After a 4 month summer break, the Princeville Patriots are back in Pudsey Billiards League action on Thursday and start the campaign at home to Pudsey Congs.
Last season was rather a mixed one for the Patriots. The league campaign was one to forget, quite literally as Princeville A's final league position of 2015/16 is not even recorded in this years handbooks! To confirm, the Patriots finished rock bottom which is a major disappointment considering two previous seasons of finishing 2nd and 1st. The Patriots lost in the Pudsey Cup Final to stablemates Princeville "B", largely down to Ian Tomlinson being undone by a rampant Alan Holdsworth who almost single handedly killed off the competition by the halfway stage.
In Individual honours, James Butcher missed on the Pudsey Billiards League Individual title by a single point against last seasons form man Dave Hirst in front of a packed room at St Andrews Methodist Church. Though the Patriots top board man did win the Pudsey Billiarss League highest break award of 59 unfinished and Don Hardcastle won the Pudsey Billiards League Pairs title.
The handicap committee have not been too kind for the Patriots in this seasons campaign. Don remains on 125 despite not having a particularly good season, James has 10pts deducted despite winning 10 out of 18 League games and an average of +14. The Patriots management team are led to believe that Derrick has made a strong case to the handicap committee in giving James a significant deduction. Ian has retained his handicap of 80, a slight surprise considering he has played reasonably well last year and captain Keith has his handicap increased to 85.
There is potential for the Patriots to challenge for honours if players perform consistently and as a unit, but it's not going to be an easy task with a number of good players in the league.
