HAVING already overcome the Leeds, Bradford & Darlington teams to become Zone One champions in the first round, Farnworth League's Cadet (Under-14) Boys team had an early start to travel down to north London for the second round of the Johnny Leach Cup.

There in Group One, they faced Zone 3 winners London Progress and Zone 4 runners-up Hastings in a round-robin competition.

As before, the format was a nine-set match with the first team to take five sets winning the match outright. Farnworth's first opponents were Hastings and it came as a bit of a shock when Farnworth's No 1 Adam Bleakley lost the first set to Hasting's Luke Bridge, albeit going to the third game.

However James Fletcher soon brought things back to all-square with a 16/16 win over David Kirkwood, and then Rob Hall took James Winchester in three (12/-17/16) to open up a lead for Farnworth.

Luke Bridge came back to the table to square things once more with a win over James Fletcher but consecutive wins for Adam, Rob and James saw Farnworth take a 5:2 lead and the match.

Farnworth's second match was against London Progress, who had the advantage of playing in their home venue, and that helped Progress to a 5-2 win.

Even so, the win over Hastings was enough to secure Farnworth a place in the finals on May 26/27th, as the top two go through. There they will have to meet London Progress again, together with Slough and Bradford, the winners & runners-up in Group 2.

The handicapped Junior Inter-League Cup came to a climax last Sunday (24th), with the three finalists battling it out in a round-robin at Failsworth Sports Centre. The three contenders being Farnworth, Manchester (who last held this trophy in 1977) and Halton, who'd never won this particular cup.

First to take to the tables were Halton and Manchester, with First-Division Manchester holding a four-point start (per game) advantage over their Premier-Division opponents. As it turned out, that handicap was just about spot-on, as what ensued was a tight match. The match scores ran neck-and-neck until the eighth set (in a nine-set match), but Halton took the last two sets, to win the match five-four.

Next up, Manchester had to face Farnworth League's team, again with a four-point start each game. However, those four points weren't nearly enough this time around. Despite some close game scores, Farnworth never looked anything other than comfortable, and came out 8:1 winners in the end.

Last match on the tables was the all-Premier tie betwen Farnworth and Halton, with both teams playing off scratch. With Farnworth getting off to a good start, Halton (no doubt mindfull of their ten-nil drubbing at the hands of Farnworth in the league) were probably wishing the handicapping system had been more in their favour! But it wasn't, and Farnworth never really looked back. They effectively secured the winning margin by the fifth set and, for the second time that day, went on to take the match 8:1.

With two wins under their belt, Farnworth secured the Jack Livingstone Trophy for the second time in the last three competitions.

Squads:

Farnworth: James Fletcher, Paul Lindley, Rob Hall, Chris Hall.

Halton: Anthony Marshall, David Roberts, James Hatton.

Manchester: Jason Riding, Kemaran Pervez, Remi Omoboye.

JUNIOR PREMIER DIVISION

(Farnworth First Team go tops, Second Team go down)

On their last outing, both Junior teams travelled together to Arrowe Park to meet the Wirral League teams; as other events had conspired to make it necessary to cram three Inter-League matches into one afternoon. The first team had only one match to play, and a comfortable 3:7 win over Wirral League's first team (the reignimng Champions) sees them strike clear of their opponents at the head of the table. Unbeaten so far, and with only two matches to go (against Southport and Barrow), the Farnworth team now have a realistic chance of taking a title haven't held since 1980.

In contrast, the second ("A") team, had to face both Wirral teams in succession. A narrow - but unexpected - defeat by Wirral "A" was followed by an expected loss to Wirral's first team. The upshot is that Farnworth "A" finish a miserable season at the bottom of the table, and wil be relegated to Division One for next season.

Results:

Wirral 3 Farnworth 7

Wirral 9 Farnworth "A" 1

Wirral "A" 6 Farnworth "A" 4

Table:

P W D L Pnts

Farnworth 4 4 0 0 8

Wirral 4 3 0 1 6

Halton 4 2 0 2 4

Southport 2 1 1 0 3

Barrow 3 0 2 1 2

Wirral A 3 1 0 2 2

Farnworth A 6 0 1 5 1

FARNWORTH & SALFORD LEAGUE

DIVISION ONE

(Crunch time for Saints & Doe Hey)

The most crucial match of the season could well be this Wednesday when the top two meet at the Cawder Street Pavillion. Currently in top slot, reigning Champions St Andrews have suffered only one defeat all season so far, but second placed Doe Hey have a game in-hand, and a good win on Wednesday could leave the Championships turning on the outcome of the very last match of the season. So both team manager's will no doubt be looking to put out the strongest teams possible for what could be a cracker of a match. Meanwhile the Saint's manager will have to keep the champagne on ice for a little while longer; though that won't be too difficult since he's tee-total!

Results:

Salford Jnrs A 1 Doe Hey 9

Doe Hey A 9 St Sebastians 1

St Andrews A 6 Fearns Sports 4

Salford Jnrs B 2 Doe Hey A 8

Doe Hey 7 Fearns Sports 3

St Andrews A 9 Salford Jnrs B 1

Salford Jnrs A 6 St Sebastians 4

Table:

P W D L Pnts

St Andrews A 16 15 0 1 57

Doe Hey 15 13 0 2 51

Fearns Sports 16 8 2 6 36

Salford Jnrs A 14 7 1 6 29

Doe Hey A 15 6 0 9 27

Salford Jnrs B 15 2 0 13 9

St Sebastians 17 1 1 15 7

Player Performance:

93pc: Bob Jackson.

91pc: John Hutchinson, Adam Bleakley.

88pc: Majid Tubarsum.

85pc: Barry Elliott.

84pc: John Bleakley.

DIVISION TWO

(Juniors secure Division Two Title)

Though still with four matches to go, Salford Juniors C remain unbeaten - and now uncatchable - at the top of Division Two. Another emphatic win, this time against the experienced Beesley Green "A" team, means that the Juniors (Rob Hall, Chris Hall and Alastair Lindley) are now certain of the title, irrespective of what happens in the remaining matches. Amazingly, that will mean that the Second Division title has been taken by one of the Juniors' teams in three out of the last four seasons.

Results:

St Andrews B 1 Carlton Club A 9

Salford Jnrs C 9 Beesley Green A 1

Beesley Green B 5 Carlton Club B 5

Monton Bowling 4 Social Circle 6

Carlton Club B 9 St Andrews B 1

Salford Jnrs C 9 Carlton Club B 1

Carlton Club A 4 Beesley Green A 6

Table:

P W D L Pnts

Salford Jnrs C 17 17 0 0 63

Beesley Grn A 18 11 2 5 46

Carlton Club B 17 9 3 5 43

Beesley Grn B 15 9 3 3 37

Carlton Club A 18 6 0 12 30

Social Circle B 16 6 1 9 25

St Andrews B 19 3 0 16 16

Monton Bowling 16 2 1 13 12

Player Performance:

96pc: Rob Hall.

92pc: Chris Hall.

91pc: Ian Westmoreland.

89pc: John Ainley.

76pc: Craig Rushton.

75pc: Alastair Lindley.

FIXTURES:

27th: St Andrews B v Social Circle B.

28th: Doe Hey v St Andrews A, Fearns Sports v Doe Hey A, Carlton Club A v Monton Bowling.

29th: St Sebastians v Salford Jnrs B.

2nd: Salford Jnrs B v Fearns Sports, Monton Bowling v Salford Jnrs C.