1st Division…
The Fleetwood Hesketh A team secured their ninth Southport & District Snooker league title with a resounding 5-1 victory over the Banks A team, their third league title win from the last four seasons. It has had an inevitably about it from the moment they took over top spot in the table about 10 weeks back, a position that they have held for the duration since. Despite them hitting 15 wins, seven draws and only the one defeat this season, ironically coming against Banks back in week 8 of the season, the Marshside Mob have had to work for it, a challenge that they so obviously take to. This week’s challenge came from a Banks A side who have proved time and time again this season are a hard team to crack. Mark ‘You’re a Wizard Harry’ Rollins waved that magic stick of his to beat Martin Bown 85-22, Ben Purcell helpless in stopping Andy Booth from sinking the final black to lose out 76-69 and a share of the opening two frames. Martin Sephton lost out in a high scoring shoot-out with Dean Oliver 70-81, Dean thankful for a break of 32 in the frame, Jon Holmes bringing up his 15th win for the season with a close call 69-50 win over Alan Johnson, the title now a given being 3-1 up on the night. The main fireworks on the night came from the Marshside Maestro himself, Gareth Hibbott, who crafted a superb break of 81 to beat Lee Holmes, his best and highest league break away from Fleetwood this season. And if that wasn’t fantastic enough, Mike ‘Semi’ Roberts got to enjoy the high life once again, his 73-36 win over Neil Ormerod sealing a fantastic title winning night for the Hesketh lads.

The Tarleton A team may have relinquished their grip on defending their 2024 title crown to the Hesketh lads but would have taken a lot of satisfaction in beating their club rivals the Tarleton B team 4-2, thus reminding them who’s Boss at Carr Lane. The usual Derby Banter started early, both side feeling like it was to be their night before a ball had been struck. Sean Bynoe set off well against Sugar Ray Forshaw but couldn’t stay the course Sugar Ray taking hold to run out an easy 70-34 winner in end. I suspect that the banter will still be going on at Speedifix for a while after Dale Roberts beat his works boss Andy Bolton 82-57, Dale sinking the blue for frame before taking the remaining pink and black to flatter the score a bit. The chances given by both Pete Burns and Colin Boston to each other was crazy, settled by the only way it was going to end, on the final black, the 65-63 win going Pete’s way. The frame between the two Jason’s of Ledley and Swarbrick also saw both players miss more pots than they got, Swarbrick eventually sinking the final colours to take it 73-61 from Leadley. But in the end, it was the A Team who would walk away with the club honours, Marcus Jackson needing to sink the final black to beat Anthony Biltcliffe 63-30, Max Burns just unable to produce his recent heroics on the green baize losing out 30-56 to Andy Marsden in the end.

In claiming the last two frames on the night the Churchtown Cons A team got themselves out of a potentially bad situation to earn a hard fought 3-3 draw with the visiting Birkdale Cons D team. The opening two frames saw a low scoring scrappy affair go the way of Gav Robinson after he beat Craig Rice 66-36, Dean Bond snapping a very long winless streak to record an 80-51 win over John Rimmer. The middle two frames both went the way of the visitors as Trevor Wetton lost out to Ste Collier 58-71, James Shaw going down in similar fashion 62-74 to Dave Blease. Three-one down and in a whole load of trouble the Churchtown pair of Rob Melling and Les Prescott dug in to secure a very unlikely draw from the way the team have played recently. Rob needing to sink the final black to beat Kev Smith 61-60, Les beating James Barr in a scrappy frame 39-23 to salvage only the third drawn 3-3 score this season for the Con club.

Although the Birkdale Cons A beat the bottom placed Our Lady’s A team 4-2 this week, and places them just four points back of third placed Banks A, they are still languishing in second from bottom, and eighth place in the table. Phil Fitzgerald just missed out on reaching the century mark of points when smashing Nobby Lee 97-44, Mick Mills pitting Birkdale 2-0 up with his won 52-41 win over Matty Pollock. Captain Mark Horan won his first match in four when beating Keith Price 59-40, leaving Paul Shawcross struggling to remember his last frame win, sent down by Drake Crook 34-59, his sixth defeat on the bounce now. Not long to the golf season now Paul…!! With the Formby mob coming a player short, the win was guaranteed for the Birkdale side, but they missed out on recording their best home score of the season when Martin Deeney lost out 43-59 to Dan Foley.

2nd Division…
It’s going down to the last match of the season to find out who will be crowned the 2nd Division Champions, and if results go a certain way next week, we could have a three-way tie at the top of the table…!! The S & B Cricketers have now ended their innings, bowled out for 77 points, two clear of Scarisbrick D, four clear over the Old Golf Links lads, and next week we see the Golf lads play host to the Scarisbrick D team where a 4-2 home win puts the three sides all on 77 points. If that were to happen then the Cricketers would take the title due to most wins as the other two teams would only put ten wins to their name. That result would also mean that we would need a play-off to find out who finishes second, as both sides would have exacting results for the season.

The fact is, the S & B lads will finish in the top two places come what may, but not knowing which position it will be is going to mess with their heads as they have had enough opportunities to seal the 2nd division title recently. In playing the Churchtown Cons B team this week the Cricketers met a team who had their own reasons for not going down without a fight, finishing rock bottom and getting that Wooden Spoon slot is not in this teams make up. Paul Parker was gifted a load of foul points by Paul Connor in the frame but he still came up short losing out 52-71 in the end. Dave Green secured Top Dog status in the side, his 62-28 win over Jamie Barton being his sixteenth win of the season. James Payne was handed the 52-42 win by Colin Tennant who inadvertently went in-off the final black, George Wright squaring things back up, 2-apiece, with a very solid 70-49 win over Lewis Thornley. Churchtown would then take a frame lead in the match after Pete Bromley lost out 40-51 to Gary Hudson not helping himself by completely missing the final pink to gift the frame to his opponent, not that Gary minded. And not for the first time this season the S & B lads were grateful for Russ Thornley securing a point for his team, this one the most important one as it has got them a top two finish. If Russ had lost out to Mark Kitchen, then a 4-2 win for the Links lads next week would see them slip down to third place in the table…!! The fact that Russ took the frame 79-57 over Mark means that despite not knowing where they will finish up next week, it will be a top two finish.

Had the Scarisbrick D team made the most of going 3-1 up over the visiting Banks B team, and not come out if it with the resulting 3-3 draw, they would be in a much stronger position going into next week’s ‘Winner Takes All’ match with the Old Golf Links lads. It didn’t help that they had to borrow James Simpson from the C team to help fill a gap, James unable to get anywhere near to beating Gary Wilkinson, losing out 18-58 in the end. Matt Williams brought his A-game to the green baize once again this season, a break of 34 doing the damage in beating Andy Hardisty 74-44, a 17th league win, so securing the 2nd division Most Wins title as well. Phil Gaskell got the better of Tom O’Malley to beat him 55-36, Martin Wood making a season high break of 28 at just the right time to beat Chris Powell 60-13 and put the Bullen Lanes Lads 3-1 up. Dennis Woodward lost out on the final black to Kyle ‘Cheezy’ Prescott, which wouldn’t have helped his nerves, Andy Linaker unable to keep tabs with Johnny-boy Marquiss, going down 43-72 in the end, the draw leaving them with work still to do next week.

The Old Golf Links lads will be going into next week’s final match show down with Scarisbrick on the back of losing 4-2 to the visiting Les Dodd’s A team who recorded only their third away win of the season, the last one coming way back in late November. Ste Metcalfe just about got the better of Steve McClusky, taking it on the final colours 59-50, Tony Halliwell bringing up his 15th win of the season with his own 65-23 win over Paul Taylor. Not for the want of trying, Billy ‘The Whizz’ Evans was more of a zephyr than a whirlwind as he lost out 33-67 to Chris Alker, Alec Davies putting the Doddymen well in control of the match with a close 51-44 win over Paul Leddy. It’s a good job that Ally Iddon convincingly beat Alex Fairley 76-27 as the Links lads came up a player short, which in the context of where we are at in the season could proof to be very harmful come close of play next week…!!

The Fleetwood Hesketh B team fought back from going 3-1 down to the visiting Bretherton A team to secure a 3-3 draw matching what Bretherton did to them back in late October last year. John Gearie found it a going day for his potting arm, easing past John Leak with a fine 70-36 win, Al Sutton not on a going day it would seem, losing out meekly to Phil Iddon 13-55 in the end. Andy Reynolds lost out on the final black to Alal Greenwood 45-47, Larry Scholes just an observer to the potting skills of Ed Moulton, the Bretherton man gaining a superb 81-32 win a well taken break of 27 thrown in for good measure. Another player who found the pockets to be big and having no trouble in finding them was Neil Rimmer who racked up a huge 104-29 victory over Alan Venables. Leaving Chris Ashcroft the task of beating Simon Moulton so helping his side come out of the match with the draw, breaking a run of losing their last four matches at home recently.

3rd Division…
The Churchtown Cons C team are nearly there, their 4-2 win over the visiting Scarisbrick B team putting them some seven points clear of their closest challengers with only twelve points left to the season. For the third time this season Peter Parkinson took on Wayne Cooper, the Peter going 2-1 down in frames after Wayne completed a 67-43 win this time round, Ken Dumican just about getting the better of Scott Burbidge, taking it on the final colours 46-36 in the end. The 48-22 win Malcolm Green had over Mick Hodge meant he hit the ten wins for the season mark, Graham Marshall passing that mark months ago as he brought up his eighteenth win of the season with a black ball 54-48 win over Mark Johnson. Tony Baldwin showed his snooker skills off once again with an impressive 75-39 win over Ian Lowery, the highlight being the break of 25 he made. As Jason Aspinall found himself on the end of a rampant Peter Simpson going down 50-74 to his opponent.

We may know where the 3rd division title maybe heading but the race to see who finishes second to them isn’t as easy as that as the next four teams are covered by just the three points in the table, Birkdale C the current occupants of that position. The fact that the Con club had to comeback from 3-1 down to secure the 3-3 draw WITH Fleetwood Hesketh Cwon’t be lost to Churchtown B and Scarisbrick B, their two remaining opponents, as this Birkdale side usually finds itself involved in title winning fixtures this late into the season. For the second week running Saul Kemp has been on the losing side of the frame score, Bob Fairclough holding on long enough to beat his opponent 88-73, Max Riley having no trouble in beating John McGee 89-28 and Birkdale were up the creak with no paddle from the off. The fight back came from the potting arm of John Melvin who tore a strip out of Stefan Whyte to cruise to an impressive 96-62 win, Guy Riley keeping that two frame advantage for his side going for now with his own 70-35 win over Paul Rimmer. The final two for Birkdale stole the show and points for the Con club as John Hulse beat Colin Coffey 67-8, Chris Aughton having to work a little harder to beat Dave Brown, eventually taking it on the final colours 62-55, the break of 22 in the frame sealing it for Chris in the end.

The British Rail A team completed a 4-2 win over the visiting Birkdale Cons B team to put the brakes to the Rocket led side who are starting to run out of puff at the wrong time of the season. Full steam ahead for the Railway lads as they took both of the opening two frames, Kallum Graham rail-roading John Stringfellow to beat him 49-26, Tony Smyth pulling out all the stops to beat David Robinson, securing his 44-33 win on the final colours. Kyle Cromwell never left the station in his match up against Geoff Tyas, going down 22-52 in the end, as a stoked up Peter ‘Pedro Wareing pulled away from Dave Winfield and never looked back, running away with it to secure a 65-17 win. Steve Rowell lost out on the final black 60-53 to Norman Taylor, while Josh Moore put out the fire to ‘The Rocket’, Reg Dobson, beating him with a bit to spare 58-26 to secure their second 4-2 win over the Birkdale lads recently.

So you’re saying there’s a chance is there is what the Churchtown Cons D team must be thinking after they completed a 5-1 rout over the Our Lady’s B team to leave them just three points back of second placed Birkdale C now. The Formby Mob were given a right ole one-two in the opening frames of the night as Dave Quinn racked up his best return of the season when beating Jim Blackhurst 94-61, Andrew Marsh losing out52-69 to Trevor Ford. The hits kept on coming from the Con club lads as Ryan Walker got the runaround from Kenny Atkins to go down 30-43, Russ Walsh securing the 57-51 victory over Phillip Marsh on the final black. The night wasn’t a complete loss for the home side as Paul Conlon found his potting boots to beat Steve Mentha 73-31, Mike Pickles getting the better of Adam Conlon 44-56 to maybe, just maybe given themselves an outsider’s chance of snatching second spot in the table come a fortnights time.



Chris Giil
Gen Sec.