MIDLANDS

Midland Counties League

Nottingham won the Midlands Counties League for the first time,
including a run of six successive victories. This gave some compensation
for three seasons ago, when they won every match but still failed to
take the title! Eight teams had begun the season with last year’s champions
Derby setting a strong early pace. Stafford also produced good early
results, but both pace-setters suffered home defeats in the November
round of fixtures, and Nottingham started their own title charge with an
important 5-3 success over their East Midland rivals. As they continued
to sweep aside all opposition, it became apparent that the honours
were bound for their trophy cabinet and interest centred on who would
he second. Derby and Worcester emerged as the prime contenders, but
Stoke-on-Trent came with a powerful late surge to claim the consolation
spot, winning their final two matches 9-0 and 7-2.

The League saw a total of seventeen centuries from seven different
players. A little down on last season’s record of twenty-three, but still
a reasonable haul. Chris Ward (Stafford) and Maurice Chapman
(Worcester) both featured on the list of league centurions for the first
time. Once more the prolific Peter Shelley (Stoke) dominated proceedings
with nine 100+ breaks, including the season’s best of 244. Jamie Moore
(Nottingham) enjoyed an outstandingly consistent season with twenty
wins from his twenty-one outings, the greatest number of individual
victories that anyone has accumulated in a single Midland League season.

Derbyshire County Billiards Championship

Darley Dale’s Jim McCann lifted the “Herbert Beetham” County
Championship Trophy for the ninth time at the North East Derbyshire
Snooker Centre in Clay Cross. McCann played consistently well
throughout the day and in the semi-final defeated last year’s winner,
David Rees of Derby. In the final he faced Colin Routledge, who had
also reach the final the previous year. With a top break of 86, McCann
ran out a comfortable winner by 355-284. Routledge having a break of
68. David Rees took the trophy for the highest break with 97. John
Rees of Derby won the Plate competition by beating Denis Rogers of
Chesterfield 414-215 in the final.