Saturday 23rd November saw the second of the 2002 challenge matches between the Wrington Vale and Exeter & District leagues. The first meeting this year in April ended in a 21-21 draw, so with the Wrington side having never held the trophy before, the return leg was eagerly anticipated. The match was held at the Mizzymead Recreation Centre in Nailsea and 12 players from each League turned up at 10.30 to start a marathon of 42 matches over Handicap, Cannons and Doubles rules.
The Exeter side showed that they were not in the mood to hand over the trophy easily as they quickly went into a 5-0 lead with Don Humphries being especially impressive with an unfinished run of 30 to win his opening game.
Wrington's Simon Cambridge began the fightback by making it 13th time lucky with his first victory in this challenge matches. This was closely followed by a two magnificent breaks of 61 and 63 in successive visits to the table by Roy Jenkins which helped the Wrington side to go in front. Mike Allen then overcome his opening frame defeat by hitting the highest break of the day, a fine 65 as Wrington won 9 games out of 10 to open up a 9-6 lead at the lunch break.
Exeter's Peter Wide showed his class with another 51, two forty plus breaks and a winning run of 38 in what was looking to be a tight match against Irving Prowse. Another good performance by Alan Spear in these matches saw him hit a good break of 34 which was closely followed by Wayne Ticer putting Wrington further ahead with his highest ever break, an unfinished run of 40.
With Wrington securing their 21st match victory, all thoughts of defeat were gone but the Exeter side redoubled their challenge and, with Richard Reid's break of 44 spurring them on, 4 successive victories closed the gap to 21-15. Charlie Scott then secured another good win over Irving to confirm Exeter would not go down without a fight. However, skipper Bob Selby then won his Cannons match against Bill Wright to secure victory for Wrington, who then closed the match by taking the remaining games, finishing with a 26-16 win.
Two Wrington players came away undefeated in their four matches - Roy Jenkins and Wayne Ticer. So, at the fifth attempt, Wrington managed to gain their first victory but Exeter will be keen to reverse this when the first leg of 2003 match takes place in April next year.
After a lapse of twelve years, a fixture was arranged between the West Wiltshire Billiards League and the Bath League. The match was played on 25th January and resulted in a 7-3 victory for the West Wiltshire team. The players all returned to the Staverton Club for a buffet.
M. Dew 215 D. Elliott 194; P. Carr 178 R. Gates; M. Jacobs 218 K. Tozer; N. Miles 249 D. Lord 367; K. Winstanley 151 E. Pitts 310; A. Kettlety 276 C. Coles 164; D. White 170 A. Bastin 168; G. Ayers 259 W. Tadd 162; R. Millard 175 K. Brain 148; M. Binns 325 D. Smith 275.