Tutbury A battled back to earn a draw against reigning champions Burton Cons A in the Burton and District Snooker Premier Division. John Shilton made light work of Dave Powell to put the visitors 2-0 up. Cons captain Mick Simpkins then took the first against Steve Hathaway. Hathaway responded to take the second to leave the scores 3-1 at the half way stage. Chris Mabbott then hosted Owen Jones. Jones potted well at key times to take the first frame. Back came Mabbott though with some excellent long potting to take the second. The final match saw Dave Mabbott play Stuart Roberts. In two tight frames, Mabbott proved to just have the edge to take the points and earn a well respected draw.

Ivanhoe A visited Willington B looking to cement second place in the division. Andy Marriott proved to be the decisive player as he defeated Andy Jenkins aided by a cracking 73 break. All other matches finished all square including Tony Clements against Mick Kirk, John Hardy versus Daniel Blunn and Steve Gaunt who drew with Ian Rennocks who knocked in a 35 in winning his frame. This left the final score at 5-3 in the visitors favour.

Ivanhoe B hosted in-form Willington A and they came out second best. Alan Davies and Daz Lester beat Gaz Dolman and Darren Wilson respectively to put the away side in command. Graham Measures knocked in a 33 in taking his frame against Dean Johnston and Jerry Cook made a draw with Bill Stewart to leave the score at 6-2.

Belmont A hosted Alrewas B and the Belmont side took a 6-2 to aid their title hopes. Josh Gebbie put John Sharpe to the sword and Mark Press drew with Alan Wilson to make the scores 3-1 at half time. Ian Archer then defeated Will Sherratt aided by a 36 break but Sherratt also knocked in a 33 but could not capitalise. The match of the night was Fran McInulty against Phil Marklew. Fran taking an important frame for Belmont, but Marklew replied by knocking in a lovely 75 break. 

A close mid table game at the Legion as Alrewas A hosted Belmont B with honours even in the end. Dave Trueman took the first comfortably against Arron Vaughan, but Arron dug in and took the second on the final few colours. Mark Vaughan lost out narrowly to Colin Kinsella after two quality frames of snooker. Kinsella able to do enough in both to keep the legend Mark Vaughan at bay. Michael Lomas took the first against Ian Hiley on the black ball after a really tight frame but Michael potted excellently in the second to take it. It came down to Brett Craddock and Carl Poulton to try and win the match for either side but the spoils were shared with Craddock just about taking the first on the final blue and Poulton comfortably taking the second with reds left on the table.

The Swadlincote derby saw the A team beat the B team in a narrow encounter. Chris Dewey took a frame from the talented youngster Harry Farrell and John Davis drew with Adam Harrison to leave the scores all square at the half way stage. Steve Ayre then took two key frames, defeating Ben Davies aided by a lovely 64 break. Andy Goldingay closed out the match sharing the frames with Henry Thomas, who knocked in a 30 in taking his frame. 

South Derbyshire Snooker Centre C hosted a Derby against the D team. The C team put the talented Simon Orpwood out first against another man who has put some decent results in this season, Ryan Gilmore and it proved to be a cracking game with Simon taking the first frame with a 35 break, the second frame was much the same with Ryan taking it on the colours, Brian Bloor for the C team also had two good frames against the d teams Lee Sherratt and in two open games it was Lee who came out on top. Andrew Bloor played well against Andy Rice with the latter winning two quick frames which was matched by the D teams Wayne Brewin who defeated Garton Bloor to strengthen the D teams grip on the top spot in the division.

Burton Cons B had a great match against Alrewas C which started with Burton’s consistent Simon smith against Karl Hancox. The game started slowly with a lot of respect shown from both players, Simon scored first but missed a black which lets Karl in who took full advantage by making a superb frame winning 51 break.The second frame again saw good safety play from both players neither giving anything away it came down to a long potting frame with both knocking excellent balls in eventually Karl winning the battle although Simon did very little wrong, Karl being named man of the match by the opposing team. Burton’s Dave Shipton is coming back to decent form and scored well in both games to defeat rob Mcmeechan. Burton’s Dave Plunkett played Karl Kent, both players started with some good safety but it was Dave who made a series of breaks eventually gaining a 30 point lead in both frames for the win. Tom Egginton then played Alrewas’s Nigel Edwards who has had more than his fair share of bad run this season but started well gaining a 30 point lead which looked like he was going to win the first frame but tom had different ideas closing the gap and to  fluking the pink to take the frame, the second was similar Nigel taking control but this time he manages to keep it and get a deserved draw and hopefully end his run of bad luck, but not for his team as Burton won the match 5-3.

Another side chasing promotion is Swad Cons A, who took on the much improved Willington C, Mark Hadley for Swad cons started playing well immediately and took the first frame, his opponent Lee Cooke was not finished and won the second frame the game on the other table also produced good snooker with Swads Lee Wood taking the first and Loz Kennerson winning the second, Swads Paul Slater had two good frames and potted brilliantly to take two off Daz Harris which left Swad’s Andy Grainger to play Steve Butterworth, this turned out to be the best match of the night with Andy making the divisions highest break of the week with a well-crafted 56 and then made a 33 in the second to give his side a great 6-2 victory which keeps them in third place.

Stapenhill B had a great match against Burton Cons C going in to a 4-0 lead in quick time, Colin Britton beating Steve Castledine and team mate John Sheriff beating the Burton captain Ian Shrive to leave them on the brink of a much needed home win Burton’s Mick Buckland had other ideas and with a brilliant calm demolition of Stapenhill’s Andy Tomlinson brought the Burton team back in to the match, leaving Stapenhill’s Tim Knopik to battle against chatty Jim Jennings, Jim went about his business and won the first frame and then played brilliantly to take the second and earn his team a draw

In the local inter club derby between SDSC E & F teams it was the E team who came away with the bragging rites but only just winning 5-3.  The in-form F team with their new found confidence started well with Alex Read playing some solid snooker to take both frames off Phil Maddocks.  The E team levelled it at the the turn thanks to a stubborn display of determination by Ray Bancroft as he won both frames against Ken White who made him earn his win.  Alex Glover and Andy Jefferies had to settle for a share of the spoils as neither player could push home their advantage.  Tony Mitchell was the E teams star player as he took both frames off Henry Carlton in two very close frames.

Second in the table Rolleston C slipped up away to Alrewas D as they lost 5-3.  Tony Trueman and Richard O’Dell had to be content with a frame apiece with both players making some excellent pots especially Tony.  Brian Eccleston was in fine form as he drew with Lionel Lewis.  Brian Aldridge played an inspirational part in the win as he drew with the talented Joe Docksey who knocked in a very good 32 break to win his frame.  Both players made this a very open and entertaining match.  Tom Smith was in fine form as he took both frames against Kev Norris who has been in good form of late.  Tom and Kev played some good snooker between them with Tom just having the edge in the potting department.

Swad Cons D slipped up at home to a rejuvenated Ivanhoe D losing 5-3.  The Cons were given a good start thanks to some inspirational play by their break builder Gaz Ward who won both frames fairly comfortably against Alan Richardson and in the process making a 27 break.  The good work continued a little longer with Andy Boam sharing his frames with Tim Bale in a rather dour battle. After that it was the charge of the Collins family first with Jason again in fine form potting some good long pots as he beat Kieron Dadley in a couple of close frames.  It was then left to Warner Collins to complete the turn round with a superb performance both with safety play and potting against Marc Egan who despite making a 24 break could not win the frame.  I don’t think Warner has been the same since he met Bruce Forsyth of ‘Strictly’ fame recently but he is certainly tripping the light fantastic on the green baize.

Woodville S&S A were made to fight all the way against a very underrated Rolleston B team winning 5-3 in a match that could have gone either way.  The master cue man Jim Marcer while not at his best was able to get over the line against Steve Atkin who certainly did not have the run of the ball on a number of occasions.  He potted some good reds but was not able get on the colour easily. The first frame Jim won comfortably but the second was a lot tighter.  Alan Orpwood had to settle for a share of the spoils with John Ward.  In the first frame Alan was always in control.  The second frame appeared to be going the same way until the the colours when John stepped up a gear to take the last three colours with potting of the highest calibre especially the black into the middle bag after running out of position in potting the pink to the other middle bag.  Neil Cheadle bought Rolleston back into the game as he took both frames off Pat Ryan.  Neil played solid snooker in both frames with sensible potting and safety play.  Although Pat ran him close in the second frame losing on the black.  On the other table there was a couple of scrappy frames between Tony Coleman and Dave Bentley with Tony taking the first on the black and winning the second more easily.

A very entertaining draw between Belmont C and Tutbury B which turned out to be a fair result on the night.  The match started off with Tutbury putting out their young guns first.  But Belmont’s young gun in the form of Terry Bosworth was too much for the shell shocked Paul Atterbury who found Terry unplayable in both frames especially the second with breaks of 31 and 23.  On the other table the status quo was returned as Colin Bell played steady snooker to beat Brian Cutting.  The scores remained level as Jeff Siddalls and Dougie Lees shared their frames in two well played matches.  The last two frames were also shared between Glen Mathews who is doing well since his return and John Peto who made some telling pots.

 

Willington D increased their lead at the top of the Division to18 points as they had an emphatic win against Swad Cons C winning 7-1.  As usual this season the Power boys were given their normal impressive start thanks first to Dave Budworth taking his frames fairly comfortably against Barry Bentley with some stylish potting.  He was again ably backed-up by Trevor “hot shot” Heath who was again in good form especially in the first frame with Pete Fearn.  In the the second frame Pete got some nice pots but not enough to trouble Trev.  John Griffin for Swad Cons drew with Bill Davidson in two close frames with both players missing good opportunities to win the match with John taking a frame it prevented the whitewash for the Cons.  Brian Alford concluded a most enjoyable evening for his team as he took both frames off Jon Petcher in a match where neither player had their potting heads on.