BRADFORD'S billiards team completed their Yorkshire Inter-District League fixtures with a 7-5 defeat at a very strong Harrogate team.

In a topsy-turvy first game, Paul Devitt led 23-0, only to trail 86-23 following a break of 31 and several smaller contributions from his opponent Stephen Crosland.

But Devitt responded with a 57 to to reduce the deficit to 86-80 and then continued his revival to win 200-118 and take Bradford into a 3-1 lead.

A break of 49 gave Steve Wilman an early advantage in the next match but Harrogate's Tom Halliday dug in to win a close contest 200-187, leaving Bradford 5-4 in front.

Bradford captain Stephen Kershaw also had an early break of 31 but Harrogate's Jonathan Marwood was in fine form, breaks of 56, 36 and 32 helping to take the game 200-64, giving Harrogate overall victory.

Bradford still lead the table with 55 points, having completed all their fixtures, while Harrogate have 50 with one match still to play and Huddersfield No 1 have 43 with two to play, so both could still overhaul the front-runners.

Bradford's No 1 snooker side shared six frames in a very entertaining match with runaway Division One leaders Castleford No 1 at Undercliffe Cricket Club.

Wayne Cooper took both frames off Yorkshire champion Mikey Tomlinson 52-18 and 95-0, with a break of 82 in the second, but Kevin Firth came up against an in-form Daniel Womersley, who is fresh from being invited to the recent Snooker Shootout, where he performed well against the main tour players.

Firth lost 68-38 and 89-0, with Womersley making a beak of 72, but the best of the matches came at the end.

Bradford's Lewis Walsh set off straight away with a break of 59, but opponent Peter Fisher cleared with 67 at the next visit for a 67-59 win, but Walsh levelled the match at 3-3 with a 36 break to take it 56-40.

The side are next in action on Saturday at the Northern Snooker Centre, where they take on Leeds No 1 in a rearranged fixture.

The deadline for entries into this year's Bradford Snooker Handicap is on Sunday.

Anyone who wishes to enter can still do so but they swiftly need to contact tournament director Eddie Ratcliffe on 07790-379832.