| In the third division this week two of the potential
champions met at the Bayley club. The Bayley D side started
well with Craig Whitehead giving his side an early lead with
a convincing win of 71-17 against W. Watson from Anstice B.
Daz Rhoades then gained a narrow win over Mick Reynolds 55-49,
but that was Bayley D’s last point! Noels Stones recorded
a 124-01 with breaks of 44 and 57 over Dave Williams, followed
by George Hammond returning a 43-19 win over Brian Aberdeen.
The last game was a black ball decider, which went to Stew
Wimbush 55-53 playing Dave Dudley.
There is just one point between first and second, and also
between second and third placed in this division now, and
it looks like an exiting finish to both the first and the
third division in the race to the titles this season.
Shifnal D gained an unusual home advantage, as the W.B.H.
B side were unable to play at their new venue. The result
of that match ended in a 4-1 score line to the Shifnal side,
although W.B.H. were close to taking another point when Roy
Francis for the Wellington side lost by one point to Sanjay
Chauham 50-49.
Newport Legion are still in close touch after taking the
trip to play the Bayley Q side at Wellington. The Newport
team came away with four match points, which keeps them in
contention with the leaders.
Little Dawley B maintain their mid table position when they
visited The Hadley A side and also took four points from this
match. Dave Barnett was the only winner for Hadley defeating
Tommy Wotherspoon 51-28.
Little Dawley X were at home to Minnesota Fats C, and yet
again another 4-1 victory, this time to the Little Dawley
side. Matt Hickman lost the opening frame after Tom Firmstone
from Minnesota won by 39-24, but that was the only win for
Minnesota as the Little Dawley X side went on to win the next
four frames. Dave Welsh did his best to secure another frame
for Minnesota but lost on the black 65-53 to Jason Hickman.
With the Bayley A result not in yet, Maddocks C move to within
three points of the leaders in the second division. The Maddocks
side went to the Second Club Trench and after two close opening
games; one to each side, Joe Oliver then gave Maddocks the
lead for the first time with a comfortable win over L. Watson
57-8. K. Owen then squared the match for the Trench club with
a black ball victory over Jim Hill 38-34. So, all set up for
the decider, where Larry Giles for the home side met the in
form Nev Whitehead. Nev Whitehead kept his teams hopes alive
by taking the last frame and winning the match 3-2 with a
score line 65-34.
Dawley B visited Maddocks D where the Maddocks side did their
teammates a favour by beating Dawley B three frames to two.
This means that the Dawley side have lost a little ground,
and with only four matches left have it all to do to get into
the trophies.
Codden C, with probably the largest squad in the league,
played away to Little Dawley G. Codden C have acquitted them
selves very well this season but found the Little Dawley side
in good form as Codden C lost 3-2. Best win of the evening
belonged to Rob Whithington from the Dawley side, who recorded
a 75-35 win over Sef Tusel.
Anstice C, who were making steady progress, will be disappointed
by only gaining two points from visitors Maddocks B, as the
opportunity to leap frog a couple of places in the table was
denied them by some capable and experienced players. Wally
Harper set the scene beating Mick Musgrave 46-38, albeit on
the black, followed by a player who gave me pointers on my
introduction to the game many years ago, Doug Morrey. Doug
beat his opponent Kev Smith, 68-34.
Andy Elliot then pulled a point back for Anstice defeating
John Archer 53-34. The next game saw Steve Pritchard for Maddocks
gain a comfortable victory over Jason Mills 72-24, before
Steve Camp secured the second point of the evening for Anstice
when he beat Nigel White 84-20.
Last but not least, Shifnal F, near the bottom of this division,
were at home playing Bayley F, who were at one stage nearer
the top of this division! Bayley F took the first two frames,
and close ones they were, as J. Briscoe for Shifnal lost on
the black to Eddie Whitehead. The next game also heralded
a win on the black ball yet again, when young Tom Maxfield
beat J. Dickenson 59-44.
So, Bayley two games up, and although narrow wins, that’s
where the points stopped flowing in favour of the Bayley club.
The next two frames saw K. Dickenson with a comfortable victory
over Chris Shaw 58-11, and equally so, Chris Painter 67, Paul
Maxfield 18. The deciding frame could not have been scripted
any better than this, as the experienced Fred Harper won through,
on yet another black ball finish.
To date this leaves five teams locked together at the bottom
of this division with very few points between them, and although
it’s the wrong end of the table for the teams involved,
it will be an intriguing run to the end of the season.
A little like musical chairs in the first division this week,
as the top three teams have moved about again. Broseley now
lead the field after going to the Anstice club and taking
three points from their match with the Anstice D team. Paul
Devey had a good win against Carl Walker 72-26 followed by
an equally good win from Broseleys player, Paul Humphries
who beat S. Collins 58-18. A close game next where the over
forties finalist, Graham Long, lost on the black to K. Blackham.
That was the last frame to be won by Anstice, as Broseley
took the last two points with Nigel Wallcroft losing 51-14
to Simon McLoud and Phil Reynolds defeated by Mick Brezwyn
60-27.
Champions, Anstice A, went to “champions elect”
Maddocks A, and were in no mood to relinquish their hold on
the title, as they stormed to a 4-0 lead over the Maddocks
A side. Ian Duffy led the charge over namesake Ian Eldridge
80-40, and then Shawn Harris produced a 43 clearance to take
the game from Phil Davis 61-47. Next in the hot seat was Leigh
France who witnessed a 60 break from Keith Price, and another
frame to Anstice 68-23. Keith’s brother Neil also made
a 31 break against Daz Wincott to win that game 79-30.
A footnote on the card also stated that Daz had made a 130
break on the previous Saturday to this match, so well done
Daz, and I’m sure more breaks will follow.Ian Skelton
won the last game of the evening, when apparently he fluked
the black to win his game with Richard Wade where the score
line was 67-63.
Little Dawley A continue their run in this half of the season,
with another good 4-1 win over Shifnal B, who were showing
signs of a revival lately. Matt Davies, yet again, took the
first frame 95-2 with a 70 break playing Ade Henry, however
this win seemed to be just a hic-cup for the little Dawley
side as they went on to take the next four frames. I should
add that two of the last four frames were on the black ball,
but at the end of the day it’s W.L that counts in every
match.
Shifnal A played the Bayley E side at the Bayley, where the
Bayley side gained a 3-2 win over Shifnal. Andy O’Brien
although having a 29 break, lost to John Fallows 60-45, but
then Steve Hoof with a break of 34 triumphed over Angus Way
47-33. Ali Jones put Hadley back in front virtue of a 58-8
score line playing Lindsay Knox. This see saw match continued,
when the next game went to Simon Biddulph 77-43 with John
Squires on the end of that defeat. A high scoring game then
resulted in Dave France winning a black ball game with Andy
Easthope 62-52.
Codden B and W.B.H.A. had a very enjoyable match, which ended
in a 3-2 victory for the Wellington Side. High lights of the
match was a 48 break from Simon Yeats over Andy Yates in the
first game to give Codden the lead, and later a 40 break from
Graham Darrel against Steve Downs. The last game of the evening
was also a cracker with Andy Kendricks just edging the deciding
frame on the black, 69-66 against Phil Szclarzewisc.
The last match to report was Dawley social who were at home
to Minnesota Fats A, where the Dawley side managed a 3-2 win
over Minnesota Fats. Dawley A Started well when Sean Nolan
with a 23 break beat Mick Pearson 82-9. Chris Woods for Dawley
then added another frame to the tally beating Harry Jones
42-24. Mark Jones was up next and with the help of a 25 break
went on to a comfortable win against Mick Egan 64-25.
In a low scoring game Minnesota A pulled a frame back when
Kirk Stevenson took the neat game on the black, Kirk Stevenson
33, Alex Nolan 23. The last game saw one of Dawley’s
longest reigning players, Rick Bailey, lose his game 29-61
in favour of Neil Pearson.
Alan Turner
Alan.Turner@telfordsnooker.com
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