WEKLY UPDATE 25th JANUARY 2024

Pudsey A retained their place at the top of the table this week, with a narrow 3 - 2 home win, against in form Princeville A. The two Deaf Centre teams maintained their close interest in the title race, with 5 - 0 and 4 - 1 wins away to Princeville B and D respectively, and it was a bad night for Princeville all round, as Princeville C lost out 3 - 2 to Pudsey B, in their bottom of the table clash, with these two teams now propping up the table together.

Pudsey A's win could not have been tighter, the individual games finished with winning margins of 5. 9 and 1, while Princeville A, with the 'biggest winner' in Gareth Kershaw, secured the aggregate point on the night  - by 3 - but Pudsey A picked up the double aggregate after a 'massive win'  by 35 in the reverse fixture, when the individual games were separated by 4, 5 and 26. Fine margins.

There were no fine margins in Deaf Centre A's comprehensive 5  - 0 victory over Princeville B, but in the match on the other table, between third placed Princeville D and second placed Deaf Centre B, there was plenty to test the nerves. In the first game, Ihjaz Hussain started 80 in front of Chris Jarvis, and was a bit more than that in front for a significant period. Chris came back strongly in the later stages, including a break of 32, but was still 18 adrift at the bell. Mick Cockcroft got going early, with a break of 32 against Peter Wood, and despite a handicap deficit of 65 was level inside 20 minutes, when both scores were around 100. A big home win looked on the cards, but several excellent pots from Peter changed the flow of the game and when he made successive runs of 15 and 6 at the bell, the scoreboard showed him  in front by 181 to 180, with no time for Mick to reply. Peter O'Connell then proved to have too much for debutant Martyn Britton, as Deaf Centre B took all the points on the night, with Princeville D hanging on to the double aggregate point to prevent a whitewash.

In the other match at Pudsey, Dave Howarth took advantage of a wide difference in handicap, to beat Paul Devitt by 64, and despite wins for Brian Haigh and Keith Tomlinson, Princeville C could only claim 2 points to leave both teams level at the bottom of the table. At the top, and with 3 matches still to play, Pudsey A have 32 points, Deaf Centre B 30, and Deaf Centre A 29 while Princeville D on 26, seem to be seeing their challenge fading

This coming week, the league leaders visit second placed Deaf Centre B, while third placed Deaf Centre A entertain bottom of the table Pudsey B. Fourth placed Princeville D are at home to Princeville C, who share bottom spot with Pudsey B, while the other match, between Princeville A and B, will be spread over Tuesday and Friday, as the League Chairman currently away on holiday

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary

 WEEKLY UPDATE 20th JANUARY 2024

Pudsey A regained top spot this week, with a 4 - 1 win against Pudsey B, while last week's joint leaders Princeville D lost 5 - 0 to Princeville B. The Deaf Centre teams shared the points fairly evenly, 3 - 2 to the A team, so these two also remain in contention. Pudsey A are top with 29 points, followed by Deaf Centre B with 26, Princeville D with 25 and Deaf Centre A with 24. In this week's other match Princeville A beat Princeville C 4 - 1

Dave Howarth's comment on Facebook was that 'After being 30 behind at one stage, Sid Ash fought back well to save Pudsey B from a whitewash'.(It's also worth mentioning that this was against Peter Allan, who previously had had only two defeats in 9 games), John and Ralph Allan were comfortable winners for Pudsey A. At the Deaf Centre, a break of 45 from Jeremy Dixon appears to have been the highlight of the evening. He was the only winner for Deaf Centre A but they also picked up both aggregate points, as the Peters - O'Connell and Wood - both recorded victories for Deaf Centre B

At Princeville the balls ran very kindly all night for the B team, who had three winners against Princeville D whose luck, or lack of it, was summed up by Steve Gatenby knocking his tip off part way though the last game with Peter Turner, which he eventually lost by 3 points. On the other table Princeville A continued their excellent post Christmas form with a 4 - 1 victory over Princeville C, with wins for Trevor and Gareth Kershaw, while Keith Tomlinson picked up the C teams solitary point.

This coming week starts a run of fixtures where Princeville have one or more players unavailable, at least on the designated nights, and so reserves will be called into action. This week the B and D teams entertain title chasing Deaf Centre A and B respectively. Meanwhile Princeville A and C visit Pudsey, with the A team hoping to halt Pudsey A's gallop to the title, while in a basement clash between the bottom two, Pudsey B entertain Princeville C

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary 

 WEEKLY UPDATE 11TH JANUARY 2024

An early update this week and with it some sad news.

I've been advised that former Eastbrook player Keith Whitham died peacefully at home this morning - I'm guessing from his longstanding heart complaint. Keith was a friend of mine from school days, when we were in the same class at Grange. He later claimed that he learned to play billiards at Princeville during this period, but as far as I'm aware he never quite made the teams. His competitive billiards was played initially in the South Bradford league, for Lilycroft, and when he joined Eastbrook in 1995 his handicap was set at receive 50, but then it went up to 70 after his first season. From then on it was a long period of improvement until he plateaued at 20, before slipping slightly in his last few years. During Eastbrook's nomadic period to Gt Horton Cricket Club and then Gt Horton Conservative Club he was League Representative, captain  and main organiser of the team. It was in fact his deteriorating health, and not being allowed to drive, which contributed to him being unable to fulfil these roles and resulted in Eastbrook's withdrawal from the league early in the 2021/22 season.

It was Keith's request that Trevor Kershaw be asked to conduct his funeral service and I will give details once we have them.

On the table this week it was top versus bottom at Princeville where the C team pulled off something of a surprise, with a 4 - 1 win against Pudsey A, for only their third win of the season, one of which came against the same high flying opponents earlier in the season. On the other table, in a match between two teams at the wrong end of the table, Princeville A won for the second week in succession, beating Pudsey B 4 - 1. At the Deaf Centre it was second against joint third, but second placed Deaf Centre A were again missing Brian Robinson, who is on an extended Christmas holiday, and this enabled Princeville D to secure a 5 - 0 victory to join Pudsey A at the top of the table, while Deaf Centre B are a point behind them after a 4 - 1 home success against Princeville B

Keith Tomlinson got Princeville C off to a great start against the league leaders, beating Peter Allan by a single point and Brian Haigh followed up a big win in the Pudsey League on Thursday with another one, this time against Ralph Allan. John Allan secured Pudsey A's point with a 16 point victory over Paul Devitt. Trevor Kershaw got Princeville A off to a winning start, by defeating Richard Bowes, and Gareth Kershaw followed up a big win last week with another victory - this time against Dave Howarth. Pudsey B's point came from Graham Tudor who secured only a second win of the season - against Edward Lawson.

At the Deaf Centre, in a nip and tuck first game, Chris Jarvis just edged out Jeremy Dixon by 8 and Steve Gatenby then continued his good post Christmas form, beating reserve Neil Paul comfortably. In the early stages of he third game it looked as if Ian Ford might grab a point for Deaf Centre A, but Mick Cockcroft came back strongly in the later stages to complete a 5 - 0 whitewash. The first game on the other table saw Peter Turner making the most of his handicap advantage for the majority of the game against Peter O'Connell, but the home man came through at the end to win by 3. Peter Wood started well in front of John Bedford on handicap and never looked like being caught, as Deaf Centre B went 2 - 0 up. After a stodgy start from both players I was always chasing the game against Ihjaz Hussain, but a timely 37 break with a few minutes to go, got me to within 3 and then a few more at the next, and my last, visit ensured Princeville B didn't go home empty handed

This coming week is derby week, with Deaf Centre B and Pudsey A at home to their stablemates, while at Princeville it's B v D and C v A

I'm still having difficulty loading up more scorecards but I hope to have the Knock Out Competition, page updated shortly, although the competition was completed before this web site came on stream

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary  

 WEEKLY UPDATE 7th JANUARY 2024

In the second half of the season - which started this week - there is an extra aggregate point available  for the team with the highest aggregate over two fixtures played this season. At Pudsey the point went to this week's winners, in both instances, but at Princeville it was the teams who had won in the first half of the season who picked up the extra point.

In a top of the table clash between the joint leaders, Pudsey A defeated Deaf Centre A 4 - 1 and in doing so opened up a 3 point gap over their opponents. Deaf Centre B won the other match at Pudsey to move to within a point of their A team, and are now third, where they are joined by Princeville D who, after a good start, have picked up only 5 points from their last 3 fixtures (while Pudsey A have picked up 10).

John and Peter Allan had very convincing wins for Pudsey A, while Ian Ford beat Ralph Allan, by just 7, to pick up Deaf Centre A's only point. On the other table the games were closer, but with Peter Wood and Peter O'Connell winning by enough to secure both aggregate points for Deaf Centre B, after Ihjaz Hussain had lost only narrowly to Dave Howarth.

At Princeville, Steve Gatenby got the D team off to a flyer, beating Edward Lawson by 53, but Gareth Kershaw pulled all of them back, and more, beating an out of sorts Mick Cockcroft by 74. The match then stalled until Thursday, when Chris Jarvis returned from a New Year break to play Trevor Kershaw. A win by 35 for Trevor secured 3 points for the A team but a bigger win for the D team first time round, meant that they finished with 2. In the other match, between two teams in the bottom half of the table, John Bedford turned in a fine performance against Graham Bentley - who must have been wishing it was his week to not be available - as John racking up 217 points to win by 99. Neither Paul Devitt nor I were particularly pleased with our performances in the next game, but despite my break of 33 Paul won a low scoring encounter 105 to 67. As has often happened this season Peter Turner was just pipped at the post, this time by Keith Tomlinson, but John Bedford's fine performance meant a 3 - 2 overall win the for the B team, despite him being the only winner, while Princeville C remain rooted to the foot of the table.

This coming week leaders Pudsey A visit bottom of the table Princeville C, while on the other table Princeville A entertain Pudsey B, with both teams in the wrong half of the table. The matches at the Deaf Centre carry far more importance to the league table than that one, as second placed Deaf Centre A entertain Princeville D, who are joint third and Deaf Centre B who are also joint third, meet Princeville B

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary