Owen Jones writes for the David Wain Insurance Premier Division

Belmont B welcomed Ashby Ivanhoe A and it was the visitors who left with a big win under their belts. Debutant Steve Butler won both frames against Zaheer Hussain to get the ball rolling. Graham Bailey potted well to take the first frame against Mick Kirk but his opponent responded well to take the second. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for the hosts as Ant Moore defeated Arron Vaughan, aided by a 47 break, and Daniel Blunn beat Martin Smith to close out the match and confirm a 7-1 scoreline.

Swadlincote Snooker Centre A went down 6-2 at home against Burton Cons A. Chris Dewey was first up against Owen Jones. The first frame was decided when Jones potted the final brown in the corner and in the same shot developed the blue which was tight on the cushion. He proceeded to pot the remaining colours to take it. The second frame was very similar until Jones played a roll up shot. The white ran off and left a chance for Dewey, from which he made a 20 plus break and too much for Jones to claw back. On the other table, Steve Ayre played in-form Graham Stevens, who played the right shots at the right time to take both frames. Mark Satchwell had to dig deep to take a frame from the returning Stuart Roberts. The Con’s player knocked in a 47 break in the first frame and took it convincingly. The second frame saw Satchwell play some good match play snooker to take it on the colours. The final game saw John Davis play John Shilton and it was Shilton who potted well, including breaks of 47 and 38 to take the game and close out the match.

It’s a tough season for Alrewas A with 11 of their 14 fixtures finishing 5-3 or 4-4. The game against Tutbury A was another where they just coudn’t get across the line. Steve Hathaway and Dave Trueman shared the frames, the first very scrappy with Hathaway just nicking it after a long safety bout on the green. The second, Trueman looked to be taking comfortably after a nice 30 but it went to the final black and Trueman sank it. Ian Hiley came up short in both frames against Steve Mabbott, although perhaps he should enter the Billiards competition after numerous in-offs and cannons on the night did for him. Carl Poulton was 35 up against Dave Mabbott in the first frame but Mabbott fought back all the way to nick it on the final pink. The second a different affair as Poulton got well ahead again but managed to stay ahead. Chris Mabbott came up against a resurgent Colin Kinsella who blasted the first frame away. Credit to Mabbott though as the second was following the same pattern but a nice 39 got him back and he took it on the final pink.

Stapenhill A and Swad Cons A drew 4-4. Andy Grainger played well to beat Chris Sheldrake, aided by two 34 breaks. Steve Ford levelled things up by winning both against Simon Mansfield. Andy Gretton then potted well to win both frames against Paul Slater and finally, Carl Jeffcoate found Simon Orpwood to be too good on the night as the Swadlincote player earned a draw for the visitors.

Ivanhoe B welcomed Belmont A and it was the high flyers who took the win. Ian Archer got Belmont off to a great start as he defeated Stuart Tagg. Wayne Brewin then doubled the lead as he potted well, knocking in breaks of 35 and 38 to win both frames. Jason Pickering and Brendon Mattley need to win both matches to force a draw, but they could only manage draws against Josh Gebbie and Shaun Gebbie respectively. This left the final score at 6-2 to the visitors.

The Chimney’s derby (played at Spot On!) was won by the ‘visiting’ A team. Lee Cooke drew with Daz Lester and Wayne Pereira defeated Steve Lane to give the A team a 3-1 lead at the break. Steve Butterfield drew with Dean Johnston and Loz Kennerson drew with Bill Stewart to leave the final score at 5-3 to the visitors.

Debutant Ryan Gibbs did well to win the first frame for Burton Cons B as they played Spot On A. His opponent, Andy Speirs was up in the frame but Gibbs clawed back the deficit to take it. Speirs won the second to level things up. Simon Smith then played Mark Stirling. The visiting player knocked in a 33 break but Smith managed to hold on to win the frame. The reverse happened in the second frame, as Smith looked to be in control but Stirling won the frame. Ade Harper then played very well and took his chances to defeat Mike Buckland, who was not at the races. Dave Shipton won the first frame thanks to his opponent, Tom Elliot, following the final black in with white. Shipton sealed the second frame to earn a hard fought draw.

Mike Buckland writes for Division 1

It is Alrewas C who have made the first real positive move towards the Division One title by virtue of winning their rearranged fixture against their own B team. Karl Hancox and John Richardson have been in tremendous form all season and both won along with Tom Wright. Rob McMeecham also picked up a frame. Their position was consolidated with a harder fought win over Rolleston B by a 5-3 scoreline.Hancox and Richardson both knocked in a 30 break in their victories over John Harvey and Kev Norris respectively. Colin Wood picked up the winning frame in his draw with Rob Sanders who himself had a nice 25. Adam How on debut played well to have a 23 against Lionel Lewis but the Rolleston man was just too strong including a 25 in his victory.

In behind Alrewas there are 4 sides separated by only a single point. SDSC C just cant get it going after their tremendous start to the season. This week they lost 5-3 at home to Newhall A, who are steadily climbing the table.In the first Carl Glover beat Ben Davies who was struggling to start with-Carl winning on the brown. Ben though came back with a lovely 32 in the second for a deserved draw. Henry Tomas was out-potted by Sam Hicks in the first but came back well to win the second on the pink for 2-2 at half time. Martin Hurdman was to make the difference on the night with a 2-0 win over Carl Hyde,winning both frames on the colours. The outcome was to be decided on the last game between Simon Shilton and Martin Hicks. Simon won the first on the pink to give a glimmer of hope for the Swad side but Martin managed to win the second on the pink to ensure a 4th straight win for the Newhall boys.

Chimneys C got back to winning ways with a close 5-3 win over SDSC B. Dave McGlovany was beaten by Ray Stretton in the first before arguably the strongest players in both sides Trevor Heath and Nick Harcombe fought out a predictable draw. Steve Gaunt included a nice 24 in his win over Ray Bancroft but the highlight of the night came from Tony Clements who rolled back the years for a great 40 in his win over Phil Maddocks.

Rolleston A are level with Chimneys after their 5-3 win over Burton Cons C. In the first Tom Egginton and Bobby Cliff drew before Matt Hucker and Joe Docksey were also not able to be separated. This was not before Matt knocked in the division’s high break of the week-a well constructed 43. Not for the first time this season, it was Ant Rushton who made the difference by claiming both in a good win over the home side’s Lee Louch. In the last Cons’ captain Ian Shrive was held one across by Rich O’Dell for Rolleston to hang on for the win.

Ivanhoe C were the division’s big winners of the week with a thumping 7-1 win over Stapenhill B. Gaz Dolman was in fine form has he knocked in two 28s in his win over Brian Sherratt. Steve Cockeram was also in good form to defeat John Sherriff for a 4-0 half time lead. Stapenhill’s Jon Swift was only able to take one frame this week in a hard fought draw with Graham Measures. the performance of the evening came from Darren Wilson as he included runs of 29, 27 and 25 to leave Tim Knopik stunned and the scoreline that keeps the Ashby side in the chasing pack.

The Services Club derby took place at Belmont and not surprisingly it was a close affair. Mick Morris got the D team off to a good start with a comfortable win over Brian Cutting before Mark Vaughan and Terry Bosworth shared two tight frames. Brett Craddock then played nicely to beat Doug Lees with Dave Press beating Tom Holland on the other table to leave the D team with the bragging rights.

A relegation battle took place at Alrewas between the home club’s B team and Tutbury B.In a tense match without any real contributions, there were wins for Alrewas’ Will Sherratt and Alan Wilson over Colin Bell and Dave Brady respectively. Paul Atterbury beat Roy Sherratt to give the Tutters some hope but John Sharpe and Jeff Siddalls were not to be separated and leave the Alrewas outfit with the bonus winning point.

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

We are now just starting the return fixtures for the second half of the season. The first match I am reporting on is the mouth watering match between the top two teams in the division which is Spot On C and SDSC D who at the time were joint second. The current leaders Spot On managed to win 5-3 with the result only being sorted on the final frame. The Spots must be starting to think they have a fine chance of becoming Champions. The first match was a highly entertaining one between Jared Cronje and Brian Bloor which deservedly ended in a draw. Jared as usual was in fine potting form in both frames but Brian’s better safety play helped him to take a frame. Sean Bates took on Andy Bloor and we saw another quality match with players making a number of good pots between them around the black spot. This match quiet rightly ended in an honourable draw between two players in the top six of the divisions averages. Ben Menzies drew with David Wain in a couple of scrappy frames in which neither player was able to play anywhere near their best. The Spots had a new player in the team in the shape of Matt Keays who played his part as he was the only player on the night to win both frames with a solid display of snooker to beat the experienced Garton Bloor fairly comfortably in the first frame with the second only being decided on the high colours.

In the match between two teams in the top six Alrewas D and Woodville S&S A we saw a terrific match with Woodville coming away with a 5-3 win but it was close. On table one we saw a superb display of potting in the first frame by Jim Marcer as he became a rare person this season to take a frame off Tom Smith. Jim missed very little potting-wise and his safety play was not too bad either. The second frame was a complete change round with Tom getting the pots. This was two quality frames played by in-form players to win their frames. The second game was another quality match with both frames only being decided on the pink between Dave Riley and Pat Ryan with both frames going the way of Dave. Dave potted steadily throughout the match but in the second frame he also battled back after being over 30 points behind after Pat had knocked in a lovely 25 break to put him in the driving seat but unfortunately he lost control. Both players came off the table saying how much they had enjoyed the match. This put Alrewas 3-1 ahead at the turn and sensing the win but things stayed the same for them as Alan Orpwood played two inspired frames to beat Brian Eccleston. Alan was on the top of his game in both frames especially in the first frame by knocking in a cracking 32 break which should have been a few more. In the second frame the ‘Big O’ was not able to reproduce that size of break but knocked in one or two small ones. Throughout this match Brian kept chipping away at Alan’s lead with a number of fine pots and safety play but to no avail. Brian will play a lot worse and win two frames. The final and deciding match was between Shaun Tubbert and Tony Coleman and the two frames went in Tony’s favour to give them the win – a remarkable comeback. All the matches were played in a great spirit and both sets of teams enjoyed the evening and the lovely supper.

In the battle between Swad Cons B who are currently joint second before tonight’s games played fourth in the table Baulkine A and what a cracking night of snooker these two teams put on. The Baulkline went home the happier as they won 5-3. This now puts them into second place having leap frogged both Swad Cons B and SDSC D who are now joint third on 78 points just one point behind The Baulkline who are on 79. Simon Seabridge maintained his perfect record in two close frames with Ross Hollis. This game did not go without incident when Simon after potting a red decided to pot another red in succession this was a foul but nobody was clear what the value of the foul should be – so there was a bit of a delay as the players tried to find out the answer which is a foul and 7 points away. By all accounts there was a significant number of fouls given away by both players. Bob McNulty got the home team on the score board in drawing with Tom Lucas in a fairly even contest with both players making a number of fine pots. Wayne Smith increased his domination of the divisions averages and now also the highest break in the division which is now 48 but unfortunately nobody has written any information about the break on the card. Gerard White was the unfortunate person to lose both frames to Wayne. Paul Hollis improved the scoreline for the Cons as he played Jon Sully for the third time this season with the same result with Paul winning two close frames. In the first frame Paul knocked in a lovely 25 break to take it but in the second frame which went down to the wire with Jon losing it on the final black. This result has certainly made the battle for the three promotion places very interesting.

Woodville S&S B got the second half of the season off to a superb 7-1 win against one of the current form teams Burton Cons D who had not lost so far this year. Woodville were given an excellent start thanks to Mark Gallagher getting back into the groove after a slight hiccup just before Christmas. Mark missed very little in the two frames against Al Munnion who on his day is an excellent potter. Denis Moore another quality player who has not had the best off running of late but that all changed as he beat Nathan Brooks with a solid display off potting in both frames keeping Nathan under pressure all the time. This put Woodville in a great position at the turn leading 4-0. Ian Protheroe got the Cons only frame of the night drawing with Terry Eyley which saw both players playing some quality safety play to protect their frame. Wayne Allen was at the top of his game as he took both frames against ‘Gentleman Jim’ Jennings who as usual enjoyed himself and the ‘Peddy’. The first frame was rather close until they got on the colours then Wayne just start to control the frame. The second frame was a little tight with Wayne taking the pink and black for a well deserved win. This win puts them into the top six.

Rolleston C lost at home to the inconsistent Ivanhoe D 5-3. Neil Cheadle and Jack Bale got the evening off to an entertaining start with both players in fine form and both testing each other with a mixture of safety play. The match ended all square which by all accounts was just about right. On the other table Jack’s brother Keith also shared his match with Steve Atkin with neither player playing at their best throughout the match although there was a number of good pots occasionally. The scores were all square at the interval and all to play for and that is when the Collins boys seemed to get going. As usual Anton Du Beck’s protege Warner Collins shared two quality frames with John Ward. During the game John showed what an asset he is to the team when he is available with a few small breaks enabling him to take his frame. Warner put in a battling performance to win his frame with some superb control of the cue ball making the game look so easy!!! Jason Collins was Ivanhoe’s star player as he won both frames in a tightly contested match with David Bentley which ebbed and flowed from one side to the other before Jason came to the fore on the colours in both frames much to Dad’s delight as he did a quick chasse round the table to celebrate the victory.