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Jacques Shield Thriller

It was a big cup week for Pudsey teams this week. In the Leeds league defending champions Pudsey A faced Dewsbury with Pudsey currently unbeaten this year as favourites. The team of Richard Smith, Simon Pugh and Joanna Roberts made a strong start and soon established a 3-1 lead. However Dewsbury soon levelled the match at 3-3 when Darren page got the better of Joanna 11-4 in the fifth end. Dewsbury’s Richard Lightowler got the better of county team mate Pugh in a 14-12 classic fifth end. Joanna responded for Pudsey to level at 4-4 with another fifth end victory against the luckless Tony Bottomley. Richard then faced Darren Page in the last match and was in top form to win three sets to nil to put Pudsey in the final.

In the Yorkshire Senior cup group match Pudsey were undefeated as they faced Hull and a win would guarantee a place in the final. With Pudsey led by England Ranked number 30 Simon Noutch combining with Richard Smith and Chris Newsome it was expected they would win the match. Pudsey ran out comfortable winners 8-2 with Simon Noutch and Richard Smith unbeaten.

In the Veterans Yorkshire cup against favourites Dewsbury Pudsey fielded a below strength side but still made Dewsbury work hard as they lost 7-3. With a good win for Newsome over Mark Land and Pudsey taking the doubles the match score at one time stood only 3-2. Doug Bartle took Pudsey’s third win with a four set win over Land.

Yorkshire Senior second team were in action this weekend at Keighley and Pudsey’s Chris Parker and Nicola Smith were part of the successful team. Yorkshire won all four of their matches to win the division 2A title. Yorkshire’s opening match against Cheshire was the key to this title win. With Yorkshire 4-2 down Nicola faced the England veteran number one Sue Collier and came from 2-1 down in sets to win a in the fifth end to pull off a shock win. This rallied the team as they rattled off the next three matches to win 6-4.

In Accrington on Sunday, the latest in the Stiga 2 Star Grand Prix series of events took place. Yorkshire and Pudsey’s top cadet Ellen Auty came second in the girls event, only dropping one match to Lancashire’s Bethany Farnworth, who came third. The winner was decided on countback, with Ellen missing out on the top slot by just one set, which she'd dropped to the winner Rebecca Hodgson, also from Lancashire.

Posted 28 February 2011 14:40 GMT