Press Correspondent:   Peter Thompson      
ETTA Senior Coach
Tel or Fax 0113 2047082                             

Pudsey Struggle at British League

Pudsey’s second team in division five north are finding life tough in this division. Currently lying third from bottom and fighting to avoid re-election they were expecting to do well this Sunday at Halifax.

In the opening match against Bribar Redlands they soon found themselves 2-0 down. Nicola Smith led the fight back with a fine five end win and with Dave Noutch levelling the scores at 2-2 a good result looked a strong possibility. Redlands hit back to make it 4-2 and Rudi Itoe took the next game to bring the match score to 4-3. Dave Noutch failed to gain the draw losing in five ends to Phil Beresford.

In their second match Pudsey faced bottom of the table Hull and soon raced into a two nil lead with opening game wins for Chris Newsome and Rudi. Hull pulled it back to 2-1 before Nicola gained a fifth end win. Hull then gained two surprising wins as Chris lost 11 in the fifth and Itoe crashed disappointingly to Annie Hudson. With the score at 3-3 Alex Hodgson looked set to give Hull the draw as he took the first two ends against Nicola. However the serving qualities and top spins of Nicola grabbed the third and with a battling performance to come from 4-0 down in the fourth it was soon 2 legs each. Nicola now full of confidence took the fifth to give Pudsey the draw but they were not able to gain victory in the last match.

Pudsey cadets and juniors were at the forefront of the action in Bradford on Sunday where they were competing in the ESTTA Team Zone Finals for their schools. Nicole Finn and Ellen Auty enabled their school team Horsforth U16 girls to a 6-2 victory over Scunthorpe as both girls won all their matches. Samantha Parker of Pudsey playing at number one for Horsforth U13 girls was also in fine form as they won their matches to go through to the next round. Samantha’s brother Michael could be proud of his individual performance winning six out of eight for Horsforth U13 boys, though the team failed to qualify for the next round.

Posted 17 January 2011 09:20 GMT