Doddy's C Take Giant Stride Towards Title
By Graham Clark

In the latest matches of the Formby & District Snooker League, Les Dodd’s C have taken a giant step in the race for the title.

The Princes street outfit secured a 6-0 whitewash over Our Lady’s A at the Gild Hall, and struck a massive blow to the Our Lady’s teams ‘Handicap League’ bid in the process. In an entertaining contest all six frames were decided on the last colours, agonisingly for the Gild Hall men, their extreme efforts proved totally fruitless. Phil Fitzgerald notched up win number Twenty, aided by a 20 break. However the frame of the day saw Jimmy Tristan knock in a 30 break only to narrowly lose out to Will Jerram who scored runs of 22 & 26 himself. Les Dodd’s C are now eight points clear of their B team having played one more game.

The B team are still in touch after a 5-1 away victory at Con Club A. Breaks were once again the order of the day for the Southport based cue men with Paddy Tyndall (22 & 34), Dave Hagan (27 & 32) and Peter Tomlin (26) all in good form. Les’s B are also challenging strong for the ‘Joe Rigby’, taking full advantage of Our Lady’s unfortunate result.

Con Club B’s title challenge is on the rocks after luckily drawing 3-3 at Les Dodd’s A. They were soon on the back foot as Dave Mills and Andy Rae (47 break) both won. The next two frames were shared with wins for Graham Clark and Gary Flynn. Tom Wilson then soon went 38 clear and looked likely to seal his sides win. However Ritchie Bell clambered his way back to fortunately force a re-spotted Black. The first chance fell to Tom whose missed thin cut left the Black dangling over the pocket for Ritchie to gratefully dispatch. Peter Brown gave the visitors a draw with a 21 break and a 92-34 defeat of Dave Quinn.

Legion D continue to challenge for the Handicap League after a fine 6-0 win over Our Lady’s B. The Legion produced a steady display with Scott Kirby beating the experienced Phil Kershaw and a 20 break seeing Chris Wagstaff beat John Mooney.

Holy Trinity went four up on Legion B with James Holman winning a high scoring encounter against Gary Rimmer 58-54, only to see the visitors win the final frames through pairs partners Gordon Dale and Dave Rimmer.

The Final match saw the Brook Club beat the Ince Club 4-2, despite trailing 2-0 after Mike & Mark Pope had both won well. The home side fought back strongly to win the next four through Phil Harbon, Jack Jones, Karl Wall and Steve Hollinshead.