The first competition of the season in the Halifax Association is the Charity Tournament which is played over two legs, home and away, with the handicap applied to both legs. The headline mentioning Jack is in the Parish League when he beat N. Holroyd by 150 – 8. Rastrick were drawn against Ripponden Cons. in the first round, and beat them despite conceding 700 handicap over two legs, but I have no scores. In the second round they were away to Illingworth Liberal Club and were behind by 124 after giving 425 start, which means that they have to win by 550 in the home second leg. Alas the task was beyond them and Illingworth won by 116, despite Rastrick winning 5 of the 6 games. After the game Jack was introduced to a past amateur champion, Roy Cookson, who has the record break of over 200 to his name in the championship. Jack and Roy had plenty to talk about .
Rastrick entered two teams into this competition and their ‘B’ team, with the young Brian Cousen playing, have reached the final to meet Victoria Cons. at Thornhill Briggs W.M. After the first nights play, Victoria Cons had a lead of 69 but with Rastrick’s handicap advantage this is reduced to 19 for the second nights play. Unfortunately we do not have the scores from the second leg but in a later report in the Blind Tournament it states that they are out to atone for their defeat in the Charity final earlier in the season.
A third competition run by the Halifax Association was the Blind Tournament and Rastrick ‘A’ and ‘B’ were in the first round draw with the ‘A’ team against Wharley Institute, and the ‘B’ team, having beaten Elland Liberal ‘B’ in the preliminary round, had Luddenden Foot Institute. In the first leg the ‘A’ team led Wharley by 259, with every man having a good win against their opponents who could only muster 641 (which included their 300 start). The ‘B’ team did just as well and led Ludden Foot by 215. Both teams must have won but we don’t have any scores as they both went through to the third round by the ‘A’ team, beating Claremont Liberal Club 1757 – 1658 while the ‘B’ team beat Luddenden W.M.C 2216 – 2053.
In the third round the ‘A’ team played Elland Liberal ‘A’, and after the first leg were behind by 84 despite winning 5 of the 6 games. This meant that with a start of 250, Rastrick had to win by 335 in the second leg to go through to the quarter finals. This proved too much after two of the first four Rastrick players lost, leaving Jack and Harold 368 behind. Jack also lost which was his first loss in all competitions, stating he had no interest in the game as they couldn’t win. The ‘B’ team played Sowerby Bridge West End W.M. and I have no scores but know that they won by 70 after the second leg, moving to meet the ‘A’ team victors, Elland, in the semi final.
The ‘B’ team were without Brian Cousen in the first leg which didn’t help their cause, and they lost by 126 which, after their handicap start, was reduced to 61. The first two games of the second leg were close, but won by Rastrick, which reduced the deficit to just 12. The next four games were all won by Elland but by narrow margins, to leave Elland the winners by 122 overall. Elland lost in the final to Ripponden Constitutional Club.
There is no mention in any of the newspaper clippings of the Halifax Inter-Town Competition this year which Brighouse, captained by Jack, won last year. It could be that it was the first and possibly only time it was played, but after the expense of the magnificent shield, you would think not.
There were some notable scores in the Halifax Parish League: Jack had breaks of 52, 47 and 51 unfinished to reach his 150, as his opponent N. Holroyd of Greetland Dyers scored just 8. Albert Birkby had a record break of 133 unfinished in his game against W. White, with visits of 0, 17, 0 and 133, while White had three visits of 0, 17 and 23.
Rastrick played top of the table Greetland Dyers who they beat earlier in the season with 6 winning games, but couldn’t repeat their victory as they only had 4 winners this time. N. Holroyd, who Jack beat so comprehensively in the first game, drew the short straw again but managed to score 16 this time as Jack made a break of 96. E. Johnson didn’t play in this match, replaced by F. Clegg, and that meant that Rastrick actually received a 50 handicap.
Despite Jack being behind in a game by 19 – 106 he still managed to win a game against J. Pettifor, 150 – 112. Even with all six players winning, Rastrick couldn’t win the game due to the handicap that Victoria Cons, “B” had. Rastrick were in fact never going to win the league as the handicap most of the clubs received was between 200 and 450. This is a typical result – Rastrick would have to limit each of their opponents to less than 75 if they could hope to win, when playing a team with 450 start.
Albert Birkby won the top break prize this year with his unfinished run of 133, to go with his win last year with a 128 unfinished break.
Jack Mellor 