By: Chris Gill
Last 16 of the Frank Lodge Cup competition
This week action saw a break from the League as some sixteen teams fought it out to progress to the Quarter-finals in the Frank Lodge cup competition. Two matches are to be played next week, Bretherton A v Churchtown D and Fleetwood Hesketh B v Scarisbrick A. But we did have five matches to report on and he is the fall out of those cup ties.
Les Dodds’ B, (scr) v Churchtown Cons C, (144)
Les Dodd’s fell short of turning over Churchtown Cons C by only 23 points on the overall aggregate after having to give the 3rd division side some 144 towards their total score. The 2nd division outfit started off well as Dave Mills beat Joe Perberdy by 27 points, 62-35, three more than the needed average but Peter Parkinson could not get the better of Jim Bradley losing 58-47. With only 16 points pulled back on the aggregate Doddy’s top stick this year Andy Reynolds went on next to try and rectify that difference. Andy ran out a 72-36 winner over Brain Sheil, as did Joe Wade, beating Peter Milford 54-43, but it is not by as big a margin as they would have hoped for. This left the home side needing to win by a combined total of 81 points in the last pairings to progress into the next round. Lee Holmes got over half of the aggregate back when beating Roger Hughes 68-23 to leave Paul Rogers the task of beating Richard Butterworth by a similar margin. Although Richard has only won one frame in the league this year, he fought well to go down by a losing margin of only 16 points and so helping his side get through to the last 8 of the Frank Lodge.
Tarleton BC B, (108) v Birkdale Cons A, (scr)
In the only ‘All 1st Division’ clash, Birkdale travelled to play a Tarleton B team who were struggling for form and had not won a league match in eight, even though Birkdale had lost their last two matches. In the end it was the Tarleton team hanging on to avoid what might have been a bit of an embarrassing defeat for them. The match started off really well for the home side after Ian Gautrey ‘turned up’ in snooker talk to beat Phil Fitzgerald by 60 points, 83-23, with some very well taken pots and great all round play. Fitzy could do nothing to stop Ian to be fair, which left John Melvin trying to gain as many points as he could in defeating Neil Rigden. John ground it out, beating his opponent by 23 points, but that meant they were now 145 points behind and two frames had gone. Ricky Webb beat Ray Forshaw by 24 points in a frame that was only memorable for the full length of the table green Ricky potted, as Mick Wardle managed to get passed Jason Swarbrick by 17 points after claiming a brown to black finish. With the aggregate scores at 293-189 with the handicap added, Ronnie and Les fought hard to get back the 104 point deficit. At one stage Les was up by over 60 points on John Gautrey, helped mainly by a superbly taken 47 break, as Ronnie Brooks used all his guile and cunning to squeeze Ste Gautrey almost into submission. But with the blue, pink and black left, Ronnie missed the chance of giving Les a real chance of getting the scores back when missing the pink to the middle pocket and leaving Ste to add 13 points to his team’s aggregate score. Les still had a chance with 2 reds left but John Gautrey spoiled the comeback taking the two reds with colours and so seeing Tarleton through by 42 points on the aggregate score.
Birkdale Cons B, (scr) v Les Dodds’, (scr)
With the two teams sat side by side in the 3rd division, both on 8 wins and both on 51 points in the league, this match up was surely going to be a close game. The opening frames proved this point as John Stringfellow and Danny Clegg played out a 41-41 frame, with David Robinson beating Harry Wilby 46-44. With the opening frames producing a aggregate score of 87-85 the match nicely set up for the rest of the match. Top stick for Birkdale Peter Wilding got drawn against Kyle Woodfull, both players have 9 wins to their names this year in the league, with Kyle getting the better of Peter by the slim margin of only 12 points. As it was with that pairing, so it was with the 4th pairing, as Reg Dobson took on Doddy’s C teams top stick Martin Cusack. The frame was a good high scoring affair with the visiting player managing to gain the upper hand with a 17 point victory, 70-53, and giving themselves a 37 point advantage. When these two teams met in the league back in October, Birkdale were flying in the league and beat Les Dodd’s 4-2, and by 50 points as well. But things have changed recently and Birkdale have struggled to maintain that form, and that proved to be the case in the last pairings as John Warnick only just got passed Kev Woodfull by 12 points as Wayne Pudge produced his best performance this year, beating Geoff Tyas by 51 points, 71-20 to see the Doddy’s C team progress to the Quarter-finals.
Birkdale Cons C, (108) v Our Lady’s, (scr)
With all three Birkdale teams involved in the last 16 it is eventually the C team who will be flying the flag for the club progressing as they did with a 131 point victory over Our Lady’s. All credit must go to the lads from Our Lady’s who no doubt would have been affected by the sudden and sad news of Martin Cawleys death. The match went ahead and the visiting 2nd division side from Formby had to give 108 points on the aggregate score to their 3rd division hosts. Paul Heery set the ball rolling for Our Lady’s gaining a 71-45 point win over Geoff Wright, but Keith Turner went down to Phil Horan by a greater margin, 34 points, 64-30. The middle pairings were shared like the opening pair, with the Formby side putting their top two sticks on next. Michael Houghton played well for his 56-35 win over Martin Calvert but Luke Marshall failed to get the better of Andy Day, losing 67-44. The match had run away from Our Lady’s but that didn’t stop ole Tommy Tick gaining a win on the black against Phil Green as Alan Parker struggled against Paul Rimmer. The final aggregate score might have been harsh on Our Lady’s but sometimes that’s not the be all and end all.
Waddington Cons C, (210) v Churchtown Cons A, (scr)
The ‘Battle of the Con clubs’ took place between 3rd division side, Waddy, and Churchtown of the 1st division, with the Waddy beating their rivals on the night by some 145 points. The visiting Churchtown team were giving 35 a man so needed a good start, but things didn’t go well from the start. Craig Rice beat Guy Riley by 15 with Dan Matthews going down by 30 points to Max Riley. This left the visiting team very much up against it to which didn’t get much better even after their top stick, Colin Boston, could only manage a black ball win over Bob Fairclough 45-40. Dave Harwood lost out to Keith Edgerly by 17 points, 62- 45 to leave Churchtown facing a huge 237 point deficit with the last two to go on. Les Prescott did his best to get his team back into it beating David Brown 100 points to 12 but Mick Coxon could not replicate the form Les showed, beating Stefan Whyte by just the 4 points. Waddington progress through to the Quarter-finals for the first time in many a year, while Churchtown can look towards the Rickerby Cup and any potential silverware.
Waddington Cons A, (scr) v Southport Cons A, (168)
Sometimes it’s your night and obviously sometimes it isn’t. The battle of the Con Clubs went the way of the Bath Street side as they swept away their 1st division opponents Waddington A by 161 points. Things started well for the visitors as Steve Mawdsley produced some of his beat form to beat Paul Taylor by nearly 50 points, 84-36, with Jeff Wainwright edging past Billy Evans by 13 points. Thirteen was indeed unlucky for the old Railway side who have only lost once in the league at home all season, beating Mere Brow A in that time as well. But that good home form wasn’t on show for this match, though Paul Wilson did manage to get a big chunk of the score back when beating Colin Paul 91-30. Alan Tomlin eventually lost to Larry Swindells 63-53 as the match swung back in favour of the visitors, taking a very healthy lead into the last pairings. The difference now stood at 140, with the last two pairings, Ali Iddon and Gary Flynn facing a tougher challenge than scaling Mt Everest. Gary beat John Blackhurst by 30 points with Matty Pollock gaining a 45-32 victory over Ali to see Southport Cons progress into the Quarter-finals
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