2013-14: Week 8

Owen Jones writes for Just Wood Premier division

Week 8 saw a close game played in a great spirit between Willington A and Alrewas A with the Alrewas side coming out on top 6-2. Ian Hotshot Hiley just about outgunned Alan Davies in both frames with some good potting by both players. Carl Poulton brought  Bill Stewart down to his level with Bill unfortunate not to win both against Carl losing the second frame on a fluked final black ball.  Dave Trueman was finally back to his fiery best against Jan Pawlaczyk coming from well behind in the first to take it late on and wrapping up the second on the colours. Colin “The Nail” Kinsella was held to a 1-1 against Dean Johnston with Colin wrapping up the first comfortably but Dean firing in all the colours in the second to snatch it on the black.

The Tutbury Tutters played out a draw with Swadlincote Snooker Centre A. Steve Ayre took his frames for the away side against Dave Powell, with Chris Mabbott taking two against Carl White for the Tutbury side. All other games were drawn in a close match.

Belmont A kept up the pressure at the top with a 6-2 victory away at Ivanhoe B. Gaz Dolman put the Ashby side in a good position at the start of the match defeating Graham Bailey. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there as Fran McInulty, Ian Archer and Mark Press defeated Jerry Cook, Graham Measures and Darren Wilson respectively to claim the victory for the Belmont side.

Swadlincote Snooker Centre B claimed an impressive victory at home to one of the top sides in the division Ivanhoe A. Harry Farrell started the match with a great 44 break to take his frame against Ian Rennocks. Rennocks came back well to take the second frame. Ben Davies and Daniel Blunn also shared their frames to leave it all square at the half way point. Henry Thomas played out a tight game with Ant Moore to leave the scores at 3-3. Adam Harrison did the damage for the home side as he beat Mick Kirk aided by a break of 46 to close the match at 5-3.

Belmont B hosted Rileys A in another tight match on the night. Michael Lomas and Mark Vaughan put the home side in a strong position taking all their frames against Micky Tonks and Tom Elliott. Arron Vaughan drew his game with Ade Harper to claim the frame needed for victory. Mark Stirling restored some pride for the Rileys side by taking his frames against Mick Morris to end the match 5-3 in favour of the Belmont side.

Champions Burton Cons A continued their great start to the season by beating Alrewas B 6-2 away. Jonathan Fletcher looked in good form taking his two frames against Will Sherratt aided by a 34 break. John Sharpe lost in his match with Stuart Roberts in what turned out to be a grueler. Mat Milnes showed a touch of class on the night in defeating Alan Wilson. Milnes knocked in a lovely 47 break after Wilson had looked in control with a 31 break to take the frame. In the final match, Phil Marklew took both frames, aided by a 34 break, against Owen Jones who was poor on the night. Jones missed key balls and gave his opponent too many chances which Marklew took to close out the match.

Mark Vaughan writes for the David Wain Division One

Burton Cons B look like they are settling down to become serious promotion contenders and had another good home win against a Rolleston side that are much better than their current league position suggests but they just can’t seem to find any form. For the Cons Dave Shipton, Dave Plunkett and Tom Egginton won all there frames, Rolleston’s only comfort coming from the ever improving Ryan Gibbs winning two frames from Jason Anguish for a 6-2 scoreline.

Burton Cons C hosted table toppers Ivanhoe C and Jim Jennings was first on against Ashby’s John Skellett and held the Ivanhoe man to a draw with bouts of safety play, whilst on the other table Con’s Steve Castledine won his first against Mark Pickering who bounced back in the second to earn himself a draw, The home teams Mick Buckland who has recorded some great results this season for his team went on against Jason Pickering who can certainly play a bit and  carried on his good form taking both frames with a series of breaks, the best being a 31, Ian Shrive was last on for con’s against Stu Tagg who played solidly to earn his team a draw which keeps them at the top of the table.

SDSC D are another side vying for promotion and took an immediate lead against Stapenhill A thanks to the two frames from new player Mark Satchwell and one from Rob Press, for Stapenhill John Richardson won his two leaving Mark Waldron to get the last frame to earn the Stapenhill side a draw.

Swad Cons A continued strongly this week away to Stapenhill B, Simon Mansfield drawing with Andy Tomlinson while on the other table Swad’s Lee Wood showed great control to beat Greg Britton, Stapenhill’s John Sherriff pulled two frames back from Paul Slater who did very little wrong to leave the result on the last match between Swad’s Andy Grainger and Stapenhill’s Bryan Sharratt, Andy yet again played some great snooker and topped it off with a 32 break taking both frames for an excellent away win that keeps them in the hunt for promotion.
Swad Cons B at home had a close fought battle with Alrewas C, Chris Stone losing two to Alrewas’s Rob Mcmeechan and Bob McInulty going down to Ian Bradford to leave the home side 4-0 down. Colin Cope went on for Con’s and took the first frame off Karl Hancox while on the other table Paul Hollis got another back against Colin Wood and then with some excellent potting showed what a good player he is by also took the second leaving the match balanced on a last frame decider with Colin just losing out to Karl to give the away side a valuable 5-3 away win.

Willington C started slowly but are putting some steady results together, this week against another side looking for promotion in the shape of Newhall B, Andy Holloway playing his first match of the season came up against Newhall’s Martin Hicks who has been on fire so far this season and did well to take Martin to a black ball finish in two tight games that the Newhall man won, Loz Kennerson pulled a frame back against the talented Callum Gray but couldn’t hold him in the second to give the away team a 3-1 lead, Willington’s Lee Cooke had what can best be described as the run of the ball in the two frames he took off the luckless Carl Glover while on the other table Daz Harris looked to have put the home side in the driving seat by potting the black only to see the white go into the opposite pocket to give Newhall’s Mark Anslow the frame, Daz fared better in the second of two very close frames to win it and finish with the match drawn.

Tony Coleman writes for Rileys Division 2

Current league leaders Willington D got back to winning ways as they beat Belmont C 6-2 on their home turf which does not happen very often.  Trevor “hot shot” Heath gave them a terrific start by taking both frames off Terry Bosworth.  These were the first frames Terry has lost all season.  The two frames were of a very high standard with Trevor just having the edge in both.  Brian Cutting then brought the scoreline level in another close match with Nick Payne.  With Dave Budworth back in the team they are certainly a formidable side as he won both frames in a dour match with Dougie Lees.  Bill Davidson once again showed what a quality safety player he is as he took both frames against Dave Press.

Alrewas D inflicted only the second defeat of the season on draw specialists Swad Cons D winning 5-3.  First up for Alrewas was Brian Aldridge who potted like a dream in winning the first frame against Dave Bodie.  But in the second frame everything turned around and it was Dave who potted like a dream to win it.  Brian Eccleston took his first frame off Andy Boam after trailing all through the frame to win it on the pink after potting a lovely blue giving him a great position to knock in frame ball pink.  The second frame was not so tight with Brian winning fairly easily.  Tom Smith and the experienced Bob Birch shared two close frames with neither player being able to pot the important ball for the win.  This then put Alrewas 4-2 ahead but the match went down to the nail biting end.  With the Cons Marc Egan taking the first frame off John Hills.  John just managed to keep his nerve to take the second frame and win the match for the A38 boys.

Second placed SDSC E were held to their third consecutive draw against Tutbury B who appear to be getting stronger as the season goes on.  SDSCS’s Nick Harcombe spoilt Colin Bell’s 100% record as they shared their two frames with both players knocking in some good pots.  Graham Smith the Tutbury captain made a very good break of 28 to win his frame against Ray Stretton.  Ray did well to win a frame as Graham was playing well.  Andy Jefferies and Paul Atterbury shared their games.  It was left to the consistent Ray Bancroft of SDSC and Jeff Siddalls to try and get the two frames for the win but neither was able to take their chances when they arrived.  They ended sharing the frames.

Woodville S&S A just managed to get over the line beating SDSC F 5-3.  Jim Marcer and Ken White had two close frames.  The first frame Jim only needed the blue but it rattled in the jaws leaving Ken the chance to steal the frame which he did taking the last three colours in some style.  The second frame Jim kept his nose in front making sure he didn’t slip up a second time.  Alan Orpwood and Alex Glover shared two entertaining frames with good play by both players.  Alex took the first frame on the black with a good pot into the green pocket.  Alan got some cracking pots in the second frame to win fairly comfortably.  Another good match was between Tony Coleman and Alex Read.  Tony won the first frame fairly easily with Alex conceding on the yellow  but Alex took the second on the black with a superb long pot to the right hand black pocket.  Woodville had Pat Ryan to thank for the win as he beat Ashley Beard with a solid display of safety and potting.

Fort Ivanhoe D was breeched by the hardworking Burton Cons D who won 5-3.  The Cons boys played very well especially young Nathan Brooks who took the important two frames off the experienced Jack Bale to give the Cons the win.  Nathan potted extremely well and not leaving Jack many crumbs.  Jason Collins and Al Munnien shared two tight frames with both players making some good contributions to the game.  The match between Tim Bale and Paul Brooks seemed to ebb and flow in both directions with a share of the spoils being the fairest outcome.  Old twinkle toes Warner Collins did his best to get the two frames they required for the draw against Ian Protheroe but Ian put in a fighting performance and shared the frames with Warner.