Week 2 saw two of the serious title contenders come head to head in the Premier League. Burton Cons A hosted Belmont A in a mouth watering clash which promised to be a great match. Firstly, John Shilton went up against Mark Press. Shilton won the first at a canter with a 41 break. The second went to Press though, as he had his fair share of luck which included fluking the final blue to clinch the frame. Jonathan Fletcher then went up against Belmont A new boy Fran McInulty. Fletcher won both frames with breaks of 53 and 36 which put Cons in a strong position at 3-1 up at the break. Mat Milnes then faced Shaun Gebbie and showed what a clinical player he is winning both frames, including a 41 clearance in the second. Finally, Owen Jones went up against Ian Archer. In the first frame, both players showed some great safety play with Jones clinching it from 20 behind on the final pink. The second frame could have gone either way but Archer was finally undone when he unfortunately went in off when potting a blue to the middle pocket and Jones did the rest to finish the match with the score of 7-1.                                                                               

There were fireworks at Belmont B against Willington B as Arron Vaughan gained a convincing victory against Lionel Lewis. Vaughan took the first by more than 50 points and then claimed the second which resulted in his opponent leaving without a hand shake! Brett Craddock then won his first against Steve Gaunt, but Gaunt replied convincingly with a 30 break to claim the second. Up and coming Josh Gebbie cleared the balls well from the brown to win his first frame against Tony Clements but Clements came back well to win the second. Finally, Mick Morris and Andy Jenkins played out a marathon to end all square and the match ended 5-3 to the home side.                                                       

Willington A got into winning ways for the season with a win against Swad Snooker Centre A. Daz Lester opened with a 2-0 win against the dangerous Andy Goldinghay. Alan Davies then made a draw with Chris Dewey. John Davis continued his decent start to the season picking up both frames against Bill Stewart and finally Gaz Barker beat Carl White to leave the score 5-3.

Swad Snooker Centre B hosted Alrewas A in a closely contested affair which finished 4-4. Harry Farrell and Ian Hiley opened with a monster 50 minute frame but ended their match 1-1 with Hiley knocking in a 32 break. All other matches ended as draws as two good sides cancelled each other out on the night.

Ivanhoe A won a tight match against the Tutbury Tutters. Dave Mabbott produced a strong performance to beat Daniel Blunn which included a 32 break. Mick Kirk then played out a draw with the consistent Chris Mabbott. Ian Rennocks faced the silver fox Dave Powell in a rather one sided affair which saw Rennocks knocking in a quality 46 break. Rennocks then clinched the second frame to leave the scores all square. Ant Moore then went up against Steve Hathaway and managed to pinch both frames to leave the final score 5-3 to the Ashby side.                                           

The final match of the evening saw Riley’s A face Ivanhoe B in another tight clash. All matches ended all square to leave the match ending 4-4.

Newhall B had a good night away at Swad cons A and also won the match, mainly thanks to the dogged play of Mark Anslow who was 27 behind in the first frame on the colours against Mark Hadley, the Newhall man took all the colours to force a re-spot black which he also potted and then played steady snooker to win the second frame, all other players drew for the Newhall 5-3 victory. 

The division’s highest break of the week went to Lee Cooke with a 38 against Simon Smith as His Willington C side drew with Burton Cons B.

South Derbyshire Snooker D team unveiled a new player in the shape of former Newhall A team player Wayne Brewin who was drawn against Ashby Ivanhoe’s Mark Pickering in what turned out to be a long drawn out game which Wayne won easily in the first but only on a black ball in the second, Ivanhoe’s Stuart Tagg played some excellent snooker to win two against Swad snookers captain Dave Wain, Ashby then took the next four frames with Jason Pickering winning in quick time against Andy Rice and John Skellett beating Lee Sherratt although the second was apparently down to a lucky fluke.

In the encounter between last year’s relegated teams it was Willington D who came away from Rolleston A with an excellent 7-1 win.  Kieran Waddell found the all round game of Bill Davidson too strong for him on the night losing both frames to a happy Bill.  Tony Rushton saved Rolleston’s blushes as he took their only frame of the evening against Dave Budworth in their scrappy draw.  Trevor Heath managed to beat Joe Docksey but only after a fortunate incident in the second frame.  Trevor had committed a foul that didn’t involve the cue ball and Joe mistakenly picked it up and Trevor made the most of his reprieve.  Brian Alford the Willington talisman was in cracking form as he easily beat Kev Norris.

Ivanhoe D had a close run thing with SDSC F winning 5-3 but that was down to their last two players taking 3 out of the last 4 frames.  Jack Bale shared two competitive frames of snooker with the talented Alex Read.  Alex Glover was also in fine form as he drew with Jason Collins.  Jason won his frame with a nice 24 break.  Tim Bale drew with Henry Carlton in two close frames.  Warner Collins was Ivanhoe’s star player as he rolled back the years with a cracking display of potting and safety play in getting the two frames they needed for victory in beating Ken White. 

Belmont C got their first win of the season as they beat Swad Cons C 6-2 away.  Dave Press gave Belmont a good start as he easily took both frames against John Griffin with some good pots.  Terry Bosworth kept up his 100% record with another win at the expense of Barry Bentley.  Barry put in a great effort as he only turned up to watch the game and had to borrow a cue in order to play.  Terry after a slow start got in the groove and knocked in a very tidy 34 break.  For the Cons Pete Fearn played well and deservedly shared the honours with Brian Cutting.  Jon Petcher and Dougie Lees shared the spoils in a couple of scrappy frames.

Tutbury B lost 5-3 at home to Woodville S&S A.  Woodville after being given a great start did their best not to win it. Woodville’s Jim Marcer was again in fine form as he took both frames off Graham Smith.  The first frame was nip and tuck until the high colours with Graham not having the best of running and giving Jim the opportunity to take the frame.  In the second frame Jim was always in control.  Alan Orpwood was in superb form with excellent potting and safety play as he beat John Peto fairly easily with John needing snookers on the colours in both frames.  After this the Tutbury revival began with Jeff Siddalls winning a very close first frame with Pat Ryan.  This frame could have gone either way.  The second frame was always in Jeff’s control as he won it fairly easily.  What a stand-in Dave Brady was for Tutbury as he took the first frame on the blue against Tony Coleman with some nice long pots.  Dave was rather unlucky not to win the second as Tony had to pot pink and black for a draw and a Woodville win.

The first win of the season for SDSC E as they beat Burton Cons D 5-3.  Tony Mitchell shared a couple of entertaining frames with Ian Protheroe. Neil Harcombe was in good form making a 31 break to take his first frame against Paul Brooks then put in a steady performance in the second.  Ray Bancroft then put in a fine workman like effort as he drew with Nathan Brooks.  Top man billing goes to Andy Jeffries as he took both frames in some style as he beat Al Munchen.  Andy also knocked in the division’s highest break this season which is 45 which included some very good pots and positional play.