2018-19: Week 8

By Mick Buckland

The big winners of the week in the David Wain Insurance Premier Division were Belmont A who won their inter-club derby with the B team 7-1. Arron Vaughan was first up for the B against John Chambers. Vaughan took the game to his opponent and was unfortunate with one or two leaves to hand the first frame to Chambers. The second went down to the final pink, which Chambers fluked into the middle for the 2-0 victory. On the other table Mark Sherratt started well against Mark Satchwell but a missed pink handed Satchwell the frame for the B. Sherratt won the second down on the colours for a half. The first frame between Shaun Gebbie and Owen Jones was littered with errors until Jones made a telling clearance to the pink before Jones won the second more easily for another A team victory. The final tie was between Rich Goldby and Graham Bailey-both players had chances but it was Goldby who took them when it mattered most to complete the 7-1 scoreline to keep Belmont A well in the title race.

Alrewas A kept their challenge going with a good 6-2 home win over Tutbury A. Karl Hancox was in tremendous form as he rolled in efforts of 30, 33 and 30 again against Steve Hathaway, who could only stand and admire. John Richardson kept his good form going by beating Chris Mabbutt in both. Tom Smith and Steve Mabbutt drew their two as did Lee Louch with Dave Mabbutt to leave the Legionnaires 6-2 winners and sat in 3rd place.
The best snooker of the evening was played at Swad Cons where the A side narrowly went down 5-3 to Ivanhoe A. Andy Grainger , for the home side, was in great form as he included a lovely 51 on the way to defeating Ian Rennocks. This , however, was nothing like the form Andy Marriott was in as he smashed in runs of 73, 55 and 51 against Paul Slater, who just didn’t have a look in for 2-2 at half time. Ant Moore got in on the break building stakes as he knocked in a 25 and a 47 against Simon Orpwood who did well to dig in for a share of the spoils and a half. The win for Ivnahoe was effectively sealed by Dan Blunn who had an effort of 32 as he got past the home side’s Simon Mansfield.
At the top, Burton Cons A made it 8 wins from 8 matches but only after another close fought game-this time winning 5-3 away at Tutbury B. The match was won in the first encounter between the two players hitherto top of the averages. In a tight match, Andy Thompson, for The Tutters, knocked in some cracking balls and on another night could have won but it was the all round match experience of Graham Stevens that saw him over the line for the win. On the other table, the home side’s Bill Stewart kept in front right the way down to the colours with Mike Buckland struggling to hang in there. This he did though until Bill missed the pink by some way only for it to go round the table and drop in the far corner to put him one up, Buckland played a little better in the second to always be in control and to come out with a draw. The Cons’ Jon Swift won his first against Alan Davies but Davies struck back to also seal a half in the second. Jan Pawlazycyk potted some lovely balls against Jon Fletcher to claim a draw in a game Fletcher will feel he should have won for the third draw and the narrow win for The Cons.
Burton Cons B drew for the third time in four matches as they continue to struggle to get a side out. Darren Coady was their only winner last week as he beat Adam Harrison of SDSC A 2-0. In reply for The Snooker Centre was Harry Farrell who had a lovely 47 as he beat Simon Shilton.The other two games were halves -Troy Randle with Henry Tomas and Simon Smith with Ben Davies. A draw was probably fair with both sides feeling they could have won.
The final match was between Newhall A and Spot On A. Everything was very tight before halfway with draws between Martin Hurdman and Ade Harper and then Callum Coleman and Tom Elliott. It continued that way after the break with another draw between Carl Glover and Andy Speirs. The snooker of the night though was played by Martin Hicks as he had a 42 on the way to defeating Mark Stirling to secure the extra winning bonus point and a 5-3 win.

In the PJM Fascias Division One, Rolleston A scored a good 6-2 win over SDSC C. Mark Press stopped the main chance of the Snooker Centre grabbing a win as he beat their talisman Andrew Bloor 2-0. Also scoring a double for The Rollers was Bobby Cliff over main league sponsor David Wain. The two matches between Tom Bassett and Brian Bloor and then Rich O’Dell and Garton Bloor were halved.
Ivanhoe C maintained their status as league leaders by virtue of a 5-3 success over SDSC B away from home. Mick Kirk was the man to do the damage as he beat Steve Ayre in both frames including a nice 29 effort. All three other matches were halved with the highlight being the 30 Daz Wilson knocked in against John Davis. Andy Goldingay , for the home side, was unable to keep his run of wins going as he drew one across with Steve Cockeram. Keith Tomlinson also halved his two with Gaz Dolman, leaving the Ashby boys three points clear at the top.
Two of the sides in the bottom three met at Ashby where Ivanhoe D avoided defeat for only the second time this season by drawing four all with Burton Cons C. Steve Castledine and Ian Shrive, for The Cons,  both had twenty something breaks but both could only draw with the home side’s Keith Bale and Ross Tredger.  Winners on the night were Greg Read for The Cons and Adam Briggs for Ivanhoe leaving it all square and both sides still in the relegation zone.
Alrewas B recorded their second 6-2 away win of the season at Ivanhoe against their B team. Ivanhoe’s Stu Tagg and Adam Walton fought out a close affair with a draw the fairest result. Walton by a stunning final long black in the first and Tagg a little more easily for the second. Greg Gallup took the first against Carl Poulton on a re-spotted black. Gallup rode his luck throughout but Poulton couldn’t take his chances and Gallup struck a superb long black to win it. In the second Poulton got on top with a 29 and whilst Gallup fought back bravely couldn’t close the gap. An in form Ian Hiley made short work of Ivanhoe’s Nick Sewell. Sewell did pot excellently but was unable to string those pots together. Hiley did, with a 31 a couple of 20s and some other good breaks to ease to a 2-0 win. Dave Trueman was still looking for his first 2-0 of the season and it came as some surprise to do it against an in form Brendon Mattley. Trueman potted excellently in both frames and Mattley missed some balls he would take in an usual week. Whilst the second frame also went to a re-spotted black it was probably about right that Trueman took it – let’s hope that kick starts his season.
The Stapenhill Institute derby went the way of the A over the B by the narrowest 5-3 scoreline. Jason Spibey and Andy Gretton were the men to do the damage, both scoring wins against Greg Britton and John Sherriff respectively. Rob Kent did put two frames on the board for the B against Chris Sheldrake. The game between Simon Piechowicz and Steve Ford was shared , leaving Stapenhill A in third spot.
Spot On B lost for the third week on the trot-this time 6-2 at home to a rejuvenated Rolleston B outfit. Rob Tubey claimed a good draw against The Spots’ Trevor Heath whilst similar could be said for The Rollers’ Kev Norris against Tony Clements. The men to see Rolleston though were Rob Sanders and Lionel Lewis as they brushed aside John Hardy and Steve Gaunt.

In the Newton Fallowell Division Two,  Swad Cons B made it 5 without defeat as they triumphed over Rolleston C 6-2 at home. Gaz Ward and Aaron Doyle played out a very tactical match which Gaz just about got the better end of. Bob Birch and Mark Storr also had a very close game with a draw being about right. Kieran Dadley and Neil Cheadle also could not be separated leaving Andy Boam to continue his fine form with a good 2-0 win over Steve Atkin.
Burton Cons C went down 6-2 at home to SDSC D. Nick Harcombe maintained his 100% start to the season by beating the home side’s Jim Jennings 2-0-Nick had a 33 which could have been more as he turned down a straightforward pink in favour of a blue to get position on the next red, only to then miss. Bob McInulty was also on form as he beat Tom Egginton. Saving graces for the Cons were from Al Munnien and Greg Hall who both managed a point each in their encounters with the Two Rays, Stretton and Bancroft.
The Woodville derby was won 6-2 by The A over The B to provide the A with their first league win of the season. At the start though it was “Deadly” Denis Moore who got the B off to a cracking start beating Billy Bob Brooks in both although Billy did have a chance in the second frame. Dazzling Daz Scott played his best snooker of the season and claimed both against Mark Gallagher who was not able to play his normal attacking game. Scott’s safety play was excellent throughout and this, I’m told, should give the Worriers’ Academy players a great deal of confidence. Tony Coleman took both frames on the blue against an unlucky B team’s Gary Green to put the A 4-2 ahead.  the deciding match was between Pat “Silver Fox” Ryan and “Gentleman” Jim Marcer. The first Pat took quite comfortably but in the second Jim was 28 in front on the brown only to unluckily foul the black, leaving Pat to clear up for the win.
Belmont D provided one of the shocks of the week as they ran out 5-3 winners against Swad Cons C. Belmont’s Arron Vaughan, floating, played Jordan Watts and the Cons man played a couple of wrong shots at the wrong time, leaving enough chances for Arron to take full advantage and win both frames. Kyle Cope started the better against Andy Biggadike but Andy stayed with him to steal the first. In the second Andy frustrated his opponent to end up scoring the double. Jared Cronje got The Cons back in the match after flying out of the blocks against Ian Gibson with a couple of twenty plus efforts right at the start. Ian fought well but just couldn’t get back close enough. Colin Cope won the first against Tom Holland but Tom stuck at it and ground out a draw to leave the score perhaps fair, although a couple could have gone either way.
Spot On E had a cracking match against Belmont C and came out on top 6-2. Luke Allsopp ran away with his first against Terry Bosworth but the Belmont man countered and rolled in a nice 34 as he forced the draw.Marvin Walker found form at last and won his first double of the season against Graeme Drayton. The two Daves, Goldsmith and Press both played well but it was Goldsmith who came out on top helped by a 20 for The Spots. The match between James Bailey for The Spots and Belmont’s Brian Cutting could have gone either way. Brian’s long potting was unreal and James’ swerve round the black to pot the pink was deserving of winning any frame.
The Snookerettes had an off night as they went down by a whitewash for a rampant Tutbury D victory. Colin Bell, Dave Brady, Jeff Siddalls and Paul Atterbury all had too much for the ladies on this occasion, leaving The Tutters top after 8 games.