Report submitted by Stourbridge Snooker League

Stourbridge & District Snooker League Report 7-8 March 2018

Premier Division results: Pockets SC A 3 (G.Smith 28, T.Pepperall, L.Page 55) Pockets SC B 2 (J.Shuck, G.Ward 28, 36) Townsend Social 2 (D.Petch, D.Thompson) Hotshots SC B 3 (L.Garland, D.Hartley, P.Caldeira) Norton Social A 3 (R.Pitt 33, S.Mason, A.Smith) Baggeridge Social 2 (D.Whale, L.Whale) Hotshots SC A 4 (R.Stokes, C.Downing 57, B.Sembi, M.Krstanovic) Kinver Const A 1 (K.Rollinson) St John’s Social 1 (S.Thomas 47) West Mids Police 4 (G.Sloan, E.Bastable 34, M.Catalano, M.Sheehan) Amblecote Inst A bye

First Division results: Moor Pool & Snooker 2 (N.Gennard, P.Taylor) S/b Old Edwardians 3 (G.Dunn, C.Cowley, D.Woodall) Kinver Const B 1 (L.Cross) Stourbridge Inst A 4 (N.Aston, A.Aston 27, A.Cope, P.Garbett) Amblecote Inst B 3 (A.Moore, M.Cook 31, M.Colbourne) Kingswinford Cons C 2 (W.Whitmore, A.Coley) Wombourne 3 (J.Wooldridge, D.Flavell, J.Perry) Kingswinford Cons B 2 (D.Reece, A.Brown) Kingswinford Cons A 1 (J.Rees) Norton Social B 4 (P.Bowen 21. 23 C.Webb, L.Grosvenor 23, J.Davies) Stourbridge Inst B 2 (C.Green, S.Tyler) Amblecote RBL B 3 (B.Ball, J.Ball, Steve Ball)

Second Division results: Stourbridge Inst C 1 (A.Jeffries) Kingswinford SC 4 (S.Ballinger, J.Westwood, J.Salisbury, P.Curry) Kinver Const C 4 (N.Jennings, C.Randle, A.Sloan, S.Spruce) Amblecote Inst D 1 (R.Brookes) Kingswinford SC 3 (J.Salisbury, J.Westwood, S.Ballinger 25) Stourbridge Inst D 2 (R.Peplow, B.Harris) Stourbridge Inst C 2 (B.Taylor, A.Simmonds 26) Bahia’s SC 3 (M.Redfern, C.Whitehouse, K.Weaver) Amblecote Inst C 3 (R.McManus, Colin Homer 22, M.Skidmore) Amblecote RBL A 2 (M.Mantom, S.Norton)

Worcester Inter-League Over 40s, at Stourbridge Institute: Stourbridge A 4 (M.Sheehan, D.Oakes, C.Cowley, K.Franklin 57) Kidderminster 1 (R.Pepperall) At Pershore: Evesham 2 (T.Baylis, D.Powell) Stourbridge B 3 (S.Mason 49, A.Kidd, A.Davies)

Premier Division report: The top two teams in the Premier Division both recorded 4-1 victories and they are level on points with one match left to play…against each other! Defending champions, West Midlands Police lost the opening frame at St John’s Social, Kev Franklin beaten by Simon Thomas, who had a break of 47, but they secured the next 4 frames through Gavin Sloan, Eliott Bastable, despite his opponent Tim Steele’s 38 break, Maria Catalano & Mark Sheehan, who took the pink to beat Nick Carson.

Hotshots SC A defeated Kinver Const A at home by the same scoreline thanks to Roy Stokes, Callum Downing, who had a break of 57, Bal Sembi & Milan Krstanovic, but Keith Rollinson struck back for the visitors with a good win against Dave Green. The Police have home advantage in the last match, as they bid to retain the championship for the second time.

Townsend Social, who have also enjoyed a successful season, cannot be caught for third place, despite slipping to a 3-2 defeat at home to Hotshots SC B. Since losing their first match of the season at home, they had won every match on their own tables, until Luke Garland, Dan Hartley, who beat Karl Ashmore, and Paul Caldeira, who took the decider on the black against Darrell Payne, created this surprising result; Dan Petch and Dave Thompson won for Townsend.

Pockets SC A and Norton Social A are having their own battle for 4th spot and are level on points after both teams won at home 3-2. Norton beat Baggeridge Social 3-2, through Rob Pitt, Steve Mason & Andy Smith, although the visitors deserve credit with Dave Whale and his son, Luke, taking a frame each. Meanwhile Pockets A beat their B team with Gary Smith, Tom Pepperall who cleared the colours to pip Alan Turner, and Lee Page, with a fine 55 break, racing into a 3-0 lead before Jay Shuck and Gareth Ward, in particularly impressive form with successive visits of 28 and 36 hit back.

First Division report: Stourbridge Institute A, who had required only two frames out of their last two matches, achieved that target in style away to Kinver Constitutional B when Nick Aston inflicted only the second defeat on Adam Sprague, and Ashley Aston, his son, won the first two frames. Les Cross did well to beat Steve Howell, despite the latter’s 37 break, but the Institute went on to win the match 4-1 courtesy of Alan Cope, who has hit peak form just at the right time, and Paul Garbett, remarkably consistent with his 20th win in 21 frames. Marshalled by Martin Harris, the Institute went to the top of the league with a 5-0 success over their closest rivals, Norton Social B, in the midst of a 15 match winning run, but they would have given thought to their former team-mate, Richard Rudge, who lost his battle against cancer just a few days before this title clincher.

Norton Social B won a hard-fought battle at Kingswinford Cons A 4-1, thanks to Paul Bowen, Carl Webb, and Joe Davies, who all had little to spare, and Luke Grosvenor, before John Rees hit back for the hosts, and, because Old Edwardians did them a favour by beating Moor Pool & Snooker 3-2, Norton, who were league leaders for most of the season, only need one frame from their final match to guarantee promotion, a fitting reward for the team’s consistency.

Moor Pool & Snooker’s home form has been most impressive, their only defeat coming at the cues of the eventual champions, but they were undone by Old Edwardians’ Gavin Dunn, Chris Cowley & Dave Woodall who had a great win against Ian Priest in the deciding frame. Neil Gennard and Paul Taylor won for Moor P & S, but both had to take black to win.

Amblecote Institute B and Kingswinford Cons C had been in a tie for 4th place, but the Institute just edged ahead of the Cons thanks to Mark Colbourne’s black ball decider against Simon Spittle, and Wombourne eased past Kingswinford’s B team 3-2 through John Wooldridge, Dave Flavell and Jon Perry.

It has been a difficult season for Stourbridge Inst B and Amblecote RBL B, who will occupy the bottom two positions, although both teams lost experienced players from their squads; the Legion came out on top in their clash thanks to Steve Ball and his sons, Brett and Jack, with Carl Green and Simon Tyler replying for the Institute.

Second Division report: Bahia’s Snooker Club were restricted to a 3-2 win on the tables of Stourbridge Inst C, and their lead at the top of the Second Division was trimmed to 4 points by Kinver Constitutional C who did well to beat Amblecote Inst D 4-1. Chris Whitehouse, Karl Weaver & Matt Redfern, who defeated the long-time leader in the race for most wins, Sam Mattocks, won for Bahia’s, with Brian Taylor, a respotted black winner against Jordan Macdivitt, and his daughter, Adele Simmonds, producing a season’s best performance in defeating Reece Bahia, taking a frame each for the hosts. Reece’s 11 frame winning run had enabled him to take the lead in the “most wins” list but now he will have to share that honour with two others, including his colleague, Matt Redfern, who has won all 16 frames since returning to the team in October.

Kinver were given a fine start by Norman Jennings who beat the prolific Adam Kensett, and Chris Randle, Andy Sloan & Steve Spruce made it 4-0 against Amblecote Inst D before Rich Brookes hit back against Arnie Tromans. A 3-2 win in their final match against Amblecote’s C team, a match postponed because of the recent snow, would take Kinver level on points with Bahia’s, who have finished their league programme, and a bigger victory would take the title outright, but, whatever the outcome, both teams can be proud of their achievements throughout the season.

Kingswinford SC finished their campaign well, with a 4-1 success in the rearranged match at Stourbridge Inst C, where Paul Curry played particularly well to beat Sam Mattocks, and then they beat the Institute’s D team 3-2, a result which enabled them to finish joint third, with Amblecote Inst D. As it happened, another win for Paul Curry would have given him the honour of most wins, but he was beaten on the black by Brett Harris, so he’ll have to settle for a one-third share with Messers Reece and Redfern.

Amblecote Inst C beat their neighbours, Amblecote RBL A 3-2 with Roger McManus, Colin Homer and Mitch Skidmore combining to good effect. Both teams have a rearranged match to play.

Worcester Inter-League Over 40s: Defending champions, Stourbridge A, got off to a fine start in their group with a 4-1 success at home to Kidderminster. Despite Rich Pepperall giving the visitors the opening frame against Pete Gibbons, Mark Sheehan, David Oakes, Chris Cowley and Kev Franklin, with a break of 57, gave them an important victory in this group of 3, with Worcester the other team.

Meanwhile at Pershore, Stourbridge B completed their final group match against Evesham, with Steve Mason giving them a boost with a break of 49 to pull clear of county champion, Carl Saidler. Tony Kidd won narrowly against Neil Parker to make it 2-0, and Tony Davies made the match safe with a comfortable win against Joe Cockerton. Evesham countered when Tony Baylis laid a difficult snooker on the pink against Graham Tomkins enabling him to recover from 10 points adrift to win by 21, and Dean Powell then cleared the colours to defeat the Stourbridge captain, Rob Pitt.

Stourbridge B lead the group with 11 points; Dudley require six frames from their two matches against Evesham to qualify, whereas Evesham would need to win eight of those frames to have a chance of qualification.