The end of the road has been reached for this season, and the final placings in the league have been settled. Undoubtedly, there will be some disappointments, and others will have reason to celebrate, so I will report from the first division onwards this week.

Anstice A are confirmed champions of the first division this season, and in their final game of the season took on Shifnal A at Anstice. Richard Wade, who was drafted in six or seven weeks ago, gained his fourth win in a row when he defeated John Fallows 52-18. Keith Price then played Angus Way, who had an exceptional game by delivering a whitewash for Keith, and recording a superb break of 82 in that match, the score line 82-0. Shawn Harris then also lost to Lindsay Knox by 63-43.

As predicted earlier, this result was academic, as Anstice had already virtually won the championship, however they took the last two frames when Neil Price beat Andy Easthope 68-27 and Ian Duffy won his frame 52-32 against Simon Biddulph.

Although Broseleys card had not arrived at the time of this report, I have received the following courtesy of Darren Pountney. Little Dawley ended all hopes of Maddocks receiving silverware this season with win number twelve on the trot, and undefeated in 2005. Darren Pountney won his eleventh game on the trot with a convincing win over Phil Davies, and leaving Darren unbeaten in 2005. Tim Hicks then played Ian Eldridge off the table to make it 2-0, and a commanding lead. Ian Skelton gave Maddocks some hope with a fine win over the recovering Jesse Lowe, recently back from a knee injury.

Any hopes of a revival were soon dashed though, as Lee Elcock defeated Darren Wincott to make it 3-1 to Little Dawley. Leigh France won a consolation frame to make it 3-2, but this was not enough to earn Maddocks runners up spot as Broseley won 4-1 against Minnesota Fats across the town in Oakengates.

Anstice D finish mid table after getting off to a flyer at the beginning of the season, and they visited Shifnal to finish their campaign. The teams were all level after four frames but unfortunately, Anstice were short of a player and the final score was 3-2 to Shifnal B.

Now to the relegation battles, where just a couple pf points separated Dawley A from Wellington A, and the same margin between Wellington A and Codden B. Dawley A opened the scoring when youth took on experience in the form of young Sean Nolan playing Graham Darrel. A very good match this was, and with no run with the ball, it was a wonder that Sean won this frame at all, but with an excellent clearance on the colours, just pinched the frame from Graham. That has been a similar ending to the last few frames Graham has played.

On the next table meanwhile, Mark Jones for the home side found himself with a comfortable 30 odd lead, but Andy Yates made a valiant comeback, and just lost out 64-43 on the final colours. Chris Woods lost his game to Andy Kendrick, 46-38 to give Wellington hope, knowing that Codden were away to Bayley E, who had already defeated Wellington 5-0 earlier in the season.

Alan Turner broke off in the fourth frame only to see the white ball go in off, and also leave a simple red over the corner for Pete Nolan. The gods were smiling for Alan however, as Pete missed that pot and left Alan to take a little 24 break to go in front. One shot later Alan was back to the table and this time knocked in a 28 break. This left Pete a lot to do and Alan won by 83 points to 23.

In the final game, Rick bailey played very well and beat Alex turnbull 61-25.

Poor Codden who had it all to do at the Bayley, playing Bayley E, lost all five frames and join Minnesota Fats A in the second division next season.

Bayley A who had won this division already, clocked out in good style as champions of division two with a 3-2 score line over Maddocks B. This was a match that Maddocks desperately wanted to win, being in one of the relegation spots, but with the first three frames taken by the Bayley side, this was enough to see Maddocks join their other team mates, Maddocks D in the drop to the third division.

Maddocks D were at home to one of the other potential teams that could have gone down, Shifnal F, and although gaining a 3-2 win over Shifnal F, it was not enough to help either of the Maddocks teams. Ken Davies for Maddocks D signed off with a 37 break in his game with Fred Harper, and won that by 63 to 25. The last game also saw Chris Painter record a 30 and a 40 break over Fred Spragg, the final score line 101-3.

This division now loses all three Maddocks sides, but on a happier note for the remaining team, Maddocks C is the team to join Bayley in the top flight next season. After a dodgy last three weeks, they visited L.D.S. G. and returned with four points, although it didn’t look that good at the start, as host player Graham Copson came up with the goods with an emphatic win over Graham Hoof, 64-16. Colin Smith retaliated by winning his frame on the pink from Graham Wiley 49-32, with “gritter” Bill Rushton making it 2-1 with a respotted black against Roy Leneveu 53-46.

Back from his Canadian holiday. Jim Hill wrapped up the match with a 55-26 victory over Rob Withington and Nev Whitehead, having lost his last three matches found a little old form, and put the fourth point in the bag beating Daz Lenevue 48-20. Report courtesy of Nev and Pat Whitehead.

In the middle of the table clash Codden C gained a 3-2 win over Bayley F at home.

After a valiant effort this season, Bayley D were deprived of the championship as Anstice B finished two points in front of them, making Anstice B the champions of division three. The Anstice team visited L.D.S.B. this week and knew they were in for a tough game. However, although losing the match 3-2, the result was enough to secure the top prize.

As predicted, local derbies are always difficult, and the Bayley D side found this to be true as their opponents, Bayley Q took two of the five points from them. Although Craig Whitehead produced a 33 break in the first game beating Rob Cook 74-13, the games then see-sawed with Bayley D securing the last point to make it 3-2 to the “D” side.

Newport B finished a respectable fourth in the table and finished in good style when they visited the W.B.H.B. side and won 4-1. Kevin Whitehead was the only winner for Wellington, and could quite easily play for one of the higher divisions, but having played with that team myself, I can understand his reluctance to move on!

Shifnal D made third spot, and were at home to Bayley B, who finished mid table. Shifnal won this match 3-2.

So there we have it for this season, and my thanks to you all for taking part, and hope to see you all next season.

Alan Turner    

Alan.Turner@telfordsnooker.com

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