I make no apologies this week for starting in the first division, as it was one of the best matches that I have been involved in for some while, and believe it or not, it was between the nearly doomed Audco, and Dawley A.

Using both tables, the old boys from Audco were drawn to play first, that being Graham Darrell and Alan Turner. Alan played his best game of the season to beat Chris Woods and finished in time to watch Graham Darrell against another campaigner, Rick Bailey.

Graham gave an incredible 41 points away in foul strokes to Rick, and believe it or not came back to win on the black ball, one of Grahams finest wins against a good player, sorry Rick. So, two up and sights set on avoiding relegation, next up was Andy Phelan against Mark Jones. Mark proved too strong for Andy and with breaks of 25 and 36 ran out a comfortable winner.

Grant Heighway then had to play an old friend, Mick Benting, and went into a comfortable lead of 30 points. Mick came back very well and after some great safety shots from both players; unfortunately Mick went in off the black for Grant to win the frame.

So all square, and our best player of the season, “Kenny” came up against Sean Nolan. Kenny played really well and built up a very good lead until suddenly Sean knocked in a 29 break. Although the pressure was on, Kenny potted a superb difficult pink to win the frame and secure Audco’s second win of the season.

Broseley A were at home to Bayley A, and managed a 3-2 win over the Bayley side, who are now locked into joint second from bottom with Maddocks C.

Chris Morgan-Adams had a fine win over Carl Walker in the opening frame with a score line of 77-10, and Graham Long, still in fine form, then pulled one back for Broseley by beating Arthur Burrows 58-30.

The usually reliable Simon McLeod then lost to Spencer Rowley to give the Bayley side the lead once again. Mick Brezwyn, so hard to beat, made no mistakes in levelling for Broseley gaining a comfortable win over Bob Mason. The decider was won by Simon Thomas with a victory over Steve Fletcher 69-34.

Broseley now look to be taking over the mantle of champions as the Anstice A side lost 3-2 to their D side. Paul Devey took the first frame by the narrowest of margins beating Keith Price 52-49 followed by Steve Collins gaining a fine win over Sean Harris 88-43. D. Wilkie lost to Simon Yeates 63-42 before Nigel Wallcroft beat Jamie Fallows 59-51 to give the Anstice D side the match win. The last game was won by Ian Duffy with a 63-8 score line over Keith Blackham.

In the LDS A against Bayley E game, Andy O'Brien got the Bayley side off to a flyer with a hard fought game against Lee Elcock. Lee looked in control for much of the frame, and went into the final stages 25 up with 27 on the table, only for Andy to take control and snatch the frame on the black.

Steve Hoof then stepped up against Matt Bailey and should have put Bayley even further up, Steve battled back well against Matt, only to miss the black ball which Matt Bailey smashed in to level things at 1-1.

Lee Buttery found some form to duly dispense of Ken Davies and make it 2-1 to Little Dawley. Darren Pountney then finished things off to ensure the win for the little Dawley men beating Dave France comfortably. John Squire pulled one back for Bayley E with an impressive display against 'old timer' Jesse Lowe. The final score was LDS A 3 Bayley E 2.

Report courtesy of Darren Pountney.

Maddocks C also locked in the relegation battle managed to beat the Shifnal A side 3-2. Taking nothing from the Maddocks side, but Shifnal’s form seems to be somewhat like a yo yo again this season, whereas they could be serious contenders for a title if they ever put their minds to it!

Anstice C also look invincible now after taking four points from their B side, with only campaigner John Darrock showing any form. Andy Elliot had a particularly good game beating the useful Noel Stones, albeit 44-42.

In second place Bayley F returned a very handy win, 4-1 over Minnesota Fats A, Paul Maxfield being the only loser for the Bayley F side. Still this win gives the Bayley side a two-point lead over third placed LDS G.

LDS G were at home to The Second Club Trench where the first three games were decided on the black ball. Graham Wiley lost to Ian Ferriday 61-53 before Neil Morris pulled one back for LDS G beating Karl Owen, 68-61.

The third frame saw R. Levenue beat Lloyd Giles to make it 2-1 to LDS G. R Levenue than lost to Keith Mears to set up the decider for home captain, Graham Copson to come good, winning the frame and match for LDS G 3-2.

Shifnal F entertained the Codden B side and recorded a 3-2 win. Steve Downes recorded a nice 44 break in his game against Fred Harper and won that frame 62-44. Mark Wall also took a 33 break in his frame with Chris Painter but went on to lose the game. 65-54.

In the third division The Second Club B side are opening up a gap between themselves and the rest, after a fine 4-1 victory over the Hadley A side. Once again Kevin Whitehead was the star for the Hadley side, although he didn’t have it all his own way according to the score line. Kevin beat Tom Firmstone 61-54.

Bayley Q slipped up at home to the Bayley B side, which can always happen in local derbies, when they lost the match 3-2. Winning for the B side were Kevin West, Danny Oliver and Dicky Bedall, and gaining the two points for Bayley Q were Chris Durham and Richard Tranter.

Maddocks B took the trip to Bridgnorth to play Comrades, and a worthwhile trip it was as the Maddocks B side returned with three points in the bag.

I dare say that Maddocks boast the oldest team in the league, not that you would notice with the likes of Les Hicks and Doug Morrey still playing such good snooker along with the likes of Wally Harper. On a personal note may I say how enjoyable to meet up with that team in our recent cup match, we certainly rolled back a few years!

Finally, LDS B won their match at home when they played Shifnal D. Colin Gittus lost the first game to Shifnal’s Terry Askew 66-42 before Phil Cottey with a fine 40 break made it one each in a high scoring game beating Sanjay Chauhan 73-59.

Pete Clarke then lost to Peter Wharton who cleared all the colours for a 27 clearance, and Tom Wotherspoon levelled the match by beating Geoff French 62-54 and setting up the decider between Snowy Darrock and Barrie Easthope. In a tight finish “Snowy” overcame Barrie 56-45 to win the match for LDS B.

Alan Turner    

Alan.Turner@telfordsnooker.com

Return To Top