Southport & District Snooker Results – Week 7
The league programme returned this week after the break we had for the Rickerby Cup and it threw up a few very surprising results and stories…
The league leaders, Mere Brow A, managed to get a 3-3 draw with 2nd placed Tarleton Bowling Club A, in a match that had 7 breaks of 30 or more in it. John Nelson got his potting arm going early to make a well worked 41 break and so defeat Andy O’ Hara 61-10. Mere Brows captain, John Greenwood, put himself against Chris Hoare and was kicking himself when he missed a relatively easy pink to the corner bag to take the frame. He missed it, left it over the hole and Chris did the rest to put Tarleton 2-0 up and in a bit of control of the match. Mere Brow responded to this, as all good champions do, by digging in and taking the next two frames on the card. Danny Jassi continued his run of making a 30+ break in the league, four matches on the trot now, with a 34 break to beat Andy Bolton. And Martin Brown added his name to the break sheet when he made a 37 and 25 in his win against Chris Gill. Tarleton showed some fighting spirit when Ste Harrison turned over Andy Booth making his best break of the year so far, a 38, in his 72-50 victory over Andy. Although the best break(s) on the night, belonged to Alan Wareing, when he defeated Marcus Jackson 94-0. His opening four shots were all off the back cushion but after he had slotted his third long red and ended up on a colour, he took full advantage. He first broke down on 32, but his second break of 60 was class, especially when splitting up the last group of reds and so continuing the break. Honours shared on the night, which was about right on the night, and Mere Brow held on to their 5 point lead at the top of the table.
The ‘Top Break of the Night’ went to Gareth Hibbott of Fleetwood Hesketh after he made a wonderful 96, only missing out on the century when not quiet falling on to the last red. With 37 breaks of 100 or more already in the history books, I am sure he will get another chance to add to that incredible list of his. Fleetwood ended up beating Churchtown Cons 4-1, as both sides only turned up with 5 players on the night, which is a bit of a shame really. It dosnt get any easier for Churchtown as they face Tarleton A this week while Fleetwood face a tricky match away to the Waddy.
The ‘Come back of the Night’ was at Birkdale where Neil Rigden of the Tarleton B team, snatched victory away from the jaws of defeat in a highly unlikely win against Phil Fitzgerald. Birkdale may have won this match 4-2 but the score line could have been very different with four frames being decided on the final black. Phil had raced away from Neil at the start of his frame, aided by breaks of 28 and 25 to leave Neil needing two 4 point fouls on the colours and all the colours just to force a re-spot. Phil duly obliged by giving the necessary fouls away and letting his opponent back into a frame he really had no right to win. Neil eventually snicked the re-spot black back into the yellow pocket, from distance, to sink Fitzy 73-66. It’s not the first time Fitzy has suffered like this, he had previously lost on a re-spotted black to Tarleton’s Andy Bolton earlier in the year and in very similar circumstances too. Andy Marsden beat Tony Roberts on the black to put the visitors 2-0 up but the frames after that went the way of Birkdale. Mick Wardle beat Ray Forshaw on the black after staging a mini come back himself, and Ian Gautrey cross doubled the black to only go in off and so lose to Les Sullivan.
Banks A beat Mere Brow B 5-1 with a star performance coming from Andy Bridge who beat Paul Crabtree jnr 33-78 making a 41 break in the process. This break, along with his 67 earlier in the season, puts Andy up in the top 10 players for the league sitting on 6 wins out of his 7 frames played. It was also Banks’ first away win of the year and see’s them move up a couple of places in the league to 8th, only 6 points behind Tarleton A. Paul Crabtree snr stopped the possible whitewash when he defeated Andrew Bintcliffe in the 6th frame of the night 44-34 in what is becoming a hard season for the new boys to the top flight division.
The Tarleton C team beat Argyle 4-2 to inflict their first defeat of the season to the Tennis club this year. ‘Shot of the Night’ went to Jamie Wayne when he smashed the pink into the middle bag to run all around the table to finish perfect on the black and so beat Jon Holmes by one point 47-46. This levelled the scores after Ste Forshaw had got Argyle off to a good start beating Jimmy Jones. Shaun Fisher made his team’s best break of the night, a 32, off his very first visit to the table and put himself in control against Brain Jarrett. Paddy Tyndall got the only other frame for the Argyle team as Pete Halsam and Phil Keep continued their good form to keep the C team unbeaten at home this year.
The Cricket club played out a 3-3 draw with the Waddy A team, though they will feel like they missed out on their first victory of the season after going 3-1 up. Paul Parker and Dave Palmer got things off to a perfect start both winning their frames, with Ally Iddon replying for the Waddy. Tony Milner scraped past Paul Taylor to get the third frame for the Cricket Club, but the Waddy’s last pairings of Alan Tomlin and Gary Flynn denied them a victory and so they shared the points.
2nd Division
The big winners in the division this week are Les Dodd’s B after they had a resounding 5-1 victory over the divisional leaders St. Teresa’s A. Dave Mills, who is unbeaten so far this year, and Lee Holmes, both won their opening tussles but only on the final colours. That sort of tight finish carried on to the next frames when Andy Reynolds defeated Trevor Ford 56-41, and Peter Parkinson won a low scoring affair against Lee Cromwell. John Cromwell finally got a frame on the board for Teresa’s but the damage had already been done with Joe Wade completing the win over their title rivals when beating Stephen Cromwell 63-38.
Our Lady’s got their first win of the season with a 5-1 win at British Rail, and so finally get their season up and running. Paul Heery found conditions to his liking when he beat Peter Robinson jnr 74-10 to go with Keith Turners close 37-28 victory over Paul Varney. It didn’t get much better for the Railway men in the middle frames as Luke Marshall and Tom Tickle piled on the pressure to leave the home team 4-0 down on the night. John O’Malley did manage to stop a full sweep of the frames, but ultimately it was Our Lady’s night. This win see’s the side from Formby move to 5th in the league table, though they are only 4 points clear of the Railway side who currently sit bottom.
Banks C could only manage a 3-3 draw with Churchtown Cons B, but it was enough to see them go back to the top of the division. Banks will be kicking themselves for maybe not managing to gain a victory at Churchtown after going 3-1 up, but Churchtown dug in well to claim the final pairings on the night. Only just though as Lawrence Richards needed to pot the final black in his frame against Cliff Arnold and so claim a 55-53 win. This result leaves Churchtown still looking for their first win of the season, while Banks will be looking forward to their match with Les Dodd’s B who sit just behind them in the league 2 points back.
Banks B suffered at home again this year after going down 4-2 to a Les Dodd’s A team who have now won their last two away fixtures. Mike Marsh, 24 and 23 breaks, with Andy Griffiths, a 22 break provided the only home resistance on the night as both sides shared the opening four frames. But it was the visitors who took control of the match when Martin Matthews and Ken Dumican managed to get the better of their opponents and claim a victory for the Doddy’s A team.
The Waddy B team came from 2-0 down to beat Bretherton A 4-2 in what ended up being a bit one a one sided match. After Gordon Russell and Ron Dickinson had seemingly put Bretherton in control, the Waddy responded by winning the next four frames. In fact they not only claimed all four of the remaining frames they beat their visitors by a combined aggregate total of 218-47. Three of Brethertons last four players did not managing to get past 20 points in their frame. This win, their third at home this year, moves them to within 6 points of leaders Banks C, but they have 2 matches in hand over them. A big test for them this week is when they go to Teresa’s in what should be a great game.
3rd Division
The Churchtown Cons C team suffered a 6-0 thumping to the current leaders, and form team of the division,Birkdale Cons B. Birkdale gave notice to their challengers that they are the team to beat at the moment with this superb display to register their third 6-0 score line of the year. Johnny Mullard had a close and hard fought encounter with Brian Sheil, where he snatched the win, potting the final black in a 49-47 victory. But it was steady away after that as the still to be defeated duo of Reg Dobson and Geoff Tyas provided their team with what they have done all season so far, another win and a 4-0 score line. John Warnick and John Stringfellow continued the domination of Churchtown to put the icing on the cake so to speak.
One time leaders of the division, Churchtown Cons D, suffered only their first defeat of the season, when Les Dodd’s C turned them over 4-2. After sharing the opening frames Churchtown played their trump cards and paired up Al Graham and Billy Pye to play next as both players had yet to taste defeat so far this season. That stat would be blown out of the water as Martin Cusack and Damien Bloomfield beat the unbeaten pair and so put the home side 3-1 up and in control of the match. Kyle Woodfull managed to get past Tony Wakefield by 57-48 and so give the home side their second win on the bounce and third home win of the season. The Dodd’s C team face a tricky away game at Southport Cons this week with the Con club sitting out a Open Week in the fixtures.
Southport Cons kept the pressure on at the top of the table with a close but hard fought 4-2 victory against theSt. Teresa’s B team. Matty Pollock kept up his personal victory charge, he currently sits at played 7 won 6 so far this season, when beating Mike Langford 80-20, though Nobby Lee responded in kind for Teresa’s by beating John Barton 58-24. Aiden Quinn, who still holds the division high break target with 33, continued his good form when defeating the experienced Larry Swindells as the match was level pegging going into the last 2 frames. John Blackhurst and Colin Paul managed to beat John and Peter Mcgee and so leave them in touch with the top of the league.
Birkdale Cons C managed to gain a creditable 3-3 draw against a Fleetwood Hesketh B side who took a 2-0 lead. Ian Brownhill and Mick Orme had set the visitors off to the perfect start only for Ted Coghlan and Graham Ward levelling the frame scores with victories of their own. With the last two frames shared and the overall aggregate score of 239 for Birkdale and 230 for Fleetwood, it looked like the draw was the correct result. Fleetwood sit out an Open Week this week while Birkdale face a trip to another Con club, the Churchtown C team.
Provided by OTS News
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