WHEN Conservative B visited table toppers Tavy A in the Tavistock Snooker League expectations were not great, especially with the home side being strengthened by the recall of their talented duo Nick Monk and Andy Dolan.

Normal business ensued for Tavy A with Bradley Anderson and Mark Evans giving them a two frame lead, despite a formidable showing from Con B’s McKechnie who took Tavy A skipper Evans to the wire.

Maloney then pulled one back for Con B with a solid win against Monk, before the game was secured by Tavy A with Dent overcoming a combative performance from the energetic Lillicrap.

Ewings then took the last game for the Con B’s to reduce the deficit to one frame — this some achievement given that Tavy A have been sweeping all aside by four or five frames on a regular basis. Conservative B will take heart from a narrow 2-3 lose against such a strong side.

West Devon A took full advantage of Tavy A’s minor hiccup with another resounding 5-0 win over West Devon D, and with it narrowed the gap behind the league leaders at the top of the table to a mere one point.

Rich marched past Murton followed by Lawrence grafting out a win against Decieco to give West Devon A a two frame lead.

WD A backed this up with another win for Morris, followed by a ‘turkey shoot’ for Brookes (24) as he romped past Peters to make it four for WD A team.

The maximum five came courtesy of a hard fought frame from Heathman as he dug deep to overcome a robust showing from the ‘never say die’ Ward.

Things are now looking interesting at the top of the table with both Tavy A and West Devon A taking full advantage of an inconsistent season from Conservative A to make this look more and more like a two horse race.

Conservative C had a good outing with a respectable 4-1 win over fellow strugglers Golf B at the bottom of the league. Con C’s Davies had to pull out all the stops to get past a good showing from Golf B’s Appleton to take Con C one up. The game was soon secured thereafter for Con C with Bellamy and Davey taking them to three frames clear and out of reach of Golf B. Bassett eventually made it four for the Con C, but toiled at times to overcome an obdurate Congo.

Jago nearly made it a maximum five for the Con C but yet again fell at the final ball as Golf’s Brockington gratefully took advantage of the black ball to save his team from the whitewash in his first ever league game.