WEEKLY UPDATE 4th FEBRUARY 2024

It's now looking as if this year's league title is Pudsey A's to lose, after they moved 7 points clear of the rest, with only two rounds of fixtures still to play. A valuable 5 - 0 win away to their nearest rivals, Deaf Centre B, coupled with a helping hand from Pudsey B - who beat another close challenger Deaf Centre A 4 - 1 - sees them on 37 points, with both Deaf Centre teams on 30, where they are joined by Princeville D, who also  had a 4-1 win against Princeville C

Things certainly seem to have gone Pudsey A's way at the Deaf Centre, as Peter and Ralph Allan won by two points each, before John Allan won by a more comfortable 23. Richard Bowes was back on Pudsey B's team sheet and got them off to a good start, beating Jeremy Dixon by 24 after breaks of 54, 41 and 35. Graham Tudor's poor run of form continued, as he lost to Ian Ford by 10, and so at 1 - 1 there was all to play for. Dave Howarth then beat Brian Robinson by 14 to give the visitors their first 4 - 1 win of the season. (Dave Howarth has posted a more detailed report on both games on our Facebook page). At Princeville Steve Gatenby beat Keith Tomlinson by 14 for the D team and Graham Bentley, for the C team, beat Mick Cockcroft by 27 - so again everything to play for in the last game. That was still the case when I arrived, with a little over 10 minutes still to play, and Paul Devitt and Chris Jarvis more or less level around the 70 mark. Successive runs of 27 and 52 from Chris however, swept up all the remaining points for Princeville D. In the other match at Princeville there were no close games on Tuesday, as Edward Lawson beat Peter Turner by 33, to secure the A team a point, and John Bedford responded with a 48 point win for the B team against Gareth Kershaw. The third game in this one was played on Friday afternoon, as the League Chairman was away on holiday until Thursday and came back looking a bit rusty (his billiards not his complexion!). I looked like having a comfortable win, until he 'found his shooting boots' at the end, to play out time with a nice break of 35 to reduce my margin of victory to 25. (Oh but for the bell!). So 4 - 1 to the B team

This coming week's fixtures see leaders Pudsey A at home to Princeville D, who are joint second, and Deaf Centre A visit Princeville A, with Deaf Centre B visiting now bottom of the table Princeville C. In the other match at Pudsey it's Pudsey B v Princeville B.

Littlemoor visited Princeville in the Pudsey League on Thursday and Ralph Allan kindly agreed to stay on and play Chris Jarvis in this league's Individual Billiards, as Chris is on holiday on the date it is due to be played. Dave Howarth's report on Facebook suggests that Chris played much as Tuesday, taking time to get going and then knocking in breaks of 30 plus and 59, to win 200-150. In the outstanding preliminary round game in this competition I will be playing Peter Wood on Friday evening this week (9th).

I don't know whether I've mentioned this before but Keith Whitham's funeral will be tomorrow Monday 5th February at Shay Grange at 12.45pm

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary