2015-16: Week 23

Owen Jones writes for the David Wain Insurance Premier Division
Burton Cons A secured their ninth title in nine years as they visited second placed Ivanhoe A and came away with a 6-2 victory. The match began well for the hosts as Ian Rennocks won the first frame against Darren Coady and, on the other table, Daniel Blunn potted well to win the first frame against John Shilton. The second frame also looked to be going in Blunn’s favour. However, Shilton managed to claw back a 40 point deficit to win it on the final black and earn an unlikely draw. Darren Coady also won a tight frame by knocking in a 31 to level things up. The second half of the match saw Mick Kirk play Graham Stevens. Both players had chances to win the frames but Stevens just had a bit extra in the tank on the night to take them both. Finally, Ant Moore played Owen Jones. After a decent safety exchange, it was Jones who got in to make a 30 break and win the first frame at a canter. The second frame saw Jones build up a 20 point lead to gain control and eventually took it on the final pink to seal the victory and another title for the Burton side.
Swad Cons A picked up a hard fought victory at home against Chimneys A. Daz Lester was in fine fettle as he won both frames against Lee Wood. Simon Orpwood levelled the match as he compiled breaks of 35, 32 and 44 in his victory over Wayne Pereira. Andy Grainger then continued his fine form by defeating Bill Stewart, aided by a nice 44 break. Finally, Paul Slater took the frame for victory against Dean Johnston to leave the final score at 5-3 to the hosts.
Chimneys B welcomed Ivanhoe B and a topsy turvy match ended all square. Lee Cooke came up against Brendon Mattley who potted well on the night to win both frames. Tim Hodgkinson levelled things up as he defeated Adam Pickering with some solid match play. Jason Pickering swung the match in Ivanhoe’s favour again as he beat Steve Butterworth. This meant Loz Kennerson needed to take both frames to force a draw. He duly obliged as he beat Stuart Tagg to end an entertaining match.
Burton Cons B picked up another terrific win, this time at home against Tutbury A. Ryan Gibbs battled it out against wily, old Dave Powell and the frames were shared. Simon Smith shared the frames with Dave Mabbott, who knocked in a 37 in winning his frame. Dave Plunkett also battled well against Chris Mabbott to earn a share of the spoils. It was Mike Buckland who was the star of the match as he won both frames against Steve Hathaway, compiling breaks of 66 and 37 along the way. This completed the match and the score line of 5-3 in the hosts favour.
The Belmont derby saw both teams refusing to be beaten as the match ended level. Zaheer Hussain put his best performance of the season in as he defeated the talented Josh Gebbie. Ian Archer levelled the match up as he won against Arron Vaughan, aided by a 34 break. Miffa Smith and Fran McInulty could not be separated as they both showed off their potting skills, McInulty knocking in a 36 break. Finally, Graham Bailey grinded out a frame from Wayne Brewin and the match ended with honours even.
Swadlincote Snooker Centre A earned a good victory at home against Alrewas A. Steve Ayre played well to win both frames against Adam Walton. Andy Goldingay and Colin Kinsella both won a frame each, as did Chris Dewey and Dave Trueman, who knocked in a 36 break in winning his frame. Mark Satchwell completed the match on the night as he made a 31 break on the way to beating Carl Poulton.
Mike Buckland writes for Division 1
Just as we all thought it was all settling down to those who would be promoted and who would be relegated….W23 turned up some new surprises. Chimneys C, who had been unbeaten for 9 matches to put themselves top by 8 points, were surprisingly beaten by Ivanhoe C who looked like they had given up on promotion themselves having only won 2 of their last 6. Jerry Cook and Graham Measures were the guys on song as they defeated Andy Jenkins and Tony Clements respectively. Chimneys’ John Hardy was able to score a nice 27 as he drew with Gaz Dolman whilst Ivanhoes’s  Darren Wilson drew with Steve Gaunt to leave Ivanhoe back in the shout for a promotion spot.
Rolleston A were able to take advantage as they won their derby against the B team by a 6-2 scoreline. Rob Sanders safety play was excellent to keep the in form Ant Rushton out but Ant was able to win the first anyway. In the second, Rob was 39 in front with 2 reds left before Ant knocked in a good 16 followed by a superb 27 clearance to keep his 100% record for the season in tact. The A captain,Joe Docksey, kept this unbeaten record going as well as he drew with Lionel Lewis. Bobby Cliff beat Rob Tubey whilst the B team’s John Harvey knocked a good 24 in during his draw with Rich O’Dell. This now leaves Rolleston A just 3 off of the top.
Alrewas C, who looked like they had the title at their mercy on a few weeks ago, have now won only twice in 7. They lost for the second week in a row this time to Newhall A. Carl Glover started well against Rob McMeecham to go 28 in front only for Rob to come right back and force a black ball exchange. Carl just took it and won a cagey second frame which was nip and tuck until Rob potted the pink only to go in off the black to gift Carl the win.John Richardson knocked in a good 26 to win his first easily against Martin Hurdman. The second also went the way of John but this time down on the blue.Sam Hicks started well against Tom Wright only for Tom to fight back before he eventually lost on the black. Sam won the second as well -this time on the yellow. The match of the night was between Martin Hicks and Karl Hancox. Martin played beautifully to go 43 in front before Karl fought hard to earn a re-spotted black. Martin duly won this and then the second in another tight frame down on the blue. A great game was had and it really could have gone either way with 4 frames won on the black. Alrewas are still in a promotion spot but only 3 points ahead of the lurking Ivanhoe C.
Over at Belmont the D team suffered a reverse to cup and draw specialists Burton Cons C. Micky Morris was in his usual solid form to beat Cons’ captain Ian Shrive 2-0. The match was squared though by Cons’ Matt Hucker who played well to beat Mark Vaughan. Brett Craddock and Lee Louch then shared their two frames before Egginton came out on top against Holland in the battle of the Toms. The win just about ensures both sides will be playing Division One snooker next season.
The bottom four sides all played each other with everyone having a chance to escape the relegation zone-with three of the four looking a the trap door into Division Two.Down the A38 at Alrewas B, the home side had a narrow win against SDSC B. The Sherratt boys Will and Roy were on form as they beat J and D McKay who became the 12th and 13th players to turn out for the Swad side this season.Ray Bancroft made the difference as he drew with the home sides’ Gary Green. Earlier in a tussle between both teams top players, the match went the way of Nick Harcombe over Alan Wilson. Nick is looking good for a spot in the end of season Ken Shipton Memorial Singles.
Unusually the division’s player at the top of the averages is in a side that has been near the bottom pretty much all season. Mark Press won again to keep his side Belmont C still in with a chance of staying up. He included the division’s high break of 45 in his win over the Tutters captain John Peto. Dave Brady played nicely to square things against Doug Lees. The other matches were both drawn-Terry Bosworth with Colin Bell and Jeff Siddalls with Brian Cutting.
The match between SDSC C and Stapenhill B was postponed till next week.It looks like everything will go to the last day of the season with only 46 points separating top from bottom in this division as opposed to over a hundred in both the other two.
Tony Coleman your on the spot reporter reporting on the weekly trials and tribulations in Division 2
The Baulkline A got back to winning ways after last weeks bit of a hic-cup as they beat Spot On B 7-1 on their home tables. This convincing win increases their lead at the top to ten points and with only three games left of the season they must be very confident of lifting the title.  Wayne Smith the top player in the division was again in good form as he beat Gilda Horvath fairly comfortably in both frames.  Gilda was not able to stop the Baulkline potting machine in either frame as he knocked in breaks of 28 in both frames.  Billy Ashton a new player into the team struggled for a while in the first frame against Claire Roulstone who made some fine contributions to an entertaining first frame which saw Billy close it out with a nice 22 clearance which included a very fortunate fluked blue.  In the second frame Billy had settled down especially after his clearance in the previous frame to win fairly easily being safe after the last red was potted.  The Baulkline were 4-0 ahead at the turn and nothing was going to stop them winning their 16 match of the season.  Tom Lucas took on and beat Kate Stirling winning the first frame fairly comfortably.  In the first frame Tom’s safety play was first class and was also confident that his potting game was in good shape missing very little.  The second started to follow a similar pattern to the first but somewhere in the middle Kate came back well only to lose after Tom had potted the blue and pink.  The final match was between Yvonne Spendlove and Mick Taylor.  In the first frame Vonnie was in superb form and her potting was very good especially her long potting and missing very little her potting was so good that she had the master potter Wayne Smith shouting out in admiration of the pots.  The second was a very close match with Vonnie apparently sinking the Jack Daniels as well as potting the balls.  Mick Taylor just managed to hold on to her shirt tails with the help of one or two nicely laid snookers which yielded a few points to take the game down to a black ball.  With the black ball tightly on the top rail and the cue ball in the D he stepped up without hesitation and doubled the black into the corner pocket for a deserved draw.
Spot On C are now joint second in the division after beating Swad Cons B who were previously second before this game winning 5-3.  Jared Cronje was in fine form in beating Paul Hollis.  Jared made a nice 35 break which included one or two cracking long pots which appear to be one of his favoured shots.  In the other frame he made another break in the twenties. Brad Williams despite making a solid 34 break to win his frame had to settle for a share of the spoils with Ross Hollis who came back well to win his frame.  Matt Newbold got the vital two frames for the Spots in a very tight battle with Vince Draper who fought manfully to try to win a frame.  Gerald White who has had a great season so far added a great deal of respectability to the scoreline to take both frames against Kieran Carr who was not given too many chances to shine.  It is going to be a nail biting end for these two teams to see who gets the second position.
Rolleston C once again showed how inconsistent they are as they lost at home to the promotion hopefuls SDSC D who won 5-3.  Andrew Bloor gave the away side the best possible start with a comfortable win against David Bentley who was not at his potting best.  Rolleston’s star player was John Ward who beat Garton Bloor in two entertaining frames with both players making some good pots then missing some easier chances.  This then levelled the score at the turn round.  SDSC have a great stand-in floating player in the form of Andy Rice who is great to have as a floater as Neil Cheadle found out losing both frames to Andy.  The first frame could have gone either way but Andy’s better safety play shaded it.  Andy was always in front in the second frame and was helped by a nice 23 break.  Aaron Doyle despite playing solid snooker in both frames  could only take one off Brian Bloor who played his normal steady game to earn SDSC the win they required to keep up the pressure on the third placed team.
Swad Cons D came back well after their recent heavy defeats to beat Alrewas D 5-3.  Gaz Ward was out potted in both frames by the master on the night Tom Smith who missed very little in both frames knocking in breaks of 24, 49 and 25 respectively.  Tom’s break of 49 is the second highest in this division so far but not beating the current highest break of 53.  Tom had to make a number of difficult pots in  which required a lot of care to enable him to keep the break going but at times it appeared he had the cue ball on a piece of string such was his control.  Dave Bodie who is in a happy mood today for two reasons he has won two frames in a match for the first time in a while and the second reason he has just booked another holiday!!  Dave played some of his best snooker of the season in this match against Brian Eccleston.  The ‘Bodie Man’ knocked in a number of small breaks especially in the first frame which enabled him to control the game.  In the second frame Brian got into the game and knocked in a number of good pots before Dave saw out the frame on the high colours.  This put the teams level at the interval.  Bob Birch and Tony Trueman played out two very tactical games which is not surprising considering the wealth of experience these players have between them with Bob just shading both frames thanks to little bit of good running at times.  Jona Edwards did very well to share the frames with Dave Riley who has been knocking the balls in for fun before this match.  Jona’s draw was good enough to give the Cons the win.
Woodville S&S B buoyed from their superb win the week before at the Baulkline carried on this week as they beat stable mates and rivals Woodville S&S A winning 6-2 thus avenging their defeat early on in the season  This was a fair result with the A team losing to the better team on the night.  Denis Moore started off a little shakily against Gentleman Jim Marcer but quickly got himself into the first frame with a number of excellent pots and a number of small breaks for Jim to concede early on the colours.  The second frame followed a very similar pattern to the first with Denis being a menace to Jim with a number of stunning pots.  Denis was in cracking form to take both frames off Jim.  The match being played out on the other table between Mark Gallagher and Alan Orpwood was probably two of the best competitive frames played there for a long time with both players making some great pots and good safety play in both frames.  In the first frame Mark made a nice 20 break with Alan coming back at him with a 17 break and it was nip and tuc all the way to the black with most people expecting Mark to play the black safe but instead he cut the ball about three quarters of the length of the cushion into the green pocket with the black being about an inch off the baulkline cushion – a superb pot.  The second frame followed a similar pattern to the first with little between them again down to the black. Alan potted the pink from distance but did not really have an easy safety path so he stroked the black the full length of the table almost along the rail into the yellow pocket.  The draw between these warriors was the fairest result.  Terry Eyley drew with Tony Coleman but to be perfectly honest he deserved to win both of them.  Terry certainly rolled back the years in the first frame missing very little and making the most of the potting opportunities when they arose.  The second frame was more even with the frame going down to the black ball.  Terry had potted a nice pink which gave him the chance on the black but rather unluckily the cue ball went in the pocket.  What a first frame between Wayne Allen and Pat Ryan which went down to the black.  There were so many foul points given away by both players that somebody starting to take off there shoe’s and socks as the scoreboard could not cope.  Wayne gave away a total of 42 points in fouls and Pat not to be out done gave away 44 points – amazing.  Wayne managed to pot the black in the first frame.  The second frame saw a number of good pots which also included more fouls but not as many as in the first.  Pat thought he might win the second frame only requiring the pink but Wayne had other ideas as he fluked the pink in a cocked hat shot into the middle bag and then thumped the black in a cross double into the same pocket.
The Chimneys are certainly building up a head of steam as the season is shortly coming to a close as they beat Burton Cons D 6-2 on their own tables.  Adi Millington is certainly starting to play with a lot of confidence at the moment and this showed in the manner that he beat Nathan Brooks with a nice mixture of safety play and potting.  Nathan’s father Paul got the Con’s first frame of the evening on the score board by drawing with Bill Davidson.  This was a couple of scrappy frames with neither player getting to grips with the game.  It was good to see the Chimney’s skipper David Budworth getting back into the game with a solid performance in beating Al Munnien in both frames.  Dave knocked in a good 38 break to take the first frame then in the second he made a 24 break to steal the frame from Al.  Wily old fox Jim Jennings most certainly did not have the match all his own way as he drew with the Chimneys most improved potter in Adam Holloway who never gives up the chance of going for the pot.  This win sees the Chimneys move up into the middle of the table.
Ivanhoe D were made to struggle against bottom of the table side Swad Cons C before winning 5-3.  The Cons over the last few weeks seem to have had an upturn in winning frames of late and also just failing to get something out of the game.  This match was no different.  Ivanhoe had a bit of a change in their  line-up for this game.  Roy Hickman came in and did a great job in taking a share of the honours with Paul Griffin who on his day can be a mean potter.  Keith Bale and Dan Petcher also shared the frames in two tight frames with neither player being able to make the most of their chances to win both.  Tony Tredger was Ivanhoe’s star player as he was the only person to win two frames on the night beating Pete ‘the shorts’ Fearn in two entertaining frames but at times turned a little scrappy.  The King of the Dance Warner Collins got the home side over the line but only just in drawing with Jon Petcher.  Some of Warner’s safety was at times the only difference between the two players.