MALTON, winners of the York Conservatives Clubs' Carlsberg UK Snooker League for the last two years, began their quest for a hat-trick of titles with a 4-3 defeat at Bootham 'B'.

Paul Scorfield (20 break) got the home side off to a good start with victory over Steve Pawson and, although R Taylor replied for Malton against John Wortley, Bootham rattled off the next three frames thanks to Paul Mahoney, Matt Smith and Andy Proud's victories over Steve Beal, Dan Pawson and Lee Taylor (20 break).

Malton managed to pull the last two frames back, with Roger Ward and Phil Hart beating Paul Powell and Lionel Barnes, to make the score more respectable.

Acomb 'A', last year's runners-up, also suffered a setback as they lost 4-3 against their 'B' team.

Dan Potter started the season well with breaks of 27 and 23 in victory over Jeff Winter but Kevin Ventress overcame Nick Marchant to level the match and wins for Brian Henry over Keith Thornhill and John Ashwell against Paul Holmes put the 'B' team 3-1 up.

Phil Carlton pulled a frame back but Andy Stone maintained the 'B' team's lead with a comfortable win over Roland Cox. Richard Lillie won the final frame of the night with a solid display over Steve Rodgers.

Fulford 'A' established a 4-0 lead over Heworth 'A' at home with Glen Mountain leading the way against Mark Winskill. He was soon followed by Sam Wass defeating Keith Lawrence, Dale Rout (21 break) seeing off Nick Dyson and Sam Parkinson getting the better of James Kilmartin.

Heworth pulled two frames back as Jordan Worobec managed to beat Alan Reed with some good snookers and Clive Whyte (22 break) just pipped Tom Lewis in a hard fought match but Jim Lee beat Gary Douglas to give Fulford 'A' a 5-2 win.

Fulford 'B' beat Heworth 'B' 4-3. Phil Cooke led the way for Fulford beating Dave Beattie only for Wayne Pullan (30 break) to reply with victory over Dean Smith.

Andy Ogley and Bob Smith beat Peter Henderson and Andy Ireland as Fulford went 3-1 up only for Martin Johnson (22 break) and Ian Strickland, on the black, to level for Heworth against Andy Hurley and Joe Kimbling.

That comeback was in vain, though, when Jim Rollinson clinched the last frame over Simon Whiteley.