2015-16: Week 11

Owen Jones writes for the David Wain Insurance Premier Division 

Swad Cons A welcomed reigning champions Burton Cons A and it was the hosts who got off to a good start as Lee Wood potted well to take the first frame against John Shilton. Back came Shilton in the second frame as he made breaks of 49 and 42 to earn a draw. Andy Grainger then found Darren Coady too good on the night as the Cons’ player knocked in a 31 and played very well to take both frames. The second half of the match saw Simon Orpwood play Matt Milnes. Orpwood hung on in both frames but Milnes had enough to earn the victory. Finally, Simon Mansfield played Owen Jones. Mansfield had a chance to take the first frame but missed a vital brown, which handed the frame to his opponent. The second frame was more clear cut as Jones closed out the match leaving the final score at 7-1 to the visitors.

The Chimneys B put in their finest performance of the season to dispatch a spirited Alrewas A side. Tim Hodgkinson’s 59 break against Adam Walton was the highlight of the night. Crafted excellently and full of great pots, it secured both frames in a relatively comfortable win. Loz Kennerson did his best to emulate Hodgkinson with a quick fire and excellent 45 against Colin Kinsella who never fired at all in either frame. Ian Hiley took both frames against Steve Butterworth, the second when 40 behind with two reds left on the table. Lee Cooke then secured the win after going a frame down to Carl Poulton. A lovely 33 gave him the early lead but Poulton fought back well but missed out on the draw after Cooke potted the final blue and pink. This left the final score at 5-3 to the hosts.

Ivanhoe A won 5-3 at home against Tutbury A. Mick Kirk scraped a win against Dave Powell and on the other table, Ian Rennocks drew with Steve Mabbott to put the hosts 3-1 up at the break. Chris Mabbott then put in a good performance to defeat Daniel Blunn. The match hinged on the final game of the night, which saw Ant Moore play Dave Mabbott. Moore had enough in the tank to take both frames and earn a hard fought victory.

Swadlincote Snooker Centre A earned a draw against high-flying Belmont A. Chris Dewey was in good form as he won the battle of the potters against Fran McInulty. Ian Archer levelled things up by taking both frames from John Davis. Mark Satchwell and Josh Gebbie both played well to take a frame each. Finally, Steve Ayre shared the frames with Shaun Gebbie to complete the scoring.

Stapenhill A and Chimeys A battled well to leave their match level at 4 frame a piece. All matches were drawn as Chris Sheldrake, Barrie Waller, Carl Jeffcoate and Dave Shenton drew with Dean Johnston, Alan Davies, Bill Stewart and Gary Barker respectively.

Belmont B and Spot On also shared the frames on the night. Zaheer Hussain could not get going against Tom Elliott, who potted well to win both frames. Mark Stirling was also playing well as he took both frames against Graham Bailey. Martin Smith potted well to take both frames against Andy Spiers and finally, Rich Goldby needed to win to force the draw, which he did by beating Ade Harper.

Burton Cons B were looking to build on their good first half of the season as they hosted Ivanhoe B. Mike Buckland played well to beat stand-in Ross Tredger, which included a 36 break. Stuart Tagg had his potting boots on as he took both frames against Jason Anguish. Dave Plunkett was playing with a new cue and he found the going tough as he lost both frames to Jason Pickering. Simon Smith was the star man on the night as he won a scrappy first frame against Brendon Mattley, and then produced a lovely 52 break to win the second frame and force a draw.

Mike Buckland writes for Division 1

Belmont D took on Stapenhill B in a mid table clash and it was the Swad boys who prevailed 6-2.Micky Morris had two great frames with Stan Piechowicz with Stan knocking in some tremendous pots.In the end though, Micky was just too strong with breaks of 25 and 30 to win both frames. Stand in Glyn Holland had two scrappy games with Brian Sherratt and it was Brian who got stronger as the game wore on to square the match. Brett Craddock played well to beat Jonathon Swift – this was Jon’s first league defeat of the season-Brett potting solidly from the start. Mark Vaughan then blew away Tim Knopik potting everything in sight and including a 28 and a 29 along the way.

Chimneys C are the division’s side who like to cut things fine. They have had nothing other than 5-3s and 4-4s all season so far.Their match against Burton Cons C was no exception and ended 4 across.Andy Jenkins played well to win the first against wily Tom Egginton. Tom was unfortunate to miss the match ball pink in the second and left pink and black for Andy to mop up.Trevor Heath was out of sorts against lee Louch. However he did miss the black in the first which appeared to give Lee the confidence to run away with the second.Tony Clements played nicely to beat Matt Hucker in the first but Matt dug in to square the match by potting the pink and doubling the black.In the final game Steve Gaunt got the better of the safety exchanges in the first against Cons’ captain Ian Shrive.Ian responded well and took the second on the black after one or two misses each.

Previously bottom side Alrewas B scored a fine 6-2 win over Belmont C.John Sharpe played well to beat Brian Cutting in the opener.Will Sherratt and Glen Mathews then traded 20 breaks before Will ran out the winner. Mark Press then showed what a good player he is by including a 40 in his win over Roy Sherratt to get the game back on for the Swad boys.But Alan Wilson put together a nice 25 and ran out the winner against Doug Lees.

Alrewas C scraped past Ivanhoe C 5-3 but this result has put them top at Christmas.John Richardson knocked in a 24 and a 27 in drawing with Darren Wilson. Rob McMeecham then defeated Jerry Cook in a fine win to leave Alrewas 3-1 up. Karl Hancox produced his customary fine style to beat Graham Measures including a well made 30 along the way.Gaz Dolman put some respectability to the score in a scrappy 2-0 win over Colin Wood.

The season’s early pace setters Swad Snooker Centre C were dismantled at home by the improving Rolleston A 7-1.There were wins for Bobby Cliff,Rich O’Dell and Ant Rushton while Carl Hyde was the only score for Swad in his draw with Joe Docksey.

Newhall A managed a 6-2 win away at Tutbury and did this without their talisman Martin Hicks.Sam Hicks and Martin Hurdman scored wins over John Peto and Paul Atterbury whist the games between Dave Brady and Carl Glover and then Jeff Siddalls and Mark Anslow ended up draws.

Tony Coleman your on the spot reporter reporting on the weekly events in Division 2 on the last league games this year

Spot On C had to pull out all the stops to get something at home to Alrewas D. The net result was a very hard earned draw. Jared Cronje got the league leaders off to a fine start in beating Tony Trueman with both players playing well in spells in the match but Jared’s superb potting got him through. Tom Smith got the A38 boys level at the turn with a solid display of his potting ability in beating Gordon Morley proving why he is lying second in the divisions averages. Dave Riley put Alrewas in the ascendency by taking both frames with a bit to spare against Sean Bates. Dave is another Alrewas player in the top four of the averages. Alrewas were sensing a surprise win at the Spot as they led 4-2 with one match to go but they had not banked on Ben Menzies’ determination and battling skills in taking two tight frames against Shaun Tubbert who has recently been in a rich vein of form. Despite this draw they are still ten points clear of the second placed side SDSC D. This was Spot On C’s first game at their new home the Newhall Arena.

For about the third time in about four games Woodville S&S B have lost out on getting something from the game in losing 5-3 to the team in second place SDSC D. Again they battled back from being 3-1 down at the interval to get back on level terms then to lose the final frame. Mark Gallagher and Garton Bloor drew their match. Mark took his first frame fairly easily with a number of good pots. The second frame Garton got more into the match and did enough to take a scrappy frame. Andy Bloor maintained his impressive start to the season as he took both frames against Denis Moore who at the moment despite playing some good snooker does not seem to be getting the deserved rewards his play merits. Terry Eyley and Brian Bloor shared a well deserved match with both players making a number of nice pots but not able to make the most of their chances. Wayne Allen drew with David Wain but he can feel a little unlucky not to have taken both frames as he lost the final frame of the evening on the black and also the match to SDSC D. This win leaves them two points clear of third placed Baulkline A.

Swad Cons D came very close to inflicting only the second defeat of the season on Baulkline A but had to settle for a hard earned draw. Gaz Ward become the first player to take a frame off the previously unbeaten Wayne Smith with a quality potting performance. Gaz when he is in the potting mood there is very few people in this division who can stop him as Wayne found out. Wayne is not top of the averages for nothing he got back into the match to win the second frame fairly comfortably. Another Baulkline player to lose his 100% record was Tom Lucas who found a determined Kieron Dadley in his way as he played two solid frames of snooker but unfortunately he could only take the one frame with Tom taking the other frame with a number of quality pots. This was developing into a very entertaining match with the scoreline being 2-2 at the interval and everything to play for. The next match was between the Cons most experienced player Bob Birch an ideal player for this type of match as he beat Jon Sully in two very good and tight games with Bob’s safety play getting him through and putting the Cons 4-2 ahead. Mick Taylor put his barrow down to take both frames in a scrappy match with Andy Boam with neither player being at their best but Mick’s win helped his side to earn a draw.

Swad Cons B got back to winning ways with a fine 6-2 win away to Burton Cons D who have been improving of late. The evergreen Bob McNulty gave Swad Cons the start they wanted with a gritty and battling display to take both frames off Nathan Brooks who showed some of his potting talents but not sufficient to beat Bob. Gentleman Jim Jennings played well to share his two frames with Paul Hollis. Jim made some nice pots to draw with Paul by winning his frame fairly comfortably with a number of excellent long pots. This put the Derbyshire boys 3-1 ahead at the turn and they also won the second half by the same score. Paul Brookes despite not playing at his best was able to take a frame off Ross Hollis. Ross played very well to win his frame. It just needed the talented Gerald White to take his two frames for a well deserved victory which he did in a hard fought match with Ian Protheroe who tried his best to prevent this.

Woodville S&S A had a very lucky win away to Spot On B (the Snookerettes) winning 5-3. Clare ‘the boots’ Peaty was making a rare appearance and played some excellent snooker in both frames against Alan Orpwood. Clare took the first frame with a number of stylish pots and good safety play that left Alan requiring snookers on the brown. The second frame was the opposite to the first with Alan being the more dominate player early on but Claire came back at him on the low colours before Alan managed to close out the frame. On the other table Jim Marcer struggled to beat Gilda Horvath but eventually did. For the second week running Jim has had a fair amount of good running and tonight was no different. As he was going for shots missing the pots and getting some horrible snookers. Gilda made a number of fine pots and some good safety play but Jim was always able to conjure up some pieces of magic!! Woodville were 3-1 ahead and soon became 5-1 as Tony Coleman and Yvonne Spendlove played out the quickest frames of the evening with Tony taking both frames on the pink but to be fair Yvonne deserved to take at least a game as she had terrible luck on both frames on the pink. In the first frame Tony was a few points ahead until Yvonne knocked in a nice 16 break to bring her back into the game. This left Yvonne requiring pink and black after potting a good blue to the middle bag which left her having to use the long extension and hitting down on the cue ball to screw it back for the black. Unfortunately she missed cued missing the pink. The second frame followed a similar pattern to the first but this time Yvonne potted a terrific pink into a blind yellow bag from distance only to see the cue ball drop into the pocket. Some of Yvonne’s potting to the middle bags at speed was very good. Now to the final two frames of the evening between two grinders Kate Stirling and Pat Ryan this match finished at 11-20pm and Cliff Thorburn would have been proud of these two. The first frame was a very tight and competitive frame with neither player prepared to let each other in with a chance but gradually Kate started to pot a colour with a red and opened up a little bit of a gap such that by the time they got onto the low colours Pat required snookers but credit to Pat he came back well before Kate finished it off. The second frame was more difficult to predict who was going to win it with both players getting some good snookers and the other player getting out of them. The turning point of the match came with only a few reds left on the table when Kate knocked in an under pressure 22 break which included a number of fine pots especially a superb red to the green bag to get her on the blue but disappointingly she missed it as there was a few more points easily available. As in the first frame Pat came back well only to lose on the black after about ten minutes of safety play on it then Kate switched the lights off. Cyril please buy Kate a calculator for Christmas!!! A most enjoyable evening. I cannot understand how the Snookerettes are in the position they are after playing like they did tonight. ‘ Unbelievable’ as The Bard would say!!

Rolleston C won a close match against bottom of the table Swad Cons C winning 5-3 but it was down to the last frame to decide the final score. Neil Cheadle’s two frame win over John Griffin was the difference between the two sides. Neil played steady snooker throughout the match making the most of the opportunities when they arose. John managed to pot a number of good reds but unfortunately was not always landing on a colour. Dave Bentley and Paul Griffin shared two entertaining frames with neither being able to make the most of the chances when they were there. John Ward and Pete ‘the legs’ Fearn also played out a rather open two frames with both players going for the pots which resulted in plenty of potting chances and some being missed with a draw being a fair result. The final match of the evening also ended in a draw between Steve Atkin and Jon Petcher this match was more of a safety encounter as they were both trying to get their side a favourable result. This turned out to be in the home teams favour. Both players safety play at times was very good.

Ivanhoe D ended the year on a winning note as they beat the Chimneys D 5-3. Keith Bale got Ivanhoe off to a good start as he took both frames in a tight match with Steve Williams who if he had made the most of some of his chances may have got a draw although Keith got one or two nice small breaks. Jack Bale put the home side in control at the interval as he drew with Ryan Jarvis who was playing his first match for the Chimneys. He did well to get a draw and put Chimneys first frame on the board. Jason Collins got Ivanhoe the win with a solid display in both the potting and safety department as he beat Andy Holloway. Despite losing both frames Andy made a number of good pots but not enough to stop Jason. Warner Collins came up against Chimneys in-form and also their most consistent player David Budworth. Dave missed very little scoring opportunities in or around the black spot in the first frame although the second frame was a lot closer as Warner upped his game and just missed out on the high colours. Warner should be able to concentrate more on the snooker now that ‘Strictly’ is coming to an end.
Wishing everybody a Potting Christmas and a Happy New Year.