Silver lining for Baggeridge in a fine debut campaign

Darren Oakes, Dave Hall, Maria Catalano and Eliott Bastable hit form to see them to a comfortable 4-1 win at St John’s Social to secure second spot behind champions Townsend Social.

Last season’s champions Hotshots SC beat Norton Social B 5-0, but they had to settle for a share of third place.

Mark Sutton made a break of 93 while Bal Sembi rolled in a 71.

Pockets SC A trailed 2-0 at home to the West Mids Police before Gary Smith, Rich Pepperall and Lee Page hit back to take the match which enabled them to join Hotshots in third place, just six points off the top.

Norton Social A have lost only once in the second half of the season and this fine run of form culminated in a narrow win against league champions, Townsend Social.

Neil Rollinson and Tony Davies for Norton and Dave Thompson, and his brother, Phil, who had a good break of 70, for Townsend, set up the decider between Norton’s Andy Smith and Karl Ashmore who were tying for the most wins accolade.

With a well-laid snooker after an early break of 29, Smith took the frame with a break of 42. Ashmore will have to be content with the league title, plus the highest break of 137 made last month!

Norton secured a share of 5th place with Amblecote Institute A, who ended their campaign with a 4-1 result at home to Pockets SC B. Rob Clark made a break of 47, while Gareth Ward salvaged a point for their opponents, and there was a fine finish to the season for last year’s First Division champions, Stourbridge Institute A, who have acquitted themselves really well in the top flight, with Ashley Aston making a break of 77, and Paul Garbett, Nick Aston and Chris Crumpton completing a 4-1 win against cup finalists, Brandhall Labour.

Kingswinford Cons C maintained their seven-point advantage at the top of the First Division with a 3-2 win at Wombourne, thanks to Wayne Whitmore, John Cartwright and Bob Guise.

Kinver Constitutional A strengthened their grip on at least the runners-up position with a 3-2 win at Bearwood Cons.

Paul Churchman, Jim Woodhouse and Keith Rollinson did just doing enough to open up a four-point margin over third-placed Bearwood, who have a match in hand over the top two teams.

Fourth-placed Baggeridge Social B had a bye, but the two teams just below them failed to capitalize as both slipped to 3-2 defeats, Kinver B losing at Kingswinford Cons B while Moor Pool and Snooker lost at home to Bahia’s SC A.

Kinver’s C team lost 4-1 at home to Amblecote Institute B with the visitors’ Mick Cook having breaks of 22 and 41, while Stourbridge Old Edwardians A pulled 11 points clear of the relegation zone with a 4-1 win at home to Kingswinford Cons A to end a run of three defeats.

In the Second Division Team KO Cup, Bahia’s SC B had a 32-point start at home to Amblecote RBL and increased that advantage with a string of narrow victories.

In the semi-final, Bahia’s will face Old Edwardians B, who had to concede 60 points at home to Stourbridge Institute D.

In an otherwise tight match, Old Eds were indebted to Brett Ball’s 70-point win.

Somewhat surprisingly, the two Amblecote Institute teams, who had finished first and second in the league, both lost.

The C team had home advantage against Kingswinford Snooker Centre, but Colin Homer was held to three points by Matt Surmacz, and both Paul Curry and John Salisbury won handsomely for the visitors. With a 95 point lead, Steve Ballinger then had a 30 break to steer KSC into the semis.

Their opponents will be Stourbridge Institute C, who defended their 66-point start against champions Amblecote Institute D.

Alan Jeffries won his frame by 21 points, but Sean Hassett, Brian Taylor and Graham Lewis all lost by sufficiently small margins to ensure that Sam Mattocks still had 20 points in hand to thwart Rich Brookes in the final frame. Stourbridge, who finished bottom of the table, have the consolation of looking forward to a semi-final appearance.