BEEFY Brian Sims has made a big impact on the East Lancs sporting scene for close on 20 years -- and that's not just because he's "on the wrong side of 20 stone."

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone with more enthusiasm for cricket and soccer, snooker and pool than 42 year-old Brian.

But snooker is his first love and tonight he will be hoping to steer Clitheroe Legion into the closing stages of the Lancashire small table snooker championship for the fourth time in nine years.

The Legion won the tournament in 1993 and 1997 and were just pipped in last year's final by Falcon (Poulton). Tonight they take on Cemetery (Darwen) in the quarter-finals.

Brian, as shrewd as they come, has held the Legion team together over the years with Russell Large, Paul Clark and Nigel Schofield. Colin Morton has played with them for most of that time and the team has a good following from the thriving club.

It's not easy lugging more than 20 stones round a snooker table and Brian doesn't play much these days. He's had problems with his health and does well to get about as much as he does.

"I am getting better slowly,' He says "I'm getting more confident, but it hasn't been easy. I still rattle from all the pills I have to take."

Tonight, Big Brian will have only one thing on his mind -- a semi-final place and, hopefully, the chance of a revenge win in the final against one of the crack Blackpool outfits.

There's not much love lost between East Lancs and the Fylde. "They think we're all cloth caps and whippets," says the paunchy potter. Brian started playing snooker at St Michael and St John Social Centre in Clitheroe and went on to play with his pals at JR's snooker club in the town, now the site of a Tesco store. He moved on to the Legion and grabbed the chance of winning county small table honours.

There's hardly anyone in East Lancashire snooker, apart from the top players, who is better known than Brian Sims and he is almost always on the front row for the big games.

Surprisingly, the best match he has ever seen came less than a week ago -- Dave Harold (Stoke) against Preston's Ian McCullough at St Michael's and St John's. McCullough had a 101 and a 141; Harold had a 104 and a 147.

"I've seen a few games in my time, but this was the best," he says.

Clitheroe's best player? No doubt about it -- Norman Burgess, says Brian, who recalled Burgess potting the black to win the Lancashire championship against Blackburn's Steve Longworth in the early 70s, only to go in-off. Teenager Peter Mercer, coached by Mick Caddy, is a local player to watch out for, he reckons, and he has also been very impressed with young Chris Norbury from Accrington, who is "a peg and a half" better than anyone else among the Lancashire under-15s.

East Lancs snooker would be a lot poorer without the involvement of Brian Sims. He calls a spade a spade, lays his cards on the table and "if you don't like it you can lump it."

As he says: "You can always apologise later." Brian isn't averse to pulling the occasional fast one but he's so easy-going he never seems to have much to apologise for!