lead.

Lee Szklarzewicz rattled in a quick-fire 40 break to defeat Darren Wilkie before Ian Ferriday got the better of Andy Elliott 63-37 to make it 2-0 to the home side.

Adrian Smith then knocked in a 30 break as Coddon continued to impress – but Phil Reynolds wasn’t going to see his team go down without a fight and produced a brilliant break of 52 to reduce the deficit to 2-1.

John Jones then levelled the frame scores with a close 55-45 win over Dave Lloyd before Nigel Wallcroft took the decider with a 52-28 win over Terry Brenthall.

As a result Coddon finish the season in sixth place, one place below Bayley E who ended their season with a super 3-2 win over runner-up Maddocks A.

Bayley captain David France set them on their way with a fine 63-29 win over Phil Davis. Maddocks looked as though they would draw level when Ian Skelton knocked in a delightful 50 break against Andy O’Brien – but the Bayley man stuck to his task and eventually took a high-quality frame on the black with the aid of a 27 break.

Ali Jones continued in the same vane with a 60-23 win over Maddocks captain Dave France before the home side salvaged the last two frames.

First Leigh France got the better of John Squire and then Ian Eldridge defeated Steve Hoof 53-31 to reduce the Bayley’s winning margin to a single frame.

One frame was also the difference when Wellington Billiard Hall visited Little Dawley A and came away with a well-deserved three points.

Alan Turner took the first frame with a close 65-56 win over Ade Henry and the visitors moved into a 2-0 lead when Andy Kendrick edged out Lee Elcock by a similar margin.

Graham Darrell’s fine win over Jesse Lowe made it 3-0 before the home side rallied through Darren Pountney. A 37 break secured the frame for the league treasurer over Alex Turnbull and Little Dawley rescued another point when Richie Heighway beat John Rawlins on the last black.

Nonetheless, the Billiard Hall’s recent good run of results has ensured they will be in the top flight again next year as they avoided the drop by some four points in the end.

STEVE FLETCHER    

Steve.Fletcher@telfordsnooker.com

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