Report: Brian Brighouse

The Bridge, the Stanley Club and the Bridge Dogs are setting the early pace in the Ormskirk and district Pool league.

The League Cup starts with three groups of teams all battling to make it to the last 8; unfortunately, La Cantina B couldn’t field a team for the first two weeks of the cup competition and have decided to withdraw from it.

The leagues were not formed based on league status but group A looks the toughest with three of the top four teams in the league (at this stage of the season) in that group.

After two of the six games in this mini-league the Bridge are at the top with 12 points, Bar 22 sit four points behind, with the Queen Inn a further point adrift. But with four matches still to play Shaw Hall are also still in with a good shout of progressing, they have five points so far.

We find The Stanley Club at the top of mini-league B, with 14 points, the Farmers though are just one point adrift and they clash in the next round of matches. La Cantina A sit in third with five points while unfortunately the Queen’s Head still wait to get off the mark.

The resignation of La Cantina B, mean that only one team, The Bridge Dogs, have played two games so far in Group C. So, it’s probably not surprising the ‘Dogs’ sit on top with 10 points but they have won both games defeating their both their opponents so far (the Railway and the 22 Club) 4 (5) – 3.

The next round of matches take place next week with the return fixtures scheduled for February 2019.

The top team in each division automatically progress to the last eight and under the cup rules they cannot meet each other in the last eight. The second placed teams also progress.

They will be joined by the two best placed teams finishing 3rd, as one league now only has three teams it will be based on the percentage of games won. So for example a team winning 20 of the 28 matches available would be placed higher than a team winning 24 of the 42 available games.