Southport Snooker League Match Reports – Week 1, September 20 2015.
1st Division
Last year’s runners up Tarleton A got off to a flyer beating Tarleton C 6-0 in their opening match of the season, but can be glad for a huge slice of misfortune from their opponents on the night. Look away now if your Peter Halsam & Phil Keep as both players lost on the final black after taking total control of their frames. Firstly Peter could do no wrong going nearly 50 points up on Andy Bolton, eventually going into the colours 36 points clear. But a free ball & two fouls later and the frame was back up for grabs. Eventually Andy cheekily doubled the blue into the green pocket to leave him plum on the pink with a tap in black to complete a smash ‘n’ grab victory over Peter 64-62. A similar fate happened to Captain Phil Keep when he lost to John Nelson 68-65 after John needed two snookers with only the pink & black left on the table. Phil went in-off twice to hand victory to his opponent when John took the final two balls. Rob Iddon struggled to get past C team debutant Jamie Moore, which was surprising as he made a 119 break in practice before the match, but he eventually came out on top after taking the final colours. The final three frames on the card went the way of the A team, with comfortable wins for Chris Gill, Marcus Jackson & Arnie Sothern.
Fleetwood Hesketh A nearly matched the full-house six of Tarleton A when defeating Tarleton B 5-1 with Ian Gautrey proving to be the stumbling block when he took last three colours against Mike Reeder to stop the potential white-wash. Ste Crane beat Andy Marsden in a somewhat scrappy frame 51-21, with Dean Oliver making a crucial 29 break in the middle of his frame against Ray Forshaw to seal a 61-37 victory. Gareth Hibbott made his usual start to the season when making breaks of 47 & 35 to comfortably beat Ste Harrison 82-1. With Ian beating Mike in the fourth frame it was left to John Gautrey to beat Neil Rimmer to give hope of getting the draw but he fell short after the Hesketh player got most of the final colours. Stuart Evans proved too strong for Jason Swarbrick beating him 77-35 to give the Marshside side an opening 5-1 victory.
Les Dodd’s B first match back in the 1st division since the 2009-10 season didn’t go exactly to plan as they went down 4-2 losers to Banks A. It nearly was the perfect start for them as Alan Harley beat Andy Hardisty 78-23 with Dave Mills losing out to Alan Sutton on the final black 41-44. Paul Rogers lost out to Trevor Wetton 48-70 as Roy Cookson took the frame away from Andy Reynolds on the final black 60-56, despite Andy making a 30 break in his frame. With only one away win to his name for all of last year’s fixtures Matthew Wetton began this season with a 69-52 victory over Simon Bolton. Andy Murray got the better of Andy Bintcliffe beating him 59-34, helped in large to his 32 break in the frame, to secure the second point of the night for the home side.
Two closely matched teams from last year, Birkdale Cons A gained a slight advantage when coming away from playing Waddington Cons A with a 4-2 victory. The opening frames where shared as Billy Evans got the better of Les Sullivan in a close match 49-40, with Mick Wardle beating Ali Iddon 63-31. The middle pairings of Phil Fitzy and Saul Kemp gave Birkdale the upper hand when both beating Paul Wilson and Alan Tomlin respectively to put the visitors 3-1 up. John Melvin made sure of an opening day win when easily beating Paul Taylor 79-39 with Gary Flynn beating one of the home guard in the team Ronnie Brooks 58-40.
The only drawn match in the opening fixtures cam e in the match between Argyle & Churchtown Cons A, though Argyle did only manage to get the 5 players to make the match. Kevin Woodfull made the step up from playing at Les Dodd’s C to gain an opening frame win over Ste Forshaw with Ryan Curry claiming the next frame with victory over Jamie Campbell. Brian Jarrett got one over on Les Prescott beating him 55-35, as Colin Coffey went down 58-39 to Dave Harwood to leave it two apiece. The last frame on the night went the way of Paddy Tyndall as he comfortable saw off Craig Rice 58-5.
Mere Brow A beat Waddington Cons B 4-2. No card to hand.
2nd Division
Banks C claimed an opening 5-1 victory over Our Lady’s to see them top the table after the opening round of fixtures. Steve Harris and Martin Sephton got the ball rolling when winning the opening frames against Luke Marshall & Phil Fellows. More joy came for the home side after Arthur Wareing beat Michael Houghton 46-34 with John Prescott beating the returning Graham Booth 54-40. Alan Parker eventually made sure the trip to Banks wasn’t totally fruitless when beating Billy Cummings 49-37, with Alan Johnson completing the 5-1 win with a 69 points to 7 victory over Keith Turner.
Bretherton A made solid start to the new season when beating last year’s luckless 1st division side Mere Brow B 4-2. Jim Richards & Ron Dickinson got the home side off to a flyer when claiming the first two frames. Though had Mere Brow debutant Kyle Prescott done his sums correctly on the final colours he might have opened his account with a win, losing to Ron on the final black 49-47 when he thought he didn’t need it. The visitors then levelled the frame scores up when Paul Crabtree jnr beat Dave Cottam 54-34 as David Forshaw beat Captain Gordon Russell in a close tussle 53-47. But Harry Haslam and Jim Holden got the last two frames to give the home side victory when beating Matthew Greenwood and Crabtree senior.
Last year’s 3rd division winners Bretherton B kept in close tabs with their A team after securing a 4-2 victory over the Banks B side. The opening frames were shared as home player Andy Griffiths beat William Moulton 52-42 as Alan Venables got a comfortable 65-25 win over Dave Turner. The middle frames were also shared where Mike Marsh made the break of the night, a 33, in his 67-38 win over Stephen Fiddler. Phil Iddon won the other frame when beating Harry Caunce 51-22. Bretherton’s Simon Moulton & Nev Marsden made sure of the win and 4 points when claiming the last two frames on the night.
With only 2 league wins to their name in 2014-15 season, Churchtown Cons B are halve way there to emulating that stat when beating the visiting Les Dodd’s A team 4-2. Paul Connor made a 21 break in his 40 point victory over Jordan Scutt, as Richard Butterworth lost out to Martin Matthews 49-33.Colin Tennant, who topped scored on the night with 68 points, beat Karl Bellman with Jamie Barton completing a middle pair win for the Cons when beating Graham Marshall 49-34. The win came about when Guy Hudson got the better of Mike Lount 52-34 as Peter Jackson only just stopped a potential 5-1 defeat when getting the final black against Lawrence Richards in his 48-44 win.
Southport Cons A, who apart from Matty Pollock are the old St. Teresa’s A side, started off with a 4-2 victory over the relegated S & B side. It has been three years since the name of Southport Cons have played in the 2nd division, so it was a welcome win back playing on a Thursday night. Matty Pollock impressively got the better of Russell Thornley 63-17, as the Cricket teams Paul Parker opened his account with a good win over Mike Langford, 56-36. The middle frames were also shared as Dave Palmer beat John Cromwell 58-38 with Stephen Cromwell beating Tony Milner 58-11. The Cons final pairings of Lee Cromwell & Nobby Lee secured victory in the end when beating Tom Palmer & Barney Newton.
3rd Division
Sat at the top of the table after week 1 of the opening round of fixtures is Southport Cons B who had a resounding 5-1 victory over Birkdale Cons C. The opening round of frames saw the home side quickly go 2-0 up after wins for John Barton & John Blackhurst. The middle parings also went the way of the home side as Birkdale’s Phil Horan & Geoff Wright could do nothing to stop Jeff Wainwright & Peter Yates secure a 4-0 score line in favour of the Bath street side. Eventually some cheer came the way of the visitors as Phil Green managed to beat the top stick for Southport Cons last year Colin Paul 53-29, but martin Calvert could not stop Larry Swindells from completing the 5-1 rout. This venue isn’t the best for Birkdale as they came away from here last year without any points, so gaining 1 point is a bonus I suppose.
Last year’s basement clubs in the 3rd division, Banks D & Waddington Cons C, played each other in the opening fixture with the home side coming out on top 4-2 winners. Tony Coakley beat Max Riley 69-45 with the Waddy’s Bob Fairclough levelling the score up with a 66-35 victory over Barry Foster. The middle frames were shared also as Graham Melvin beat Stefan Whyte 66-29 as Guy Riley beat Gerry Stone 53-19.. But the last two frames went the way of the home side to give them an opening day win as both Darren McDonnell & Alan Wilson beat Steve Whyte & Dave Brown.
Fleetwood Hesketh B got off to a flyer against Churchtown Cons C when winning the opening four frames of the night but couldn’t press home that advantage as the visitors won the last two frames. Dave Senior & Mark Beaver started off by beating John McCabe & Joe Perberdy to give the home side a 2-0 lead. Mick Orme scrapped passed Adam Rothwell on the final black beating him 38-37 as Lawrence Renshaw completed the fourth frame win for the home side when beating Brian Sheil 53-33. But the visitors had the say in both of the last two frames with Peter Milford beating Phil Marrow 57-15 and Roger Hughes claiming a 7 point victory over Daniel Beaver..
Scarisbrick B lost to the 3rd divisional title favourites Les Dodd’s C 4-2 in the opening week of the league. Doddy’s nearly got the perfect start as Jamie O’Shaugnessey beat John Brown 63-49 with Danny Clegg going down to Scarisbrick’s Colin Rimmer on the final black 38-42. Hot shot Harry Wilby suffered a heavy 83-32 defeat Wayne Cooper, who made a 22 break in the frame, as Harry Hardwick levelled things back to 2-2 with his victory over Ian Lowery. But the title favourites took control of the match when winning the last two frames on the night as Martin Cusack beat Matt Lowery 35-17 and Kyle Wood full beat Eric Stockley 50-40.
Churchtown Cons D drew 3-3 with league new comers Formby Sports & Social, despite only having the 5 players to hand. Tony Brookfield got the first point for the Formby side when he defeated Mike Pickles 51-44 as Steve McCluskey went down narrowly to Dave Quinn 58-54. Al Graham lost out to Alec Fairley 65-40, with Alec making a 21 break in his frame as Russ Walsh beat Mark Winkley comprehensively 60 points to 4. Steve Mentha beat Adrian Morris 56-20 but with the Cons only able to field the 5 players it meant that the’ Absent’ victory for the visitors made it a 3-3 result.
Birkdale Cons B played British Rail, the result has not come in yet.
Submit News Contact us with your community, business or sport news. Phone 07581350321
Email ots@otsnews.co.uk
Facebook www.facebook.com/otsnews.co.uk
Twitter www.twitter.com/onthespot_news
Breaking local news as it happens, searchable archives with photographs, the ability to instantly comment on news articles – there are so many advantages to OTS (Onthespot) News.
If you want your news read locally online then send it to ots@otsnews.co.uk – relying only on the newspaper is to restrict yourself to an ever reducing audience.
OTS News on Social Media