BRADFORD maintained their fantastic form in the Yorkshire Inter-District Billiards League with another 5-2 victory – this time against Huddersfield No 2 at Great Horton Cricket Club.

In an absorbing first game, Paul Devitt did most of the early scoring before Huddersfield opponent Julian Hodge produced a break of 68 to lead 102-69.

Aided by a run of 32, Devitt made it 160-160 and both players then missed chances to close out the game before Hodge triumphed 200- 189.

The game between Steve Wilman and Huddersfield's Jezz Ford was short on highlights but a break of 37 by Ford proved insufficient to prevent a Bradford win by 200-171 to level the scores.

The third game was then strictly one-way traffic as Stephen Kershaw produced a string of breaks around the 30 mark to beat John Ingleby 200-71 and secure the win for Bradford.

Kershaw was also in action at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds after qualifying for the last 32 of the English Billiards Championship.

Matches were of 90 minutes, and, after an hour of his first match, Kershaw only trailed by 44 to Darren Kell, before his opponent then had an 83 break to pull away and win 446-238.

In his second match, Kershaw fell almost 100 behind to Peter Shelley but a break of 94 pulled Bradford's captain back into it and he edged a 317-303 victory.

The final match in this 'group of death' was Kershaw's toughest on paper – and so it proved against recent World Billiards Championship runner-up Rob Hall, who produced breaks of 152, 285 and 238.

The Bradford Billiards Championship takes place at Cue Gardens on Saturday, with registration accepted up to 11.45am.

Play will commence at 12.15pm and the entry fee is £12. For queries, contact Kershaw on 07815-014198.

League leaders and defending champions Bradford No 1 are in snooker action in Division One of the Yorkshire Inter-District League when they take on Harrogate at Undercliffe Cricket Club on Sunday (7.30pm).

Bradford No 2's match with Sheffield No 3 has been put back to the following Sunday at Cue Gardens.