NORTON Social A edged a point ahead of Hotshots Snooker Club B with just five weeks left of the Stourbridge Snooker League season.

They won 4-1 as opposed to their rivals’ 3-2 result.

Norton had to work hard to win at Netherton Sports and Social for whom Steve Howell won the opener, while Rich Barnsley took Rob Pitt to the final black. Adam Ness, Ashley Aston and Darren Oakes then won, but with little to spare.

Hotshots B might only have won 3-2 but it was achieved on the tables of third-placed Brandhall Labour, who hold a small chance of catching the top two.

Wayne Bentley, with a 77 break, and Bal Sembi won well for Brandhall, but Callum Downing, with a 71, won equally impressively for Hotshots, who claimed victory in both closely-fought frames, Luke Garland beating Geoff Williams and Luke Higginbotham edging past the in-form Alan Hooper. Hotshots will be content with a win, particularly as they could easily have lost the match to Brandhall, who are now ten points adrift, but still have to play Norton at home.

Reigning champions, Hotshots A beat Pockets A 4-1, with Roy Stokes doing well to beat Matt Emms, one of the five West Midland qualifiers in the English Amateur championship held three days earlier at Bilston Golden Cue, while last season’s runners-up, West Midlands Police, took all five frames at Amblecote Institute B.

Amblecote’s A team are finishing the season strongly, and won 4-1 away to Moor Pool and Snooker A, for whom Adam Kensett did well to beat Rob Clark, while Moor P & S’s B team lost 5-0 at PocketsB.

First Division leaders Hotshots SC C had dropped only seven frames in winning all seven home games to date, but Kinver Constitutional A caused something of a shock with a 4-1 win on their first visit to the club.

Arnie Tromans was in unstoppable form in beating Dawid Konior comprehensively, and Robin Hall handed John Mathews only his second defeat to make it 2-0. Although Paul Caldeira pulled a frame back, Chris Randle and Ron Smith secured the visitors’ great win.

Hotshots still hold a five point lead from Baggeridge Social, who continued their pursuit with a 3-2 win at Stourbridge Institute A; Luke Whale, his brother Matt, and Ryan Allmark, on the black, just did enough to win.

Kinver’s B team, whose challenge had slipped after they’d lost three of their previous five games after becoming the first team to defeat Hotshots, bounced back with all five frames against their C team.

Kinver are four points further away in third place, just one point clear of Kingswinford RBL A.

The Legion, who lost five games in a row early in the season to drop down the table, won their sixth in succession, 4-1 away to Kingswinford Cons A, to move back into fourth place.

Paul Jones, Rob Sidaway and Ben Wakeman gave Moor Pool and Snooker C the edge at home to Kingswinford Cons B, before Thomas Male and Tim Carter hit back, and Moor P&S share fifth place, nine points off second spot, but with a game in hand.

Meanwhile, there was no change at the top of the Second Division with the top three sides recording 4-1 victories. Stourbridge Institute B, who had suffered only their second defeat last week, resumed normal progress to win at Kingswinford RBL B.

Wombourne remained four points away in second place, when they dropped only one frame away to Stourbridge Institute C, for whom Stephen Metcalfe-Taylor inflicted the first defeat on John Wooldridge in eight frames, and they have a three point cushion over third placed Amblecote Institute C, who lost only one frame against Stourbridge’s D team.