TOTTINGTON A made good use of their home advantage with a good win over Walmersley. The first two games were split between the two teams with Dave Nicholson recording a close victory over Steve Barcroft and Sid Bailey experiencing a rare home defeat at the hands of Tony Sudhurst.

Tottington turned the screw in the second half of the match. Neil Rigby comfortably beat Ray Pearson and Phil Spring made light of his 55-handicap and had the best win of the night when he overcame Bill Mitchell.

As a result of the two matches on January 13, Walshaw and Tottington A became joint league-leaders on 40 points each with Tottington B on 38 points. The top three teams all play each other in what will be crunch matches in the last three weeks of the league season.

At the other end of the table, Prestwich and Walmersley are also level with 31 points each. Prestwich have a game in hand. In the Tottington v Prestwich game on Saturday, Colin Laithwaite was in good form on his return to the team and he had a comfortable win over a somewhat out-of-form Wayne Usher.

Bruce Holden kept Tottington in the match, beating Mark Prosser by 24 points. Ted Nadin failed to take advantage of his handicap and was outplayed by Bob Capron in a somewhat scrappy game.

The final game was a tense battle and Andy Lester started well to build up a good lead over John Birtwistle who found his form late in the game and made a good recovery from 40 points down. His efforts were in vain, however, and Lester finally won by just seven points.

Mount Engraving Trophy quarter-finals: (to be played by February 27) Dave Samuels v Phil Spring; Allan Conchie v Bruce Holden; Andy Lester v Colin Laithwaite; John Birtwistle v Barry Weall.