Manning makes history with a stunning rally

No player in the league’s 74-year history has ever been beaten having notched a 69 or more break earlier in a frame. And only on very rare occasions has a player been able to recover when needing three snookers.

But both these scenarios occurred during Shifnal B’s 3-2 win over St John’s A.

John Fellows had given Shifnal the early lead, and after his excellent 69 break, Carl Walker appeared to be coasting to victory against Manning.

With only two reds and the colours left on the table, Manning, needed three snookers.

But he then produced a stunning fightback as he managed to get seven snookers, with Walker getting out of four of them, on the way to winning one of the finest frames in the league’s history on the final black and by one point.

Ian Postans and Matt Judd added two more frames to the Shifnal tally, whilst Ken Goodall notched a second for St John’s.

Both BallPoint and Chelmarsh B, the top two teams in the division, recorded 4-1 victories.

Comfortable wins from Paul Harper, Neil Pearson and Steve Powell, and a much closer one from Ken Booty, were more than enough to see off BallPoint’s opponents St John’s B. Pete Williams earned the away team a valuable point by beating Laki Badhan.

Chelmarsh B’s victory came against Broseley A, but was not as convincing a result as the scoreline suggests.

Simon Thomas, Chris Lewis and Paul Manning were well challenged by Matt Smout, Andy Garbett and Gary Watson.

Only Gary Smith romped to victory, beating Cameron Barden. Neil Caswell provided Broseley with another consolation, beating Mike Rogers in the final frame.

A 5-0 defeat at the cues of Broseley B means that Chelmarsh A must win at least one of their two remaining matches to stand any chance of avoiding the wooden spoon.

Having only won one league match all season, that could prove to be a tall order.

On song for Broseley were Nick and Andy Carson, Mick Brezwyn, Owen Hughes and Eddie Mullard.

In the all Alveley encounter the result went very much as expected, the B team beating the C team 4-1.

Chris Jepson had given the C team the early lead by beating John Beddows, but from that point on it was all Alveley B as Arek Ziemkiewicz, Dave Jones, Gavin Flower and Martin Coffey Jnr, with breaks of 30, 42, saw them home.

Match Results

Alveley B 4, Alveley C 1: J. Beddows 2, C. Jepson 54; A. Ziemkiewicz 65, B. Arnold 19; D.

Jones 64, S. Coldecott 17; M. Coffey Jnr 114, K. Gill 10; G. Glower 73, B. Arnold 26. BallPoint 4,

St. John’s B 1: P. Harper 75, M. Jones 14; N. Pearson 81, M. Crawley 6; S. Powell 66, J. Brown

11; K. Booty 54, B. Michael 44; L. Badhan 32, P. Williams 63. Broseley B 5, Chelmarsh A 0: N.

Carson 43, P. Skidmore 33; A. Carson 54, D. Colebatch 7; M. Brezwyn 67, R. Lewis 20; O.

Hughes 63, W. Fensome 21; E. Millard 65, R. Price 44. Chelmarsh B 4, Broseley A 1: S.

Thomas 57, M. Smout 35; G. Smith 60, C. Barden 6; C. Lewis 48, A. Garbett 46; P. Manning 67,

G. Watson 48; M. Rogers 10, N. Caswell 60. St. John’s A 2, Shifnal B 3: J. Summers 18, J.

Fellows 58; S. Manning 71, C. Walker 70; M. Lippitt 34, I. Postans 52; K. Goodhall 59, M. Bailey

24; T. Steele 51, M. Judd 60.