1st Division
The battle of 1st v 2nd went the way of second placed Mere Brow A as they beat their title rivals Tarleton BC 5-1, leaving them two points clear with only four games remaining. Chris Hoare opened up a near 30 point lead over Andy O’Hara with two reds left but could do nothing to stop Andy from clearing up the colours to the pink to lose his match 59-43. Chris Gill held a 37 point lead with three reds left at one time but could only watch on as Martin Brown tried to clear the colours for the win on the black. Martin fell short when missing an attempted double on the black to the middle pocket leaving a very tricky black for Chris to pot. Chris slotted home that tricky black to take the frame 50-41 to level up the frames. Andy Booth made the most of a couple of bad shots from John Nelson to win 70-40 as Alan Wareing eventually pulled away from Andy Bolton after a prolonged bout of safety play winning 79-28. John Greenwood stayed unbeaten in his last 10 when beating Rob Iddon 42-37, making two great pots on the final pink and black to do so. And when Martin Collier, who came out of retirement for this match, beat Marcus Jackson 54-28, it gave the visitors their first league defeat of the season. This result has put Mere Brow in a fantastic position, though things could change yet, but they do look on course to retain the title for a third successive year.
Fleetwood Hesketh, conquerors of Mere Brow last week, carried on their winning form when beating Churchtown Cons 4-2. Gavin Douglas beat Les Prescott 75-42, making his best break of the season, a 40, in doing so, with Danny Murphy beating Dan Matthews 60-10 to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. Craig Rice beat Dean Oliver on the final colours 46-33 as Mike Reeder only just getting the better of Dave Harwood, beating him by only 10 points 63-53. Mick Coxon brought up his 10th win of the season when beating Stuart Evans 54-20 which saved the Con club from a 5-1 thumping as they played with one short. Churchtown go to Tarleton next to take on the toppled leaders of the division while Fleetwood play hosts to Waddy A.
Waddington Cons go into that match with Fleetwood in good form after beating S & B 4-2, their 5th win on the bounce. The opening frames were shared after Billy Evans beat Tony Milner 56-35 for the Waddy as Dave Palmer beat Gary Flynn in similar style 53-28 for the Cricket club. The middle frames belonged to the home side though as Paul Wilson registered his best break of the season, and the league’s best this week, a 57 against young Tom Palmer with Ali Iddon beating Russell Thornley 69-33. Alan Tomlin went 4th in the Stats ranking table when beating Barney Newton comfortably 79-17 with Paul Taylor losing out on the black to Paul Parker, 48-41. This was the Waddy’s tenth win of the season, matching what they achieved at the Railway last year, and will be looking to improve that record at Marshside next week.
Tarleton B beat Birkdale Cons 4-2 to move above their C team in the battle for bragging rights come the end of the season. Ian Gautrey beat Les Sullivan 59-37 and Ray Forshaw beat Mick Wardle 60-38 to see Tarleton win both of the opening frames, just like they did when they met earlier in the season. John Gautrey managed to beat Tony Roberts, only just mind, 55-54 as John Melvin opened up the scoring for Birkdale when he beat Neil Rigden 53-15. Ronnie Brooks continued his recent good form to beat Ste Gautrey 52-29, as Jason Swarbrick sent Phil Fitzgerald to an early retirement, beating him 67-58, to earn Tarleton only their third home win of the season.
Argyle LTC beat Tarleton C 4-2 confining Tarleton to another loss away from home again. Having lost their previous two matches to nil Phil Keep could have been forgiven where the team’s next point would come from after he lost 60-55 to Brian Jarrett in the opening frame. Well the drought was averted in the next frame as Shaun Fisher beat Colin Coffey 65-19 to see them off and running. Dean Bon had no answer for Ste Forshaw, Ste running out a comfortable 74-30 winner. The battle of the Peter’s went the way of Tarleton as Peter Haslam beat Peter Callaghan 75-20 to give hope to the visitors that they might get at result from Argyle. But Paddy Tyndall and Ryan Curry had too much for Tarleton in the final two frames, beating Russell Rigby and Mark Rollins respectively.
Banks scored a maximum 6-0 against the lowly Mere Brow B team to give them their first full house of six wins for two years. The opening pair for Banks both registered their 10th win of the season after Trevor Wetton beat Paul Crabtree jnr and Al Sutton beat Dale Roberts. Andy Hardisty and Roy Cookson doubled the lead after beating David Forshaw and Matthew Greenwood with Paul Crabtree snr failing to beat Andy Bintcliffe in a low scoring game 36-28. Banks take on the struggling Tarleton C team next as Mere Brow entertain the B team of Tarleton.
2nd Division
Waddington Cons B continued to keep the rest of the teams at arm’s length from them as they drew 3-3 with Bretherton A. Ron Dickinson beat Keith Percival on the final black 42-35 to bring up his 10th win for the year as the Waddy’s Phil Gaskell beat Kevin Wigley 57-21, giving Phil his 10th win of the season also. Like the opening frames, the middle frames were shared as Dave Cottam eased passed Alan Ashworth 89 points to 18 as Denis Woodward equalised the score with a 65-24 victory over Alan Greenwood. Harry Haslam got the better of Andy Linaker, beating him 64-26, as Ste Cobb moved to 13 wins for the season when he defeated Jim Holden 53-19. The Waddy’s next three fixtures see’s them take on 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the table, so it must give the other teams hope in hunting them down.
Banks C stay 7 point behind Waddy B after they could only draw with a Churchtown Cons B team who have yet to win away from home this season. Things started well for the home side going 2-0 up in no time when Martin Sephton beat Jamie Barton 79-36 and Alan Johnson got the better of John Smith 52 points to 9. But the Cons club fought back in the middle frames, winning them both to set up that potential first away win, after Guy Hudson beat Dave Martindale 57-18 with Colin Tennant beating Cliff Arnold 44-19. With Paul Connor beating Arthur Wareing 49-34, John Prescott was the only obstacle left for the Cons clubs first away win. Lawrence Richards tried, making a 31 break in his frame, but John proved just too strong for him, running out a 63-34 winner.
Banks B claimed a solid 4-2 win away to Les Dodd’s A, giving them their 4th away win of the season. They got off to a perfect start when Mike Marsh beat Martin Matthews with relative ease 80-20, as Dave Turner edged passed Karl Bellman 53-37. Bob Ashcroft got his third win on the trot when beating Graham Marshall 63-25, with Alan Harley getting the first point on the board for Doddy’s when beating John E Gearie 65-37. Ken Dumican beat Ray Swailes as Andy Griffiths kept up his good form for Banks when beating Peter Jackson 70-57. This was Doddy’s 5th straight 4-2 loss and go to Churchtown Cons next week trying to alter that stat. Banks play hosts Scarisbrick A.
Our Lady’s completed a home and away 5-1 double over British Rail, earning them their second 5-1 victory at home this season. The opening frames saw Our Lady’s take a 2-0 lead after Paul Heery beat Paul Varney 50-24 with Keith Turner snatching the frame away from Peter Robinson jnr on the final black 51-49. That 2-0 lead was nearly doubled after Michael Houghton easily beat John O’Malley 68 points to 8 with Formby losing a black ball frame this time when Luke Marshall lost to Railways Colin Peet 55-53. The black ball drama continued into the last pairings as Phil Fellows got the third black ball win between the sides on the night when beating Eddy Cracknell 54-49. Alan Parker also had a close, but low scoring frame, with Colin Nuttall, coming out on top 36-21.
St.Teresa’s A v Les Dodd’s B – Les Dodd’s won 4-2, no scorecard to hand yet.
3rd Division
With 1st and 2nd both missing this week due to Open dates Les Dodd’s C made their match count by thumping Waddington Cons 6-0. Danny Clegg and Kyle Woodfull opened up for Doddy’s with Danny beating Vince Langford 56-30 and Kyle sneaking passed Stefan Whyte on the final black 44-43. Guy Riley and Bob Fairclough could do nothing to stop Harry Wilby and Anthony Dodd making it 4-0 leaving the last pair for Doddy’s of Martin Cusack and Damien Bloomfield to go for the full house 6 wins. This they did when Martin Cusack beat Dave Brown 78-37 with Damien Bloomfield beating George Evans 57-33. It was Doddy’s first home full house of 6 winners and leaves them just 7 points behind the leaders.
Churchtown Cons D slip to 4th in the table after losing 4-2 to St.Teresa’s B even after going 2-0 up in the match. Churchtowns Al Graham and Mick Pickles got the team off to a flier when beating Nobby Lee and Aiden Quinn respectively only to lose the middle frames next up. Mike Langford squeezed past Dave Quinn on the final black 50-43 as John McGee won a similar tight frame against Steve Mentha 56-43. Unfortunately the Con club team could not get the full complement of players and so Teresa’s took the last two frames on the card.
Birkdale Cons B got back to winning ways after beating Banks D 5-1, to record only their second win in 2015. Reg Dobson and John Stringfellow opened things up for the Con club, John beating Gerry Stone 42-33, with Reg beating Barry Foster 58-18 with the help of a 23 break in his match. Peter Wilding brought up his 10th win of e the season when beating Alan Wilson 58-37 as John Warnick edged out Darren McDonnell on the final colours 40-32. Banks avoided their second home whitewash when Graham Melvin beat David Robinson 56-39 with Tony Coakley going down 54-26 to Geoff Tyas
Fleetwood B won only their second away match of the season when turning over the Churchtown Cons C team 4-2 last week. Fleetwood took the opening frames when Ian Brownhill beat John McCabe, only just mind, on the final black 57-53 with Lawrence Renshaw getting the better of Peter Milford 48-24. Churchtowns Jim Bradley made it 9 wins from his 10 played this year when defeating Mark Beaver 74-21, making breaks of 21 and 24 in doing so, as Brian Kimberley put the visitors 3-1 up when beating Roger Hughes 46-9.
Birkdale Cons drew 3-3 with Scarisbrick B though the visitors only went with the five players. Phil Horan opened up the scoring for Birkdale when he beat Eric Stockley 57-27 as Ian Lowery got a 49-19 win over Ted Coghlan. The middle frames where shared also as Graham Ward got the better of Colin Rimmer winning 49-28as John Brown replied for Scarisbrick when beating Martin Calvert narrowly 44-34. The missing player meant Birkdale had a chance of gaining a 4-2 win but Scarisbrick’s John Hardisty managed to beat Geoff Wright 65-41 to earn his side the draw. Birkdale go to Marshside next as Scarisbrick sit out their Open Date fixture.
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