WEEKLY UPDATE 10th MARCH 2024 (amended 12 March)

This week was the first round of the Individual Billiards Merit competition, and all the results can be found on the Individual Merit and Pairs page - along with the results of two first round snooker matches which were played two weeks early.

Chris Jarvis and Ralph Allan got this round of billiards matches off to an early start back on 1st February, when Ralph, who was drawn at home, agreed to play at Princeville after a Pudsey League fixture there. Chris had an early break into the 30's and rounded off with 59 unfinished for a 200 -150 victory. Brian Robinson and Gareth Kershaw were also off the mark early, playing on Monday instead of Tuesday at the Deaf Centre. Brian has been in good form this season, so Gareth's win by 200-174 suggests he must have played pretty well. Brain Haigh must have done likewise at Princeville on Tuesday evening, beating Mick Cockcroft 200 - 131. Earlier in the day I played John Bedford at the same venue, in something of a marathon which took 90 minutes to complete. My break of 36 brought the scores more or less level after about 50 minutes, but with our scores only  around 120, there was still plenty of billiards to be played. There was never a lot in it after that and at 193 each, I played a speculative round the board canon, which scored and enabled me to sneak home first. The other four matches were all played at Pudsey on Tuesday evening but not, I suspect, at the same venue. Richard Bowes reports that he beat Ihjaz Hussain 200-192, with breaks of 35, 32 and 35 unfinished, while Dave Howarth reports the other scores, in which Jeremy Dixon beat Peter Allan, in a tight finish, 200 - 192, while there were two more comfortable home victories for  John Allan (200 -176 against Peter Turner) and Dave Howarth (200 - 160 against Ian Ford).

The draw had matched Dave Howarth and Ian Ford in the Snooker competition as well, so they stayed on to play that game as well, Ian exacting revenge by 2 frames to nil. The draw similarly matched Brain Robinson and Gareth Kershaw in both competitions, and they also stayed on  to to play snooker on Monday night. The result there also went the opposite way to the billiards, with Brian winning 2 - 0

 The draw for the quarter finals will be made at a League Committee Meeting on Wednesday 27th March, with the Billiards scheduled be played on Tuesday 16th April.

This coming week is the Quarter Finals of the Play Offs, in which Deaf Centre B play Pudsey B and there's another derby fixture at Princeville where the D team are at home to the B team

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary