Heworth 'A' the York Conservative Club's Carlsberg-Tetley Snooker League leaders, struggled against Fulford 'A' and were flattered with their 5-2 success.

Wayne Pulleston recovered recovered from being 40 points behind only to fail on the frame ball pink which handed Heworth's Dave Taylor the first frame.

Steve Burdett made it 2-0 when Phil Oliver could easily have squared the match, then Richard Stroughair inflicted only the second defeat of the season on Clive Whyte. The frame was decided on the pink despite Stroughair's 36 break.

Keith Lawrence made it 3-1 but Simon England reduced the arrears with a long pink ball victory over Richie Burdett. Jason Milner won the match for Heworth and Kevin Gall made it 5-2 with an easy win in the last frame.

Second-placed Bootham 'A' surprisingly went 3-0 down before recovering to win 4-3 against Acomb 'A', who previously had won only three out of ten matches.

Marcus O'Boyle (27 unfinished break), Keith Myers and Mick Frampton won for Acomb before Mark Darley (20 break), Ken Taylor and Colin Robinson levelled the match. Brian Coulson (32 break) had an easy win in the final frame to give Bootham 'A' victory but they are ten points adrift of Heworth 'A'.

Fulford 'B' held on to fourth place with a 5-2 defeat of Acomb 'B'. Bernard Appleton, John Futter, Nigel Smith, Ray Thackway and George Toone won for Fulford. Trevor Ventress and Steve Rodgers - only the third player to beat Bob Smith this season - won for Acomb.

Bootham 'B' beat bottom-placed Heworth 'B' 5-2 to stay in fifth place and one point behind Fulford 'B' in the John Smith's 'B' teams competition. Jeff Brown, Chris Granger, Fred Hough, George Long and Ray Stamp won for Bootham. Colin Richardson and John Sherlock (23 break) won for Heworth.

Bootham maintained the pressure on York Conservative Clubs' Slater Cup Snooker Pairs League leaders Acomb by beating them 5-2. Acomb lead by six points with only two matches to play.

Bootham won the first three frames and built a 62-point lead in the aggregate scores. Acomb won the fourth frame but Pete Mattison and Norman Shipley then decided the match for Bootham with a 40- point win. Acomb gained their second point with a close win in the last game.

Heworth and Fulford shared the first two frames, with the games scores being exactly the same at 46-40. Father and son P and N Hodgson won the third frame for Heworth by 63 points and although Fulford won the last three frames Heworth had easily secured the aggregate point for a 4-3 success.

Bootham 'A' beat Fulford 5-2 in a crucial match in York Conservative Clubs' Faber Shield Billiards League, which sees Bootham 'A' lead the table two points ahead of their 'B' team.

George Tingle and Colin Robinson (25 break) won the first two games for Bootham and opened up a 60-point lead in the aggregate scores.

Colin Neal and Richard Stroughair (26 break) levelled the match at 2-2 and changed to aggregate deficit into a 19-point advantage.

John Woodhall (20 break) and Ken Taylor (21, 26 and 27 breaks) then won the last two games for Bootham and gained the aggregate point for a 5-2 win.

Bootham 'B' won 4-3 at Acomb to move into second place. Tim Fillingham, George Long and Ian Robinson put Bootham 3-0 ahead, but Mick Frampton, Keith Myers and Trevor Ventress then levelled the match for Acomb. However, Fillingham's win by 85 points meant that Bootham easily gained the aggregate point.

Players were burning the midnight oil at the Cueball Snooker Club's monthly competition February final.

The one frame showdown between John Dowd and Matthew Tugby did not start until 11.30pm following three-and-a-half hours of matchplay earlier in the evening.

Dowd took the frame on the black ball to win the competition for the third time in the past 12 months. He clinched victory with a difficult long black.

As an experiment the 16 entrants were divided into two groups of eight, with each player having seven one-frame games, but it turned out to take too long to finish the group stages and in future the competition will revert to a knockout basis.

In group one, three players ended up tied with four frames each - Tugby, Alisdair Pratt and Tim Hart. The three were asked to clear the colours, with one potting most being the winner and Tugby came top with 11. Dowd won group two with six wins.

Steve Gregson made the highest break of the competition, with 52. Tugby had a 40-break and Hart one of 30.

The Champion of Champions competition between the winners of the monthly events in the past year will be held at the Cueball Club on Saturday, March 22. The next monthly competition will be on March 26 at the Cueball Club.

Updated: 11:24 Friday, March 07, 2003