Pudsey League Runners-up and Cup Winners Princeville "Patriots" began the 2015-16 campaign with a derby match away at Princeville "B". Having missed out on defending the league title by half a point, the Patriots intend to use this as motivation in order to launch another title challenge.
In handicap news, it is reported that anchorman "The Don" is delighted with a five point reduction, claiming he is "making progress". I.Tomlinson's handicap has been reduced by 5pts. The top two handicaps of K.Tomlinson and J.Butcher remain unchanged, which on balance makes the Pariots attempts of launching a challenge for silverware no less difficult.
The match between top board men S.Kershaw and J.Butcher can be best described as a slow starter. The opening 10 minutes consisted of playing two-ball Billiards, as the third ball found itself out of a scoring position. Afterwards, the game began to open up and Stephen took the iniative in registering two breaks of 30 and 50 and did not look back from there. James struggled to build any momentum, being left little scoring opportunities and tried to force half chance scoring shots with little success, owing to a general lack of match sharpness. Eventually Stephen completed formalities and registered a 50 point win.
Things didn't look better in the 2nd game for the Patriots as D.Hardcastle was found playing catch up against B.Lawson, who looked in decent touch during practice and lost by 20pts.
Next up was the Tomlinsons, with Keith facing G.Kershaw and Ian facing A.Holdsworth. Alan got off to good start and led by 20pts, before Ian got into his stride and came out as winner for the Patriots to get off the mark.
The battle of the captains was an interesting affair, with the lead often changing during mid-match. With a minute to go and scores virtually level, Keith had an opportunity to see the game out. The red ball was over the top pocket and Gareth's cue ball in the middle for an in-off. Keith went for an in-off yellow and missed, leaving Gareth to pot the red ball and secure a 3rd victory for Princeville "B" on the buzzer, who won 4-1 on the night.
