1st Division…
The Marshside Mob flexed their potting arms once again this week as Fleetwood Hesketh beat the visiting Tarleton B team 4-2 with breaks a plenty coming from both teams on the night. Both of the opening two frames produced magnificent breaks, Martin Brown breaking down on 82, a missed green costing him the chance of potentially adding to the 109 break he made back in 2014, Richard Gaskell the first to congratulate him on his 94-36 win. And for the second time this season Jon Holmes produced the goods against Tarleton B, the 51 break he put past Jason Ledley to beat him 85-58 coming a little short of the 82 break he had at Tarleton back in mid-January. For a change it was a Fleetwood player that would be on the end of a decent break, Dean Oliver watching on as Anthony Biltcliffe beat him 28-79, a break of 30 doing the damage there. Gareth Hibbott chipped in with a much needed break of 30 to beat Dale Roberts on the final black 87-84 in the end. Andy Booth made all the running in his 76-22 demolition win over Chris Bury, Ste Crane losing out on the final colours to Sean Bynoe 42-57 but safe in the knowledge that 2 points taken from the last 12 will seal Fleetwood their 9th Southport League title.

Scarisbrick E took advantage of second placed Tarleton A’s free week to sit three points back of them in the able after completing a 5-1 thrashing of the luckless Birkdale Cons A team. Having drawn their previous two encounters this season, it started off in the same vein as Sean Catterall lost out 42-60 to Phil Fitzgerald, Chris Connelly beating Aiden Quinn 81-73, the break of 35 by Chris nearly cancelling out the 45 handicap he had to give to his opponent from the start. Danny Mycek chipped in with a break of 22 to easily beat Colin Staffor 70-27, John Mycek taking the final colours away from Mark Horan to secure a 61-42 win putting Scarisbrick 3-1 up. That two frame lead would soon become four as the home side took the next two frames and help Scarisbrick record a fifth home win of the season. Martin Forshaw gained his 13th win of the season when beating Mick Mills 60-46, and probably secured his Top Dog status in the team for the rest of the season, Luke Marshall completing the rout with his own 65-44 win over Paul Shawcross.

The Birkdale Cons D team and Banks A played out a 3-3 draw this week to consolidate their mid-table position in the league, safe in the knowledge that they will be back in the 1st division next season. One of the opening frames saw two players who may or not be playing in the league next season for varying reasons, Andy O’Hara helping out Birkdale for now losing 25-62 to Connor Ormerod who’s taken to playing pool more than snooker recently. One player who will be back will be Kev Smith who in beating Alan Johnson 63-34 brought up his twelfth win of the season. Gav Robinson showing once again he really shouldn’t be off +25 in the handicaps when beating Lee Holmes 77-30, Dave Blease losing out on the final colours 42-52 to Mark Rollins who completed a hat-trick of wins over the Birkdale side this season. Not a classic, but they all count, Martin Sephton beat Ste Collier 32-41, John Rimmer making his 75-50 win over Neil Ormerod very memorable, being it was his 15th of the season.

The Our Lady’s A team registered only their second home win of the season when they turned over the visiting Churchtown Cons A team 4-2, coming their 5-1 win over Scarisbrick E some five weeks ago. Despite chipping in with a break of 20, Matty Pollock would not have been happy to lose a final black ball frame 50-49 to Les Prescott, as Nobby Lee beat a very out of sorts Dean Bond 44-18 to see a share of the opening frames. The middle two frames brought more of the same, both sides taking a frame off each other, Drake Crook sentenced to a 39-61 defeat to James Shaw who had a quickfire break of 20 in the frame, Dan Foley getting the better of Craig Rice on the final colours to take it 59-49 in the end. The Formby Lads have had some dark, home day results this season, eight of their fourteen losses this season coming at the Guild, but the night had a bright finish to it after both Ian Bates and Keith Price secured two vital wins at the end of the night. Ian got Mick Coxon back for beating him back in late January with his own 60-31 victory, Keith handing Rob Melling another close call loss when taking it 66-40 in the end sending the Formby lads into Rapture no doubt…!!

2nd Division…
Ok, stick with me on this, as it’s going to be fun to explain…!! Our current 2nd Division leaders are the S & B Cricket team who sit just 2 points ahead of Scarisbrick D, the 4-2 defeat away to Bretherton A this week spinning them a right ole googly in trying to secure the title. And don’t forget, they do not play the last match of the season being it is their free week. Scarisbrick D closed the gap a little with their own 4-2 win over a Les Dodd’s A team who now look doomed to finish up with the wooden spoon this season. Scarisbrick play Banks B next before and a potential title deciding last match of the season trip to play the Old Golf Links lads. Now the Links lads, who once looked like they were going to storm the division earlier on this year have flattered to deceive recently, their latest 4-2 win over the trending Churchtown Cons B team was their first win in four leaving them some 3 points back from the Cricket lads. Completing the list of teams who could potentially win any silverware come a fortnights time leaves us with the Scarisbrick A who will need a lot of things to go their way being that next week they will pick up no points at all as it is their free week this week…!! Got that…?? Yeah, clear as mud isn’t it..!!

The 4-2 defeat that the Cricket lads had against the Bretherton A side might have come as a shock to them being that they already had beaten them twice already this season, John Leak beating James Payne 51-39 helped along with a break of 20, Chris Wignall stumped when Dave Green completed a fantastic 72-16 win against him. But the match swung the way of the home side after Ed Moulton beat Paul Parker 55-8, Alan Green securing a final colour 56-42 win over Lewis Thornley. When Alan Venables beat Pete Bromley 66-46 the match had gone for the S & B side, so the 68-51 win for Russ Thornley over Simon Moulton could be huge come April the 3rd…!!

Coupled with the defeat to the leaders and the 4-2 win over the Les Dodd’s A team meant that the Scarisbrick D team have a realistic chance of gaining promotion and more importantly becoming a title winning side. Steve McClusky gave us all a blast from the past when he smashed Jack Wilby 83-17, Martin Calvert unable to keep in touch with Martin Wood, going down 40-68 in the end. These final black ball wins all add up come the end of the season, a fact that Phil Gaskell will remember if things go their way after he completed a narrow 57-53 win over Chris Alker. Matt Williams dispensing with the black ball formalities with a 89-53 win over Alex Fairley, a break of 28 being his highlight. Andy Linaker brought up his tenth win of the season when beating Alec Davies74-36, Tony Halliwell beating Dennis Woodward 50-40 to give some hope to his mob that finishing bottom might not happen.

The match up between Churchtown Cons B and the Scarisbrick A had implications at both end of the table as the Con club look to finish anywhere but rock bottom in the table, Scarisbrick looking to climb to the top in their challenge. Paul Conor needed snookers by the time the colours came around, losing out 28-49 to Ian Tinsley, Colin Tennant involve in another close call frame yet again, Dennis Glover nicking it on the final black 58-57 in the end. Gary Hudson had a relatively easy 57-15 win over Ron Calder, as George Wright took all of the final colours in one go to beat Dave Oakes 97-68, Churchtown fighting back to square things up 2-apiece now. The last two frames were a bit one sided as Jamie Barton lost out to Chris Starkie 38-78, Mark Kitchen serving it up to Mark Winkley to smash him 80-18, his best return at home this season.

Banks B beat the visiting Fleetwood Hesketh B team 4-2 this week to bring up their tenth win of the season, a great achievement after they gained promotion from the 3rd division last year. A close fought battel between Chris Powell and John Gearie went the way of the Hesketh player 63-56 in the end, Andy Hardisty beating the one time Top Dog at Banks, Andy Bridge 79-30, a break of 28 helping things along nicely for the B team captain. The middle two pairings were both settled on the final colours, Gary Wilkinson, fresh from winning the JJ Birch Cup this week snatched a 49-41 win over Danny Clegg, Andrei Le Roi beating Neil Rimmer in similar fashion 64-56 to help put the Banks lads 3-1 up. That tenth win of the season came after Tom O’Malley beat Chris Ashcroft 62-36, Graham Melvin coming up short when taking on Al Sutton, doing down 32-78 in the end.

3rd Division…
The Churchtown Cons C team are only a few points away from securing the 3rd Division title but they were given a right ole scare by club rivals the Churchtown Cons D team, snatching a 3-3 draw away from a potential heavy loss to keep them five points clear of the rest of the pack with only three weeks of the season remaining. If it’s entertainment you want then look no further than the star makers Trevor Ford and Dave Quinn who got the ball rolling in some style to put the D team 2-0 up from the off. Trevor got the better of Peter Parkinson 65-51 to cement his position as Top Dog in the team rankings, this being his 16th win of the season. And in beating Tony Baldwin 59-47, Dave Quinn now sits one win back on his mate on 15 wins for the season. Malcolm Green produced his best of the season in beating Mike Pickles 87-39, the break of 24 being his best break this season, Graham Marshall suffering for the second time this season to Russ Walsh, going down with a bit of a whimper 73-38 in the end. With the D team now holding all the cards, the C team had to show a bit of fight to get back into it, Adam Rothwell and Jason Aspinall doing just that in the end. Things could have been different had Al Graham not lost on the coin toss of a black ball game 50-56 to Adam, Jason sealing the come-back draw when beating Kenny-boy Atkins 56-42, keeping the C team in the driving seat for title honours.

Although the title isn’t a given yet, three other teams could quite easily catch Churchtown yet, but the 3-3 draw that the Birkdale Cons B team had with the Scarisbrick B team doesn’t help either side trying overturn that five point deficit. Phil Green was on the end of one of those going days for Wayne Cooper as his opponent rattled in breaks of 21 and 20 to beat him 72-54, Reg Dobson finding all of the thrust needed to beat Scott Burbidge on the final colours 48-37 to square things up from the off. That level pegging didn’t change after the next pairings cued off either, Geoff Tyas seemingly back on his game now beating Mick Hodge 63-14, Ian Lowery also in fine fettle as he dismantled John Stringfellow 77-34, and Desmond was back in the house. David Robinson would become Peter Simpson’s 15th victim this season after going down 33-45, Dave Winfield beating James Simpson 55-29 to see parity come the end of the night.

And for the Birkdale Cons C, not only are they in the hunt for getting their hands on some silverware come their way at the end of the season, but they might also finish above their Big Brother club rivals the B team too. The 4-2 win they gained by beating the British Rail A team this week places them third in the division, six back from top spot, but one point better off than Reg’s Rockets in fourth place. Liam Laing had no answer to John McGee in their match up, John taking it 54-26 helped along nicely with a fine break of 25 in the frame, Tony Smyth having to pull out all of the stops to beat John Hulse with a fantastic black ball 70-64 finish, The Railway lads couldn’t get enough steam up to stop the Birkdale pair of Chris Aughton and Paul Rimmer taking it away from them a little. Steve Rowell was handed a rare home defeat this season when Chris beat him 36-73, Peter ‘Pedro’ Wareing losing out to Paul on the final colours 40-50 to seal a 3-1 lead to the visiting Con club side. That all important win for the Con club came after Ted Coghlan scraped past John Moore on the final black 44-36, as Kyle Cromwell has already landed the final blow to Ian Tyson’s chances when beating 61-40 in the end.

The battle for the Wooden Spoon of the division is still in the balance after the Fleetwood Hesketh C team drew 3-apiece with the visiting Our Lady’s B team, three points covering these two sides and British Rail now. Stefan Whyte nicked a black ball 48-46 win away from Paul Conlan, Colin Coffey beating Andrew Marsh 51-23 to see the Marshside lads go 2-nil up from the off. The Fleetwood ads couldn’t press home that early advantage as both Dave Brown and Tony Gowland succumbed to their opposition. John Blackhurst brought up win number 10 for the season when beating Dave 47-30, Tony unable to keep in touch with Phillip Marsh, going down 35-56 in the end. Max Riley got the better of Mark Fazakerley to beat him 54-40, a similar finish to the frame between Bob Fairclough and Adan Conlan, the Our lady’s player taking it 53-44 to see honours shared on the night.



Chris Giil
Gen Sec.