Brilliant Burscough are true Pioneers

BURSCOUGH Pioneers’ third team were crowned winners of the prestigious Watkinson Trophy, after toppling third division side St. Cuthberts 402-382.

After a well fought contest that saw Burscough prevent St. Cuthberts from reaching the all-important 400 points mark, Burscough’s handicap advantage of 132 points made it a 20-point victory in the end for the lower ranked side.

It was the perfect recovery for the fifth division side, after their defeat in the St. John’s Shield earlier in the week.

After a couple of dominant 11-1 wins in the previous rounds, as well as a +4 handicap advantage at the start of each set in the final, it was not enough to take the crown. They eventually fell 7-5 to Mawdesley V, who also ended up one place above them in the league.

Due to the shield’s current format, there is the possible of a draw. So when this situation occurs, a tie-breaker set takes place, and that is exactly what happened in the final of the Frank Simpson Shield.

Ending up taking all the spoils were St. Cuthberts IV over Southsands V. It has been a memorable season for St. Cuthberts’ fourth team, who also secured promotion from the league’s seventh division.

The shield final score-line also had a sense of irony about it as St. Cuthberts will effectively be replacing Southsands, as the latter sadly got relegated from the sixth division.

After the misery of only collecting one point in the league, a victory in the League Shield was the perfect consolation for Southport IV, as they won 7-5 against fellow third division side Churchtown III.

Along with a helpful +10 handicap advantage for each set, Southport prevailed with their third 7-5 score-line in this competition.

In the Fleetwood Hesketh Shield, it was Woodvale who ended up victorious after a comfortably 10-2 victory over Southport II.

After missing out on the league title, Woodvale responded well by making sure they ended the season with some silverware.

Despite a 12 point handicap disadvantage for each set against their lower ranked opponents, Woodvale finished off the contest early on.

Next week will be the final event of the 2017-18 season, the ‘B tournament’.

A large amount of participants have entered this year from almost all of the clubs in the league.

It takes place at Greenbank High School from the evening Friday April 13th, and ends with the finals on the evening of Sunday April 15.

All are welcome to attend and watch the competition.

For more info, be sure to check out the league’s Facebook page as well as the official website, www.southportbadminton.com which has all the latest news, results and final league tables.