WEEKLY UPDATE 10 JANUARY 2026 (Part 1)

The first round of fixtures in 2026 were the reverse of those in the last round of 2025 and were all derby matches. The big beneficiaries of this scheduling have been Deaf Centre A, who took 7 of the 9 points available from their two matches against Deaf Centre B - and as a result have moved to the top of the league table - while the points in the other three clashes were all shared 5 - 4. Previous leaders Princeville A were one of the 4's, against Princeville C, who as a result remain 3rd one and a half points behind their opponents and 3 behind the new leaders.

This coming week it's third against first, as Deaf Centre A visit Princeville C, while Princeville A host Deaf Centre B, who have had a lean period recently and now sit next to the bottom.

The other 4 teams who also shared the points 5 - 4 are all within 3 and a half points of one another but there is now a gap of 5 and a half points between the best of them and the top three. This coming week, Pudsey B who are fourth, host 6th placed Princeville D, while Pudsey A who are 5th, entertain bottom of the table Princeville A

In the top of the table clash at Princeville, John Bedford and Michael Cookson of the C team, reversed pre Christmas defeats to Gareth Kershaw and Edward Lawson, before Chris Jarvis and Trevor Kershaw created almost a repeat of their pre Christmas encounter, with again Trevor getting well in front in the first half before Chris staged another mighty comeback. Unlike the previous occasion however Trevor was able to hold on for a narrow victory and a point for Princeville A. The match on the other table started with two quite stodgy low scoring games. Graham Bentley withstood a late comeback from Brian Haigh and Steve Gatenby, having caught Don Hardcastle with 15 minutes to go, ended up hanging on for a 5 point victory, so a point to each team at this stage. The last game was a complete contrast - a nice 55 break by Paul Devitt kept him well in front for most of the game, until I came back with 55 and 34 in quick succession, before Paul held on for a 13 point point win which left 6 points in the aggregate for the night and 21 for the aggregate over the two matches - a point apiece there