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