Owen Jones writes for the David Wain Insurance Premier Division

The Belmont derby between the A and B sides took place in the David Wain Insurance Premier Division. A shock looked on the cards right from the outset as Ian Archer was outplayed in both safety and potting by Martin Smith, who knocked in a 33 break on the way to victory. Fran McInulty and Arron Vaughan then won a frame each with some good play from both players. The second half of the match began with Wayne Brewin playing Rich Goldby. Brewin could not get to grips with Goldby, who won both frames with some great match play. Finally, Shaun Gebbie went up against Graham Bailey. Gebbie was yet another casualty on the night as Bailey played solid snooker to win both frames and leave the final score at 7-1 to the B team!

A tight match at the home of the Legionnaires, with Alrewas A coming out on top for only the second time this season. Carl Poulton was the only one of the home side who didn’t notch against an excellent Mark Satchwell, who took both frames with ease. Ian Hiley and Steve Ayre shared the spoils in a combative match that saw both players play well without fireworks. Colin Kinsella took both against an out of sorts John Davies with a nice 37 break in the second frame. That left Adam Walton to bring home the bacon against Chris Dewey with some excellent potting that Dewey had no answer to on the night.

The clash between the current top two saw Burton Cons A host Ivanhoe A. Ian Rennocks knocked in a 39 break against John Shilton but it was to no avail as Shilton played some great match snooker to win both frames. On the other table, Mick Kirk was hoping to drag the scores level but could only manage a draw against Mick Simpkins, who knocked in breaks of 34 and 35. Graham Stevens made a lovely 63 break, against Daniel Blunn, that could have been more had the final reds opened up for him. Both players eventually won a frame each. Finally, Mat Milnes played Ant Moore. Milnes, who has been in good form having only lost one frame so far this season, potted well, including a 35 break, to take both frames and leave the final score as 6-2 to the hosts.

Ivanhoe B welcomed Chimney’s B and duly shared the result as both teams could not be separated. Brendon Mattley, Ross Tredger, Jason Pickering and Ivan Birkin drew with Loz Kennerson, Lee Cooke, Steve Lane and Steve Butterworth respectively to leave the match result at 4 frames each.

Spot On A won a tight match 5 frames to 3 at home to Stapenhill A. Nigel Tomlinson was the only victor on the night as he won both frames against Chris Sheldrake. Ade Harper drew with Andy Gretton and Tom Elliott and Mark Stirling drew with Carl Jeffcoate and Steve Ford.

Burton Cons B picked up a great result away at Tutbury A. Mike Buckland was in good form as he compiled three 20+ breaks in the first frame and a 53 in the second as he defeated Steve Hathaway. The 53 break could have been more but Buckland just failed to split the final reds open. Steve Mabbott drew the scores level as he won the first with ease but had his fair share of run in the second frame. Dave Mabbott found Simon Smith too good on the night as the visitors went back in front. Finally, Chris Mabbott played Dave Plunkett. Mabbott could not stop Plunkett from taking the all-important winning frame and it was the visitors who left with the victory.

The final game of the night saw Chimney’s A play out a hard fought draw with Swad Cons A. Simon Orpwood took a frame from Gaz Barker and Andy Grainger defeated Alan Davies. Bill Stewart drew with Lee Wood and finally, Daz Lester beat Paul Slater to confirm the draw.

Mike Buckland writes for Division 1

In a battle of two of last season’s promoted sides,Tutbury B travelled to Belmont C. The teams could not be separated as they drew 4-4 on the night and left both nervously near the relegation zone. Belmont’s Terry Bosworth beat the normally reliable Colin Bell in the opener whilst Mark Press and Paul Atterbury shared the spoils on the other table.In the second half Jeff Siddalls played well to beat Brian Cutting leaving the outcome on the game between Doug Lees and The Tutters captain John Peto. The two anchor men though were able to win a frame each and left the game as a well earned draw.

Over at Burton Cons, the C team took on Belmont D. Matt Hucker did something that few have been able to do in taking both frames off of the dangerous Micky Morris. But the story of the night belonged to Tom Holland in the battle of the Toms. He won his first match of the season against veteran campaigner Tom Egginton which was greeted with wild cheers from his team-mates.Mark Vaughan and Lee Louch played out a draw leaving Brett Craddock to comfortably beat The Cons’ captain Ian Shrive and a well earned win for The Servicemen.

At Ashby, Ivanhoe C and Chimneys C had a very close match which ended up as a fair draw. Gaz Dolman and Andy Jenkins won one apiece but Jerry Cook showed a welcome return to form beat John Hardy to put the home side in control. Graham Measures and Trevor Heath then fought out a draw which was Trevor’s fourth on the bounce and Graham’s third so maybe we should not have been surprised. Trevor still remains unbeaten for the season after 10 games. Tony Clements then showed what a good player he can be by beating Darren Wilson to ensure the spoils were shared and leave both teams well positioned as we approach Christmas.

Another draw took place at Newhall where their A team took on Alrewas RBL C.
In a high quality opener, two of the division’s best players clashed as Martin Hicks had runs of 39 and 32 against John Richardson.The 39 was the division’s highest this week. John was able to respond with a 25 of his own as the game ended up one across.Sam Hicks and Rob McMeecham also shared in a scrappy game before Martin Hurdman put Newhall in control with a fine 2-0 win over Colin Wood. The Alrewas talisman though Karl Hancox came to the rescue with a comfortable win over Mark Anslow as he included a nice 31 along the way.It looks like this might be the season for Alrewas in gaining promotion after several near misses whilst Newhall will be looking over their shoulders at the relegation trap door.

A lively encounter was had at Rolleston Club as the A and B teams met for the first derby of the season. The match could have gone either way but it was the A team who ended up with the bragging rights after a narrow 5-3 win. At half time it was all square as Joe Docksey and Lionel Lewis had shared as had Rich O’Dell and Rob Sanders.In the second half Bobby Cliff and John Harvey were also not to be separated leaving the result down to the game between Tony Rushton and Kev Norris. Tony included a 28 along the way to victory ensuring the extra winning bonus point as he recorded his 10th straight frame win in the league.

At Swad Snooker Centre, there was tight battle between the division’s bottom two. The home club’s B team was able to just sneak past Alrewas B with a win for their main man Nick Harcombe.He scored a good win over Roy Sherratt as did Roy Lunn over Alan Taylor whilst the other two matches were all drawn between Ray Bancroft and Will Sherratt, Andy Jeffries and John Sharpe. Roy Lunn’s win included a nice run of 23 in his frame win. Both sides though will be hoping for an improvement in form after the turn of the year.

The division’s top side SDSC C has now not won for 3 weeks-this time coming a cropper at Stapenhill B.Greg Britton played really well and included a good 27 in his win over Henry Tomas.John Sheriff and Ben Davies carved out a frame each in a hard fought draw on the other table.Jon Swift proved why he is top of the averages for the division as he defeated Simon Shilton -this was his 16th win out of 18 frames.Finally the game between Tim Knopik and Carl Hyde ended up all square with Carl knocking in a 22 along the way.

Tony Coleman your on the spot reporter reporting on the weekly events in Division 2

This week we are back to the bread and butter of the season after a weeks break for some of the competitions to be played.
In the top of the table clash between Swad Cons B and Spot On C it was the run away leaders who just scrapped home 5-3 at the Cons. Two very good frames of snooker took place between two talented players Paul Hollis and Jared Cronje. Both players like to play the attacking game of snooker going for the pots and this certainly was the case in this match as both players enjoyed the open and entertaining match with the draw being the fair result. On the other table Ben Menzies put the Spots in a good position at the half way stage leading 3-1 as he took two tight frames with Ross Hollis. Ben knocked in a quick fire break of 24 after a safety shot from Ross went slightly wrong. Vince Draper with his wealth of snooker experience at this level put it to good use as he got the home team back on level terms with a solid performance in taking both frames off Brad Williams. Some of Vince’s safety play at times was top notch. Despite Vince’s efforts it was not good enough to prevent the Cons losing as Sean Bates played some steady snooker to prevent Gerald White getting into the match by taking both frames. Gerald’s cause was not helped when Sean knocked in a 22 break. There is not many weeks go by without one of the Spots players knocking in a 20 plus break in a frame.

SDSC D had a very good win a home beating Rolleston D 7-1. This win reduces the gap between Spot On C down to twelve points. Andy Bloor continued his fine form with a comfortable win against John Ward which was helped by a solid 26 break to take one of his frames. Brian Bloor and Neil Cheadle had a fairly lengthy battle for their two frames with neither player wanting to lose. Both players made some valuable contributions to this match where a draw may have been a fair result but Brian just took both frames on the high colours thus putting the home side 4-0 ahead at the interval. David Wain was in fine form on the night as he beat David Bentley in two entertaining frames with David Wain having the better of the potting. Well done to Steve Atkin for preventing the whitewash by drawing with Garton Bloor with both players making a number of good pots. This match was played in a great spirit and this win puts them joint second with Baulkline A.

For the first time in a number of years Woodville S&S had an inter club derby between the A and B team which resulted in the A team winning 7-1 and having the bragging rights. This is not a 7-1 win as a number of the frames was only decided on the blue or pink. Alan Orpwood who is gradually getting used to his ‘Denis Taylor’ glasses played an out of sorts Mark Gallagher. In the first frame Mark broke off leaving Alan a chance of a pot which he duly potted and continued to make a nice 23 break. Alan continued this fine potting throughout the first frame with Mark conceding early on the colours. The second frame was a little closer but with Mark not at his potting best Alan also took the second. On the other table the match between Jim Marcer and Denis Moore I think was decided by which player had the better luck and that was young Jim. Denis and Jim seemed to be matching each other points wise until Denis knocked in a 16 break and one or two little breaks as well until Jim started getting a lot of good running. If he missed a pot the ball would run safe or even better for Jim getting a snooker. This happened about nine times in this frame so Denis went from being a number of points in front to quite a few behind leaving Jim just to pot the pink for the first frame. This seemed to repeat its self in the second frame with more good running for Jim as he also won the second. Hopefully Jim was going to do the lottery this weekend! This put the A team 4-0 ahead at the turn. After the interval Tony Coleman took both frames against Terry Eyley. Tony took the first frame fairly easily with Terry conceding with three reds left on the table. The second frame was a lot tighter with Terry potting one or two nice balls but could not stop Tony taking the second also. Pat Ryan and Wayne Allen shared two very good frames of snooker with the draw being a true reflection of the game. The first frame Pat played some of his best snooker of the season with some lovely little breaks which put him in command of the frame but Wayne came back at him only to lose on the pink. The second frame was the opposite to the first with Wayne playing the more dominant snooker and Pat having to play catch-up with Wayne taking the frame on the blue. The game was played in a great spirit.
The Baulkline A had a good win at home to the young ladies from Spot On B despite winning 8-0 the scoreline certainly flattered the home side as they seemed to have all the good running that was going. Wayne Smith despite not dropping a frame so far this season had one of his hardest frames against Gilda Horvath who certainly made him battle for the win – so much so that he changed his cue half way through the match. Gilda made a number of good pots but just could not get over the line. Mick Taylor in his match with Yvonne Spendlove knocked in three reasonable breaks of 24, 19 and 18 to win his two frames. In the first frame Mick finished the frame off with three doubles. This was probably one of Mick’s best displays of the season so far. Tom Lucas also had some kind running as he took both frames off Marie Bridges which included a nice 25 break to take one of his frames which was helped by a fluked pink after potting his initial red. Jon Sully also had his share of good luck while playing Kate Stirling. In frame two and a little bit behind Jon fluked a snooker that Kate failed to get out of and letting Jon in to clear to the pink for another steal.

Alrewas D continued their great run of form at the moment as they beat Swad Cons D 5-3. The Alrewas boys have created a great spirit within the squad this showed in the first match between Brian Aldridge and the Cons Gaz Ward. Gaz played very well in both frames to take them both from Brian and winning one of the frames fairly comfortably with the assistance of a well made 39 break which included a number of break saving pots. The second frame was a little closer with Gaz taking it on the low colours. Dave Riley got the home side back on level terms at the interval with a solid display in taking both frames against Andy Boam who was not at his potting best. Tom Smith is one of the reasons why Alrewas are doing so well this season. He played a very tight game as he beat Dave Bodie. Dave potted a number of good reds but was unable to get the colours. Two experienced campaigners played out the final frames in the shape of Tony Trueman and the Cons Bob Birch. There was plenty of skills shown by both players with regard to potting and safety play. The outcome was an honourable draw with neither player deserving to go home empty handed but more importantly Tony’s frame gave them the win.

Chimneys D and Burton Cons D shared a hard fought draw which helps both teams to stay clear of the lower teams. Dave Budworth dropped a rare home frame as he drew with Al Munnion who displayed his battling qualities to win his frame. Brian Alford is starting to get back in the groove with a fine win against Nathan Brooks who has been playing pretty well of late. Both frames were fairly tight with the experienced Alford just having the edge in the safety department. This put the Chimneys 3-1 ahead at the interval. Two very tight frames ensued between Bill Davidson and Paul Brooks which ended in a draw. Neither player was able to dominate the match despite both players getting a few small breaks. Bill’s frame earned the home side at least a draw and that was all they got thanks to a nice potting performance by Ian Protheroe in beating Steve Williams who was not at his best.
Swad Cons C who despite being bottom of the league enjoy their snooker night out but they lost at home to a determined Ivanhoe D 6-2. John Griffin for the Cons played very well to draw with Jason Collins who on his day is a mean potter. John made a number of small but valuable breaks in taking his frame. Tony Tredger put Ivanhoe 3-1 ahead at the interval with an impressive display of snooker in winning both frames off Jon Petcher who also made some good pots. Keith Bale who is Jack’s son looked in good form as he beat Paul Griffin fairly easily in the first frame but the second could have gone either way. Dan Petcher played very well in taking his frame with a number of vital pots against Jack Bale. The frame that Jack won showed what a decisive potter he can be when he gets his eye in. Ivanhoe did not appear to miss old twinkle toes Warner Collins and can he get back in the team?!!!!