1955 – 56

Jim Broadhead will not be playing for Rastrick in the Halifax Parish League this season, which should please some of the locals. As we can see from the report here, the locals are far from happy about the Huddersfield “stars” playing in their back yard. With the loss of Jim, the team benefit by not being the scratch side and will have a start of 100 for the coming season. Rastrick are also contemplating running two teams but there is no mention of a second team in any of the seasons reports, so I don’t think that happened.

A mention that Jack and Leslie Driffield are to play an exhibition match for the benefit of the dependants of the late Watson White was reported. Watson, at the time of his recent death, was a prominent member of the Thornhill Briggs billiards team. The tickets for the match were on sale and going well, indicating that there should be a big crowd.

In the second game of the season Jack made a break of 95, as they beat Bolton Brow who only had a start of 50. Will their start give them a chance of success this year? We will soon find out! They only won their third game in six beating the undefeated Victoria Lounge, who had 300 start on them.

Jack scored the first century of the league competition in the eighth game against Elland Liberal’s G. Armitage, when he made a 106 break and won 150 – 21. A couple of weeks later he scored another century, this time it was a 101 unfinished. Having a start for the first time in four years didn’t bring league success as they lost as many games as they won, and actually drew one game. It was probably fitting that Thornhill Briggs won the league after the death of one of their team members earlier in the season. Jack with his 106, won the high break trophy for the second year.

With both the billiards and snooker teams beating Spen Valley in the third match of the Yorkshire Inter-District League, they have put themselves at the head of their respective sections. The billiards team achieved their biggest win since the league was re-formed. Gladney was in remarkable form giving his opponent no chance, with breaks of 72, 23 and 88. Jack, as the report says, was consistent and Harold, with the game already won, did enough.

Another two fine victories over Wakefield have put Huddersfield in sound positions in their respective sections. The billiards team require two points from two home games, and the snooker team also need two points or a draw against their nearest rivals, Bradford, for them both to win the section and qualify for the final play-off. Harold had a difficult game against the Wakefield champion, P. Taylor, but Jack and Gladney won comfortably.

The headline only refers to the billiards team after their win over Bradford, but the snooker team lost which throws their section wide open and takes it down to the wire in the last games. Gladney faced H. Halstead who previously beat him at home, but this time he was in excellent form and gained revenge with breaks of 54, 49, 44 and 32. Harold had a comfortable win over F. Warnett, leaving Jack the simplest of tasks to score 14 to win the match. It was a surprise that he lost after making the highest break of the night, one of 92, but the game was won along with the section.

The billiards team had already qualified for the play-off final but the snooker team needed every point they could get to put pressure on Bradford, who didn’t play until the following night. Clifford Percival, Harold Smith and Trevor Sisson all won by two frames to nil meaning that Bradford had to do the same to win the section on frame point averages. We do not know the result of the Bradford game but we do know that they failed to qualify as the snooker team who would play in the final play-off. As you can see from the report, Jack was dominant, Cyril was in excellent form and Gladney was in his best form, resulting in the second best win against an average Spen Valley side. For the second consecutive year the billiards team had been undefeated to reach their fifth play off final. The snooker team had won their section with only one defeat and both teams will play both teams from Leeds in a double header night.