There were mixed fortunes for Bradford’s snooker sides in Division One of the Yorkshire Inter-District League.
Bradford No 1 travelled to Sheffield No 2 and came away with an excellent 5-1 victory which sees the defending champions climb to second.
Chris Melling got Bradford off to a good start, winning the first frame courtesy of a break of 57, before opponent David Dalton levelled, making an excellent 74.
While not at his usual fluent best, Sajid Khan was as reliable as ever, playing some solid snooker to win both frames against David Stevenson.
Jason Walton then won a black- ball decider against Wayne Wootton, before the match was sewn up with Walton making a frame-winning 43 break.
In contrast, Bradford No 2 suffered only their second defeat of the season, losing 5-1 at home to Barnsley.
Boover Singh and Gareth Green lost the opening four frames, with Hanif Rafiq losing his first on a respotted black.
Fortunately, Rafiq picked off the last frame to avoid a whitewash, but the loss has set the team back, dropping to fourth on 28 points with five games remaining, behind leaders Sheffield No 1 (34), Bradford No 1 (30) and Castleford (30).
Cuedos player Sajid Khan became the first player through to the quarter-finals of the Bradford Championships with a hard-fought victory over John Wellham of Girlington Cons. Trailing 3-1, Khan battled back to win the final three frames. In the pairs, Melling and Walton (Shipley Club) won 3-0 at Lilycroft WMC against Mark Butler and John McCeachran, with Melling making the competition’s highest break to date of 96.
Khan and Rafiq are in action on Sunday in the first set of qualifiers of the Yorkshire Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds. Also in action are Lee Atkinson, Damien Wilks and Kevin Firth.
Billiards – Moorhouse Shield quarter-finals (tonight): Clayton Rugby ‘B’ v Chapel Green Libs; Cullingworth Cons v Clayton Rugby ‘A’; Gt Horton Cons v Undercliffe Cricket; Queensbury Cons ‘A’ v Queensbury Cons ‘B’.
Bradford duo Wayne Cooper and Simon Bedford squared up to each other in the opening round of the Welsh Open qualifiers at Prestatyn. Cooper edged ahead 4-3 after winning a black ball game, before a break of 73 sealed the tie 5-3. Cooper then took on Robert Milkins, losing 5-3.