At the half-way stage of the season the Spalding Constitutional Club 'A' are in the lead by just three points from Market Deeping with the Spalding Snooker centre in third place. Of the 500 registered players 93 are active in the billiards league. Though there are eleven senior citizens active in the league there is only one player under the age of 21. This is the Peterborough professional Roxton Chapman who this year is on a handicap of 460. The games are 200 up of handicap and the fact that Roxton is so far behind sometimes causes problems with time. This season to date, Roxton's highest break in league matches is 258 and he has made fifteen other breaks over the century. The oldest player is 85-year-old Arthur Gantert (Bourne) and the second oldest player is John Manton (82) of the Spalding Constitutional Club who is still on an 'owe' handicap. John once played 12 successive short jennies into the same middle pocket and if there were an octogenarian championship he would surely be one of the favourites. Readers might be interested to know that our league's record average was set by Mark Wildman in 1972 when he had an average of 114.0. Roxton recently had an average of 83.2 in the handicap knock-out quarter finals.
By the end of March Kidderminster were leading on 24 points with Stoke second on 22. Derby were in third place on 22.5 and Nuneaton just behind on 19. Kidderminster scored an excellent 7 - 2 home victory over Rugby, Mick Painter being unbeaten and John Smith scoring a 45 minute total of 349 against Malcolm Lax. Derby also had a very good 7-2 success over close rivals Nuneaton and but for an earlier 8 - 1 thrashing at the hands of Stoke would have been at the top. David Rees was undefeated on the day and had one total of 323. Stoke, with a game in hand are perhaps favourites, but though having a good win over Banbury, this match saw the first defeat for Peter Shelley in 21 games. After a run of twenty consecutive wins the Stoke man was finally beaten by Banbury captain Graham Willis. Well done Graham. The Nuneaton team of Neal Rewhorn, Richard Ingram, and Ritchie Evans, are improving with every match and their 7 - 2 win over Banbury keeps them in fourth place.
D. Rees (Derby) 212 :P. Shelley (Stoke): 112,98,98,97,94 G. Euston (Derby): 103 E. Lloyd (Rugby A): 95 A.Keeling (Stoke): 92