2013-14: Week 15

Owen Jones writes for Just Wood Premier Division

A landmark event occurred in the Premier division of the Burton Snooker League writes Owen Jones. Second placed Ashby Ivanhoe A visited the Tutbury Tutters and came away with the points in a 6-2 win. It was in-form Andy Marriott who stole the headlines as he became the first player of the season to knock in a century, scoring a brilliant 102 in his game with Steve Mabbott. Ant Moore also took the frames against Dave Powell to put the visiting side firmly in the driving seat. Chris Mabbott and Dave Mabbott drew with Mick Kirk and Daniel Blunn respectively to close out the match.

Willington B and Belmont B fought out a battling draw on the night. John Hardy took both frames from Mick Morris, but back came Arron Vaughan who defeated Rich Turner to tie the scores. Tony Clements drew with Brett Craddock and Steve Gaunt knocked in a 31 when taking his frame in the drawn match with Michael Lomas.

Another tied game saw Ivanhoe B host Rileys A. Gaz Dolman, Steve Cockerham, Graham Measures and Jerry Cook drew with Ade Harper, Andy Spiers, Mark Stirling and Adam Edwards respectively in what was an evenly contested match.

The battle between third placed Belmont A and champions Burton Cons A proved to be a one sided affair in the visitors favour. The Belmont side began well with Ian Archer playing some great stuff in taking the first frame against John Shilton. Back came Shilton in the second to take it on the colours but it all went down hill from then on. Fran McInulty lost his game with Owen Jones, who knocked in a 32 on his way to victory. Matt Milnes then defeated Josh Gebbie with both players knocking in some lovely shots. Darren Coady completed the rout beating Shaun Gebbie in his usual efficient manner to close the match 7-1 in the away sides favour.

Alrewas A were looking to bounce back after the previous weeks mauling at the hands of champions Burton Cons A. Unfortunately things didn’t go to plan as they lost to Swadlincote Snooker Centre B. Harry Farrell and Henry Thomas defeated Dave Trueman and Carl Poulton to put the visitors in control. Ian Hiley took a frame against Ben Davies but back came his opponent to take the second with a 34 break. Colin Kinsella was also unable to take both frames against Adam Harrison and the final score was 6-2 to the visitors.

Swadlincote Snooker Centre A hosted Willington A and it was the away side who claimed a great 7-1 victory. Andy Goldingay was the only player to take a frame against Daz Lester. Wayne Pierra, Dean Johnston and Jan Pawlaczyk gained maximum points from the remaining games to give the visitors the spoils.

Mark Vaughan writes for David Wain Insurance Division one
 
Current league leaders Ivanhoe C faced a promotion battle against third placed South Derbyshire Snooker Centre D, Ivanhoe’s Jason Pickering came up against Swad snooker’s Wayne Brewin who has been in consistently good form all season and carried this form on taking two frames off Jason, while on the other table Swad’s Floating player Mark Satchwell stole the first frame off Stu Tagg and almost did the same in the second but Stu held his nerve and won it. Ashby’s John Skellett took the first frame from Lee Sherratt but Lee showed his class by winning the second, Swads Ryan Gilmore yet again put in a great performance against Tony Tredger to give his side a 6-2 win which makes them new league leaders and pushes Ivanhoe down into second.

Swad Cons A have also got themselves into contention for promotion and played another team who have been putting together impressive results, Newhall B, the game got off to a great start with Swad’s Andy Grainger knocking in a 32 break in the first only to lose it at the death and then see Newhall’s Adam McInulty make a good 34 and take the second, Newhall’s Callum Gray had a brilliant 32 clearance to take the first off Swad’s Mark Hadley who then came back to take the second, Martin Hicks played well and made a 35 break in the two frames he took off the unlucky Lee Wood, while in the final match the result was reversed with Paul Slater winning two off the unlucky Carl Glover to give Newhall a 5-3 victory that keeps Newhall B in fourth and Swad Cons A in third.
 
South Derbyshire Snooker C is a team much better than the league position before this match suggested and turned it on against another decent side, Burton Cons C. The Burton side got off to a good start with Mike Buckland beating the talented Andrew Bloor in both frames, sadly for the Burton team this was as good as it got with Swad’s Brian Bloor beating Steve Castledine, Garton Bloor doing the same to the Burton captain Ian Shrive which was no mean feat and Swad’s Simon Orpwood defeating Jim Jennings for a 6-2 win to move them up to fifth.
 
Burton Cons B and Willington C find themselves in mid table but two good results could move you up into contention for promotion, this is how close this division is, Burtons Simon Smith has played consistently well in the league and league competitions and is proving hard to beat as Willington’s Daz Harris found out in two close games which Simon took, on the other table Burton’s Jason Anguish came up against Loz Kennerson who is playing well and took two frames with the help of a 39 break, in the next matches which were well contested Tom Egginton was defeated by Steve Butterworth and Dave Plunkett was held to a draw by Steve Lane to give the Willington visitors a 5-3 win.

Alrewas C did their survival hopes some good with a close away win at Stapenhill B With the home teams Andy Tomlinson drawing with Colin Wood and Alrewas’s Rob Mcmeechan beating Greg Britton in two close frames, Stapenhill’s Tim Knopik struck back for them by beating Nigel Edwards but the match was decided in Alrewas’s favour by Karl Hancox who defeated John Sherriff in an entertaining game.
A sad note to end on, Rolleston A have withdrawn from the league, hopefully we will see them back next season.

Rileys Division 2 Snooker Report by Tony Coleman

In the Division’s match of the week between league leaders Willington D and second placed Rolleston C ended all square a 4-4 draw. In the Division thriller a careful start by both players Dave Budworth and Joe Docksey along with good safety play left Dave Budworth requiring the last three colours to win the frame but unfortunately he rattled the jaws with the black leaving a simple pot for Joe to win the frame. The second frame was not as tight with Joe needing to clear the colours to win but failed on the green leaving Dave to clear the colours and to share the frames. Trevor “hot shot” Heath was in outstanding form against ex Willington player Lionel Lewis. In the first frame he potted everything that was put in front of him and in the second frame Trevor had to put in a little more effort to win it as Lionel tried to up his game but to no avail. Brian Alford and Kev Norris shared their frames with Brian winning his frame on the black. In the second frame Kev controlled the frame from start to finish which put the leaders 4-2 ahead and favourites for the win but in a tight first frame between Bill Davidson and Andy Winson. Andy for Rolleston won it on the black. Andy also won the second frame to earn his team a draw and in the second frame Andy was helped a little by a bit of good running.

Third in the Division Woodville S&S A could only draw with Tutbury B in a very tight and most enjoyable match with neither side deserving to lose and was played in the right spirit. Paul Atterbury for Tutbury got them off to a good start as he took both frames off the Woodville talisman Jim Marcer who was not at his best on the night. Paul won the first frame on the pink and in the second he played some lovely snooker to win fairly comfortably. Although not firing on all cylinders Alan Orpwood was still too good on the night against John Peto with both players getting some good pots. Pat Ryan took command of the first frame against Colin Bell with some fine pots and good safety play but in the second Colin stepped up his game to win the frame fairly comfortably. In another tight match between Tony Coleman and Jeff Siddalls both players had to settle for a share of the spoils. Jeff won the first frame on the black which included a 25 break after an excellent bout of safety play on the pink. The second frame went to Tony despite Jeff knocking in a 21 break.

Probably the most surprising win of the week was SDSC F beating the high riding Ivanhoe D 5-3 for only their second win of the season. SDSC were given a great start thanks to Alex Read taking two well deserved frames from Eric Avins with some fine potting. Alex was well supported by Alex Glover who took both frames from the consistent Jason Collins who has very rarely dropped two frames in a match this season. Alex played his best snooker of the season for his win. Henry Carlton played out of his skin to earn a draw with the master of the ‘foxtrot’ Warner Collins with both players getting some good pots. This frame gave SDSC a well deserved victory and puts them in good spirit for the rest of the season. Tim Bale for Ivanhoe added some respect to the score line as he won both frames in a rather dour match with Ken White.

Swad Cons D just about deserved their win of 5-3 over Rolleston B. Gaz Ward and Steve Atkin had two really good frames up to the colours and that was when Gaz turned on the style as he cleared up the colours in both games. Dave Bodie was his usual frustrated self as he kept missing some easy pots with which his opponent John Ward made him pay heavily by comfortably winning both frames. Bob Birch had little problem on the night against Dave Bentley who was a little out of sorts as Bob won both frames with plenty to spare. Scott Gee won his first frame against Neil Cheadle with some steady snooker giving the Cons the win but in the second he could not find enough to beat Neil who deserved a share of the spoils.

Belmont C had a fine home win against Swad Cons C winning 6-2. Terry Bosworth was back to his imperious best after the previous weeks hiccough as he took both frames off John Griffin with quality snooker play with John also making a valuable contribution to the match. Brian Cutting continued Belmont’s good start as he drew with Alan Jowett who was playing his first league match for a few years. Brian was in fine form to win the first frame but Alan came back well to take the second. At the turn Belmont were 3-1 ahead. Another player getting back into the swing was Belmont’s Glen Mathews after a number of years out of the game proved that he can still play to a good level as he beat John Petcher with a solid performance. In a dour match between Dave Press and Peter Fearn the frames were shared. This was a good win for Belmont but thanks to the Cons for making it a good night and also playing it in the right spirit.

SDSC E had a very good win away to Burton Cons D winning 7-1. This win keeps them well in touch with the leading bunch for promotion. Ray Bancroft got the Snooker Centre ball rolling nicely for them as he beat Nathan Brooks in two tightly contested frames. This was then followed up by Tony Mitchell sharing the frames with Ian Protheroe with both players making some good pots. With Ian taking that frame it prevented the Cons from a whitewash. Al Munnien then lost both frames to Nick Harcombe who is playing some really good snooker this season. Andy Jefferies then beat Paul Brookes with a solid display thus giving the snooker team one of their best wins of the season.