WEEKLY UPDATE 30 NOVEMBER 2025

With only two weeks to go to the half way stage of the season, the league table is beginning to take a very clear shape. This week, third place Princeville B defeated joint leaders Deaf Centre A, to leapfrog them into second place, with 14 points, while Deaf Centre A move down to third place with 13. Last week's other joint leaders leaders Princeville C are now league leaders in their own right after a 3 - 1 win over Deaf Centre B, but on 15 points they are only one point above Princeville A and two above Deaf Centre A, whom they play next. Deaf Centre B's defeat leaves them 5 behind the leaders and in mid table, where they are joined by the two Pudsey teams, both of whom had 3 - 1 home wins over Princeville D and Princeville B respectively. These two defeated Princeville teams now find themselves occupying the bottom two places in the table.

Deaf Centre B were inconvenienced by Richard Bowes absence, due to illness, and with reserve Gerry Garland in Spain, Ihjaz Hussain was obliged to play twice - with contrasting fortunes. Princeville C captain Chris Jarvis had a 50 break, but it was not enough to secure him a win. I am indebted to him for the following report as he was similarly indebted to his two teammates who secured the team a 3-1 win

A brief resumé of yesterday evening’s events: (An interesting evening where we once again “escaped" with a 3-1 win).  
On arrival Brian Robinson reported that the Deaf B team were a man down due to Richard Bowes being unfit to play. Ihjaz being the first B team member to arrive, I had no alternative but to play him against John Bedford who obviously wanted to play and start his long journey home to darkest Normanton. For Ihjaz the evening turned out to be a case of famine and feast on the good fortune front. John played steadily and increased his handicap advantage early on. Ihjaz struggled with the table, had very little of the running and missed a few shots that I would have expected him to get. John ran out a comfortable winner, his  contribution ensuring that the C team would later take the aggregate point. Michael Cookson and Peter O'Connell went on second. Michael kept his cool to take a win in what turned out to be a very close game. In the final game of our match Ihjaz’s fortunes changed somewhat.  He steadily built a commanding lead with the help of some good fortune, and frequently managed to leave me little or nothing to go at. With just over ten minutes to go I started a break which had a fluke very early on which I managed to take to 50 with the help of a string of losing hazards off the red. This brought me to within 13 of Ihjaz, who then proceeded to make another break into the high teens and he eventually ran out the winner by 34.

 Princeville A captain Trevor Kershaw held off a late charge from Jeremy Dixon to win by 2 points, against his previously inbeaten opponent, and a big win for Gareth Kershaw was enough to compensate for Edward Lawson missing out against Ian Ford and secure the home side a 3 - 1 win

At Pudsey, Princeville B were off to good start, against Pudsey B, as Graham Bentley recorded a 44 point victory over Graham Tudor, but Sid Ash and Dave Howarth proved too good for Peter Turner and myself as Pudsey B ended up with a comfortable 3 - 1 victory. For Princeville D, Paul Devitt made an early 48 break, and then defended it well against John Allan, but it was small consolation for the visitors, after Ralph Allan's late arrival had forced an order change, with Peter Allan beating Brian Haigh in the opening game and Ralph proving far too good good for Princeville newcomer David Walker in the second, as he racked up a score of 239.

This coming week Pudsey will be visiting Princeville where their A team will play Princeville B and the B team Princeville D. The Deaf Centre will be hosting the other two Princeville teams, when their A team will play league leaders Princeville C (third v first) and Deaf Centre B will play Princeville A (fourth v second)

At last Wednesdays League Committee Meeting, Princeville registered Leeds based player Simon Coyne, who will be available as an occasional reserve, off a handicap of Rec 50. Draws were made for the Individual and Pairs competitions. These can be found on the |Merit and Pairs page. In a strange twist of fate John Bedford was drawn to play in the only preliminary round game in Pairs competition for the second year in succession, while in a more welcome outcome, in both the Individual Billiards and Snooker competitions there were no instances of players from the same venue being drawn to play one another

Stephen Kershaw

Secretary