With East Budleigh ‘B’ running away with the Exmouth Snooker League, the question of who will take the wooden spoon is a much more closer call, and a number of teams battling to avoid this unwanted ‘honour’.

East Budleigh ‘A’ sit at the foot of the table after losing to their closest rivals Police Social Club ‘B’. With three frames decided on the black, two for David Binmore 73-59 and Dave Thomas 57-53 and one for East Budleigh’s Bert Savage 70-68, the Police ‘B’ left 4-1 winners as Bob Horton 79-47 and Pete Manfield 92-49 secured their best win to date.

Police ‘B’ recorded their ninth match win with Bob Horton 86-77, Terry Merrick 80-30 and Aaron Evens 59-40 winning the deciding frame after Mike Delahaye 76-59 and Rob Pow 71-53 brought the Police ‘A’ level after four frames.

Defending champions, Police ‘A’, are 4th, in the ratings as Mike Delahaye 74-43, Kieron Prosser 51-37, Pete Abrahams 46-16 and Rob Pow 59-48 were denied maximum points by Bob Alexander of 3rd-placed Police ‘C’.

East Budleigh ‘B’ stretched their overall lead to16 points after Stu Laws 96(29)-30, Jamie Gulliford 84(39)-59 and Shaun New 66-60 saw the final two frames lost to John Parrott 61-53 and Paul Keates 52-10 of the Police ‘C’.

But, they lost their latest encounter to Police ‘D’s John Sharland 74-23, Kevin Proctor 74-46 and Dave Lance 74-41. Shaun New won the third frame 78-20 with a fine break of 50, just two short of the highest so far by Carl Rowsell’s 52.

Police ‘D’ have four matches to play to finish runners-up. After trailing East Budleigh’A’s Steve Vittles 67-43 and Bert Savage 49-12, Craig Wilson 68-38, Kevin Proctor 62-53 and Dave Lance 72-69 prevailed. East Budleigh ‘A’ are losing too many black-ball deciders for their liking.