2019-20: Week 1

Defending champions Belmont A were first off the ranks with a win away at Alrewas B on a rare Tuesday night fixture in the newly sponsored PJM Fascias Premier Division. However they didn’t have it all their own way eventually winning 5-3.Only Mark Sherratt remains from the side that consistently played last year and he drew with Simon Tarrant of Alrewas. On form for the champions were Brett Bailey, who rolled in a lovely 45 on the way to defeating Loz Kennerson,and Mark Satchwell who had efforts of 40 and 36 in dispatching Steve Lane. Fran McInulty, making a welcome return to league snooker, showed a few signs of ring rustiness for Belmont as he was beaten by Steve Butterworth.

South Derbyshire Snooker Centre A started the season in excellent style with a 7-1 win over newly promoted Alrewas C. The scoreline doesn’t tell the full story with Pete Maguire taking a final black to win the first against Ian Hiley who showed his class to take the second. Ben Davies took both frames on the final black against Carl Poulton. Henry Tomas also took both against Micky Morris who should have had both but somehow let them get away – one after an in off on the final pink. Adam Harrison completed the rout taking both off Dave Trueman.

The side formerly known as Swad Cons A has relocated and become Burton Cons C and started their campaign with a hard fought 4-4 draw at Alrewas A. Top break on the night was made by Andy Grainger with a nice 45 but this only won him a half against a battling Tom Smith. Home team captain Karl Hancox won his customary two against Simon Mansfield including a well made 35. John Richardson knocked in a good 30 in his draw against Lee Wood, whilst Mark Hadley, for the visitors scored a double over Lee Louch to leave neither side with the extra winners’ point.

Burton Cons A started their season with a comfortable 6-2 victory over Tutbury B. Mick Simpkins, Jon Fletcher and Graham Stevens were all on
target respectively versus Dave Budworth, Alan Davies and Bill Stewart. Wayne Pereira played solidly to take both for the visitors against Owen Jones, who has returned to the club after a year at Belmont A.

Another Tutbury versus Burton Cons match took place at The Tutbury Club where Cons B were made to work hard for their 6-2 victory against Tutbury A. Mike Buckland took both against John Brentnall-both tight affairs in which Buckland ran away when down on the colours. Steve Mabbutt won his first in an hour and a half long match against Simon Smith who had look in position to take it before running out of position. The second was even tighter and went down to the pink and black which Steve took to force a respot. Simon eventually snicked in a thin cut after a bout of safety to snatch the half. Jon Swift won his first against an out of sorts Dave Mabbutt, who had been practising well but struggled on the night. Swifty was well in  front in the second but Dave doggedly kept at it to eventually steal a half.

Troy Randle began his season in fine style against Chris Mabbutt winning the first comfortably. Chris built up a healthy lead in the second but with two reds on, Troy cleared with a lovely 37 to leave the scoreline at 6-2 to the visitors.

Ivanhoe A put down a marker that they intend to have a good crack at regaining their title won two years ago by thumping their stablemates Ivanhoe B 7-1. Steve Cockeram was the only B player to register which he did against Ian Rennocks who had a lovely 42 in the frame he won. Making a return to the A was James Hastie and he had a 33 on the way to defeating George Cawkwell. Also in the winners enclosure were Dan Blunn and Ant Moore who saw off Gaz Dolman and Daz Wilson respectively.

Stapenhill B were one of two 7-1 winners on the opening day in the Newton Fallowell Division One. Greg Britton, Rob Kent and Simon Piechowicz were the men to the damage against Belmont C, who had been promoted from fifth spot the previous year in Div Two. Brian Cutting was the only Serviceman to score with a hard fought half versus John Sherriff.

Newhall A were the other side to start in rampant fashion and they clearly didn’t take too kindly to being relegated from the top flight last year. They strolled past newly promoted Spot On B 7-1 with wins for Nick Walker, Martin Hurdman and Martin Hicks. Top break of the evening was a lovely 33 by Callum Coleman but this only won him a share of the spoils with Luke Allsopp for the Spots.

Rolleston A scored an excellent 5-3 victory away at Burton Cons D. Tom Bassett showed he will be a danger man this term as he had three efforts over 21 with a top break of 46 in his match versus Bill Davidson. James Wilkinson also scored a double for The Rollers, whilst on target for the Cons was Greg Read who beat James Rowland. The battle of the captains was halved with Ian Shrive, for the Cons and Rich O’Dell both scoring a frame each.

Two sides that were both promoted at the end of last season, SDSC C and Tutbury C, played out perhaps unsurprisingly a 4-4 draw. It was the first match of the season where not only was the overall score a draw but so were all the individual battles. Nick Harcombe and Ian Day, Jezz White and Dave Brady, Ray Stretton and Jeff Siddalls and finally Ray Bancroft and Colin Bell were not to be separated.

The side that last year were Spot On B now turn out as Woodville A and they started with a 5-3 away win at Stapenhill A. Tony Clements was the man to make the difference on the night as he defeated Chris Meyrick. The other three matches were halved- Chris Sheldrake with Trevor Heath, Andy Gretton with John Hardy and Steve Brimely with Steve Gaunt, with a top contribution of 32 from Steve Brimely of the Institute.

Making a good start to this season’s campaign were SDSC B who went to Ivanhoe C and came away 6-2 victors. There were wins for Steve Ayre and Matt Keay whilst Chris Dewey halved with the home side’s Nick Sewell and Andy Goldingay drew with Josh Wright.

The Nicholas Humphreys Division Two season started with the season’s first whitewash – an 8-0 victory for the new Swad Cons A over newly formed Rolleston D. Gaz Ward, Andy Boam, Bob Birch and Jon Petcher all
had far too much in the tank for the Cons against the Rollers, who’ll want the season to start all over again this week.

A far tighter match took place in Ashby where Ivanhoe E, another new side drew four across with SDSC E., again new to the league. Both sides had one winner – Ross Tredger for Ivanhoe and Nathan Callton for the Snooker Centre, whilst there were draws in the games between Nathan Blood and Sam Peacock and then Jacob Moore and Wallace Webb.

Rolleston C didn’t really fare much better than the D going down 7-1 at home to Spot On C. Adam Edwards, Jared Cronje and Adam Bridges were the men to wreak havoc with only Neil Cheadle able to stem the tide by gaining a half with Jason Spiby.

David Wain was on form to score the only double of the night for SDSC D in their 5-3 victory over Ivanhoe D. Game of the evening was between Andy Bloor and Craig Siviter who both score high twenty contributions in their halved affair. There were two other draws between Andy Rice and Brain Lowrie and also Garton Bloor and Dean Marriott.

The Snookerettes have moved to Stapenhill D and started the season with a fine draw against Belmont D. Marie Bridges and Yvonne Lawrence were both in great form to score victories, especially Vonny having two 20 plus efforts. Andy Biggadike and Brett Craddock, in reply, were on the scoresheet for The Servicemen.

Another draw was played out at Woodville, where the B team drew with Stapenhill C. Jim Marcer and Paul Stewart shared theirs as did Terry Eyley and Neil Bourne. Tim Knopik was on form to score a double for the Institute whilst a reply was on hand from Denis Moore of Woodville who did likewise.