There are six teams in the league this year and after four matches Peterborough were leading with 9 points from Huntingdon on 8. The format is for games of 90 minutes with one point for each game won. Professional players not ranked in the top sixteen are permitted to play. This allows Peterborough to field Roxton Chapman and Karen Corr. It good to see that Karen is sufficiently interested to want to play and she must be playing well to have beaten Clive Scott in the Peterborough - Stiffkey 'A' clash making two 50 breaks. Roxton is in a different class and will almost certainly not be eligible next year as by then he will surely have made the top sixteen. His break of 429 made against Jim Temple is a record for the league -1 should imagine it is, indeed it is unlikely that a bigger break has ever been made in any league.
The Huntingdon Team lead by Albert Salisbury and ably supported by Dennis McGuigan and Ian Chambers are likely to be Peterborough's main rivals. Highest Breaks: R. Chapman 429,134,111; A. Salisbury 111; H. Gibbons 81; C. Extall 79; P. Welham 73; Total over 500; R. Chapman 998; P. Welham 543; A. Salisbury 509;
Pre-Tournament favourites Stafford lived up to their reputation ably lead by Peter Shelley who played through the season unbeaten. The conclusion was just a little unsatisfactory as one game was not played. The league nevertheless proved to be a successful venture and though Wyvern have dropped out, the inclusion of a second team from Rugby, and teams from Derby and Kidderminster means that there will be eight teams for 92/93.
Stafford won in the inaugural season with 29 points from 4 games. Second was Wyvern with 25 from 5 whilst Nuneaton were third with 23 from 5. Well done Stafford.
The highest break was a 116 from Ken Shirley (Stafford) Neil Rewhorn had a 104 whilst Peter Shelley and Tony Keeling both had a 107.
This league is also open to professional players not ranked in the top sixteen. David Rees is thus able to play for Derby and in his first game of the season had a break of over 200.
The position before Christmas was that Exeter were leading having played 7 and won 6. St. James were in second place with 4 wins from 5 games, whilst Wyvern were third with 5 wins from 6 games.
This season has seen a veritable invasion from the North East as players from the Teesside Boys Billiards league have descended upon A.B.C. and Mini-Prix alike. More than twenty young players have been involved the youngest being only eight years of age. Albert Hanson has been bringing them by Minibus. They have not been coming just for the ride and players such as the three Lees - Lagan, Conner, and Cuthbert, Chris Shutt, Paul Bennett, Simon Snee, and others, have been making a significant impact. Remembering that Causier, Goodwill amongst the amateurs, and Russell, Gilchrist, Murphy amongst the professionals are also ex Boys League players, then clearly the influence of the North East on the contemporary billiards scene cannot be over-emphasised. Remember too that there are many other players from that area who are regularly in at the death - Bob Close immediately springs to mind - together with Tony Mackinder, Steven Best and others There are likely to be some readers who wonder how all this came about.
It was in 1973 that the then Chairman of the Teesside Clubs Friendly League, Ralph Maklin, began to fear for the future of billiards in the area and decided to make the attempt to promote a youth policy. The biggest stumbling block was perhaps the fact that as all league matches were played in licensed premises, then clearly young boys would not be allowed in. Maklin got round this one by persuading clubs to allow under-age matches to take place outside licensing hours. After a number of meetings the Teesside Boys Billiards league was formed with 8 teams. The matches were to be played on Saturday mornings and to be of 30 minutes duration with Sunday mornings for practice games. Some clubs were prepared to let boys in for practice after school between the hours of 4.30 and 6.00p.m. midweek.
It is difficult, in 1993, to realise just what a revolutionary idea this was. It is now common for snooker clubs and snooker centres to take junior members even when virtually all premises are licensed. In 1973 most clubs, especially those in the North of England were reluctant to let women in let alone short-trousered little boys. The success of the project can hardly have been imagined. Within a year or two there were 32 teams in two divisions, with individual trophies and knockout competitions. Players from the league have won 23 out of the last 29 British Junior Championships. The League has produced three Amateur Championship winners and two C.I.U. champions. For the last three or four years the Mini-Prix has been dominated by ex-Boys League players and much the same seems to be happening to the A.B.C. The peak of success was reached in 1989 when the 22 year old Peter Gilchrist and the 20 year old Mike Russell contested the final of the World Professional Championship in Australia.
The League Handbook contains the records of some quite extraordinary feats by youngsters ranging from a break of 12 and a half-hour total of 101 by eight year old Robin Wilson to a break of 307 and a half-hour total of 426 by the seventeen year old Mike Russell. And there is some evidence that standards are rising, of the 9 records that Mike Russell held when he turned professional, only 3 now stand, showing that others have bettered his performances at the same age as when he achieved them. It's quite frightening. The Teesside League is living proof of the idea that if you can get someone at an early age and motivate them sufficiently then there is almost nothing they cannot achieve.
But it doesn't just happen. It involves a lot of hard work, patience, and above all, the willingness to give that most precious of all commodities - time. It is not easy to find people who will do it and Albert Hanson reports that whilst the League is still in a very healthy state it has contracted over the last year or two, not because of any lack of interest on the part of boys (and girls) in the area, not because any of the clubs have decided to close their doors, but simply through a lack of, "Coaches." There has to be adult supervision. But Albert and his fellow workers are not deterred and are as enthusiastic as ever. Indeed Albert reckons that if it could be done on the Teesside then there is no reason why it could not be done elsewhere and if anyone feels they might like to have a go at starting something then the experience of the Teesside League Officials will be willingly passed on.
And all this without even mentioning snooker!