Honours Even but Unbeaten Record Falls
By Graham Clark

In this weeks matches of the Formby & District Snooker League, honours were even in the Les Dodd’s A and B derby but it saw the end of B team skipper Mark Hopgood’s unbeaten run.

Paddy Tyndall hit a 34 break in defeating Jamie Campbell while Dave Mills levelled matters with a narrow success over Dave Hartley. The next two frames were also shared with Graeme Booth and Dave Hagan both victorious. However it was the final two frames that provided the fireworks. Despite hitting a 40 break Dave Quinn lost on the Black to Frank Bradley and Mark Hopgood’s 24 break wasn’t enough to secure his unbeaten record against Andy Rae who, aided by a 28 break, ran out a 72-30 winner.

Phil Fitzgerald is now the only player to have played every game without defeat and he kept that going in Les Dodd’s C’s 6-0 whitewash of a 5 man Legion D side. Phil hit breaks of 30 & 21 in his 102-8 defeat of Eric McLean. Skipper Les Sullivan also impressed for the home side, notching up a 30 break en route to a 63-38 defeat of Alan Swift.

Con Club B had a 5-1 home win over the Brook Club. Mark Bellas (21 & 28) and Richard Bell (22 & 24) both won well for The Con’s while Phil Harbon produced an excellent potting display to dispatch Adam Maylor 68-7, chalking up a 35 break for good measure.

Con Club A secured a 4-2 away win at Legion B. In a tight match the visitors won 3 Black Ball games and are now back in the ‘Joe Rigby’ Handicap League picture.

Holy Trinity had an impressive 5-1 away win against Our Lady’s B. Luke Palethorpe with a 20 break and Colin Robertson stood out for the visitors while Tom Sanders fell agonisingly close to opening his account with a 40-35 defeat by Jason Francis.

The Final match of the week resulted in a 3-3 draw between Legion C and ‘Joe Rigby’ favourites Our Lady’s A. Jimmy Tristan was the star of the show as he emphatically ended the recent good run of Ray Lavelle, his 38 break did the damage on the way to a 79-3 victory. Our Lady’s led 3-1 at one stage but had to settle for the draw as Mike Radcliffe and George Howells both the won well for the Whitehouse Lane outfit.

Congratulations to Luke Palethorpe, Ray Lavelle, Richard Bell and Peter Bennett who all made it through to the Semi-Finals of the ‘Living Flames’ Handicap. The Finals night shall be held on Monday 10th April at a venue still to be decided.