Princeville Patriots resume Pudsey Billiards League action after a seven week winter break with a trip to the Bradford Deaf Centre. The winter break proved to be too much for anchorman Don Hardcastle who arrived at the institute 40 minutes early.
Thursday nights at the Deaf Centre seem to be more laddish in nature, their players cracking open cans of Lager before starting play, a complete contrast to the tea and biscuits normally served on Tuesday night. Don also discovered a secret room to find one man and a dog performing tricks. Unconfirmed reports that the Bradford Deaf Centre are to enter this years Crufts.
First up was I.Tomlinson v I.Hussain and D.Hardcastle v I.Ford. Patriots Ian started off very brightly and remained on the front foot throughout, not even a mid-match telephone call from his daughter could change momentum. Ishaq enjoyed a better spell of play in the 2nd half but was always playing catch up and Ian won by roughly 30pts. On the other table, Don just could not find momentum as BDC Ian played well enough to win.
Next up was K.Tomlinson against an insurgent B.Robinson and J.Butcher against J.Dixon. Brian maintained a lead of sorts throughout his match, but Keith kept within distance points wise and found momentum towards the latter half. Sadly for Keith he could not find that killer instinct to gain and fell narrowly short.
Meanwhile James started rather brightly against Jeremy and controlled the opening phase with a lead of 45. From the middle phase, Jeremy found momentum with a combination of scoring multiple points from a shot and flukes (which are the norm within Bfd Deal) to eliminate the deficit. The plunging temperatures and lack of visits meant James was frozen out of the game in more ways than one. With 2 minutes remaining and 20pts behind, James tried to play his trademark "Jenny" in order to launch a late comeback but couldn't quite execute the stroke due to a lack of nap on the cloth.
Eventually Jeremy closed out the game, which gave Bradford Deaf Centre a 4-1 victory. Although it could have easily been a different result on the right for the Patriots, but a story all to common for a side who have dropped a number of points in this campaign.
Next up, the Patriots face Pudsey League joint leaders St Andrews "B" who recorded a superb 4-1 win against pacesetters Pudsey Congs. This was a good result for the Patriots as a late title charge is still possible and the fixtures work out favourably. However the good form must begin from now.
