Report: Brian Brighouse

The Stanley Club have opened up a three-point gap at the top of the table after the first four rounds of fixtures in the Ormskirk & District Pool League. This week the Burscough based crew travelled to Shaw Hall Caravan Park coming away with a 6 (7) – 1 win; the result sees the Scarisbrick outfit slip into tenth place with 12 points.

Last season's Player of the Year, Martin Gallego maintained his good start to the season – so far he has won all four games he has played for the Stanley. He is joined by his team mate Lee Fairclough, Andy Barlow (Ainsdale Cricket Club) and Howard Lawrence (Bridge Badgers) who have also won their first four games, they are the early leaders in the race to be season's Player of the Year.

At this stage two teams share second place, the Farmers who beat LA Cantina by the odd frame and Whittakers who had a similar result against the Queen Bee. The second result means that only the Stanley Club now have an unbeaten record in the league. The two second placed teams have 21 points, with the Queen Bee a point behind on 20, while La Cantina find themselves in 8^th place with 14 points.

The early leaders, Ainsdale Cricket Club didn’t appear to enjoy their journey to the Bridge as they came away with a heavy 6 (7) – 1 defeat, this result sees the Badgers move into fifth place with 17 points with the Ainsdale outfit one place and one point behind them.

We also find the Queen Inn in joint 6^th place even though they suffered a home defeat at the hands of the Pinewoods, the Formby team who won by the odd frame are in joint 8^th place. We do have rules on how the final league positions are to be determined should teams be on level points at the end of the season but as the first consideration is the head-to-head record between the teams it is too early to look at that.

The final match of the week saw the bottom two teams meet at the Railway home of Can’t Stop the Train, the Bridge Dogs will be the happier with the result as they came away with a 6 (7) – 1 win. It should however, be noted that the Railway could only field 3 players for the match. The Burscough crew moved onto 11 points, while the Ormskirk outfit bring up the rear on six points.

Probably the tie of the week on Wednesday is Ainsdale Cricket Club against the Queen Inn as they currently share joint sixth in the league. The other matches see teams in the top half take on teams in the bottom half. Visit our website for more details of this week’s fixtures Ormskirk and District Pool League. - Home (leaguerepublic.com)

Roger Blaxall could he be the next Jeremy Paxman with his finger on the pulse of all things that Southport people worry about, or is it just to show he is still looking for that big break a story that interests someone who doesn't play pool in the Ormskirk League.
If it hasn't got 4 wheels or a number of balls he seems lost.