Ten points clear, two matches to go, and Bayley A are all but champions of the second division this season. Congratulations to the Bayley side, who have headed the table for weeks now, and with this weeks result of 4-1 when the Bayley side visited Codden C, all is safely gathered in. The Bayley sides two remaining fixtures are against both of the Maddocks sides pinned at the bottom of this division.

Meanwhile, Maddocks C’s winning run came to a halt as they went down 3-2 at the expense of hosts Anstice C. Joe Oliver put the foundry boys up 1-0 with yet another solid performance against Frank Williams running out a 69-37 winner. Coin Smith, whose good form is returning, made it 2-0 with victory over Kev Smith 60-24. Anstices’ Steve Camp put a stop to his side’s downward slope, and a super 40 break, which should have been a lot more with six reds remaining, was enough to take the frame from Nev Whitehead 77-27.

Away skipper, Graham Hoof then tried hard to clinch the match for his teammates, but fell away at the end with Andy Elliot getting home on the final blue 57-34. Mick Musgrove secured the match with a 62-29 win over luckless Bill Rushton leaving the guests to ponder whether silverware is still in the pipeline. Report courtesy of Nev and Pat Whitehead.

Dawley B made the short trip to Shifnal where they played the Shifnal F side, and came away with three of the five points to be had. This win gives Dawley B a clear third spot. but still four points adrift of second place Maddocks C, and probably too much too do.

Bottom placed Maddocks D, with the home advantage, lost 4-1 to the Second Club Trench, but with five teams locked together with only a difference of two points overall, it would be foolhardy to predict who will be going to join division three next season!

Maddocks B, just above their teammates now after going to the little Dawley G side, and gaining a 3-2 win. This match looked to be an exciting affair considering the position of Maddocks B. After the first comfortable win of the evening when Wally Harper beat T. Bell 76-31, Graham Wiley then beat one of my ex team-mates Les Hicks on the black, 50-48. R. Levenue for the home side then played Doug Morrey and in a high scoring game, that result was also a black ball affair with the frame going to Doug Morrey 62-55. So, 2-1 to the Maddocks team, and still fighting for the much-needed points, the next frame saw Rob Whittington beat Nigel White on yet another black ball 46-42.

With just the one game to go, Maddocks just scraped the win, and I won’t say it again but the score was home player G. Copson 36, Steve Pritchard 45, and a well earned win for Maddocks B.

Bayley F returned to winning ways when they visited Minnesota Fats G, and won that match 3-2. It looks like a comfortable mid table finish for Bayley F, whereas Minnesota have two tough games to finish their campaign.

The Anstice B-side took all five points from their match with the Wellington Billiard Hall B side. Anstice now lead the division by one point, and of their two remaining matches have Hadley A to play and also Little Dawley B.

This title race is not over yet, especially with Little Dawley’s resounding 5-0 win over the Shifnal D side. Little Dawley B, at home, raced into a 3-0 lead, and although the next two games were black ball affairs the Little Dawley side took all the spoils, and they will definitely have a huge bearing on where the title may go, having to play Anstice B at their place for the last match of this season.

Bayley D who have had some great performances this season, beat Newport British Legion at the Bayley club, 4-1. A good result this as Newport have also shown good form this season. Craig Whitehead got the Bayley side off to a good start with a 72-22 win over Keith Gardener, followed by Dave Dudley beating Nigel Simpson 57-12.

Next up was D. Williams who met Les Stirling. Les, who has been hard to beat at most times this season proved no different in this game as he rattled up a 47-5 score line. D. Rhodes then won another point for the Bayley side defeating John Yapp 77-42. Finally a convincing score of 72-6 from J. Lewis over Mike Doverskog gave Bayley D the final point in the match to make that result as stated.

Bayley D now have to play their last two games away from home, one to little Dawley X and probably the hardest to finish with, a derby match with Bayley Q!

The above mentioned little Dawley X were away to the Bayley Q side and acquitted themselves very well, being the new kids on the block. The Dawley side lost the first game by the narrowest of margins when Chris Durham beat Phil Padmore 53-52. Another close frame again when the Bayley lads took the second frame, Rob Cook 46, Jason Hickman 32. Pete Smith was next to play and recorded a comfortable win of 62-44 against young Ryan Jackson.

Funny how things change, Pete, from the Audco club has been very instrumental in letting the Wellington Billiard Hall A side complete their matches from the Audco, and thanks from all our team to Pete for that.

Back to the report, and Little Dawley must have been wondering if any points were coming their way with the first three games in the bag for the Bayley side, but Matt Hickman gained the first point for Little Dawley beating Richard Tranter 68-35. The final game of the evening saw another point go to the Little Dawley lads, with Sean Jackson beating Steve Weatherall 54-34.

Minnesota Fats C gained the result at the little Dawley club, when they overcame the Little Dawley J side 4-1. With the Hadley A side also losing 4-1 at home to Bayley B, this means, even with two games to go Little Dawley J and Hadley A will finish at the bottom of the table this season. I’m sure both sides will have enjoyed the season, and will look forward to improve next time around.

So, with just two games to go it seems that it’s all over bar the shouting, as Anstice A now find themselves three points ahead at the top of the first division. Anstice A couldn’t have wished for a better result when the Maddocks A side took on Broseley A at the Maddocks club. This result ended in a 3-2 win for the Maddocks side, and I would think effectively puts and end to Broseleys challenge for the title, but gives Maddocks an outside chance of second spot.

With Maddocks and Broseley not gaining too much advantage from each other in this match, the fixtures favoured Anstice, as they had to play Minnesota Fats A who were thrown in at the deep end this season. Anstice A took all five points from this encounter, even though playing away.

Little Dawley A continue their impressive second half run, still undefeated, and that didn’t change when they travelled to Anstice where they played the D team. The Little Dawley side were 3-1 up in games, but Phil Reynolds who has played particularly well the last couple of weeks, won another good game beating Matt Bailey 56-46.

Shifnal B who have consistently been one spot above us (WBHA) in the table, have now left us well behind, and as usual Matt Davies led their teams 3-2 win over the Codden B side, when he beat Mark Wall 65-16 at the Codden club. But Codden aren’t going without a fight, as Simon Yeats proved when he stormed to a 70-1 victory over Chris Petford. Andy Jones then took another frame for Codden 61-14 against Nigel Stallard, before Ray Evans brought Shifnal level with a 58-43 win playing Steve Downes. Dave Peplow also won his game 51-21 to leave Phil Ssklarzewicz and his team losing by the odd game.

Shifnal A may not progress much further in the table but managed a 3-2 victory at the expense of The Dawley A side on Dawleys' home ground.

Fellow strugglers, Wellington Billiard Hall A, currently playing from Audco, were unable to field a full team and lost at the Bayley club 5-0. This leaves Dawley A and the Wellington side locked on 39 points, just four above Codden B, and the remaining fixtures hold lots of possibilities!

Alan Turner    

Alan.Turner@telfordsnooker.com

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