No major shocks as
APRINCES St derby got things underway in the Anon Cup with the club’s D and F teams competing in a preliminary round, to give us a 32 team first round draw - and what a decent opener they served up.
Wins from Colin Fyles, Irene Mullan and Ian Lunt put the second division outfit in a commanding position, before Brian Holden got one back for the F team.
Ian and Irene then inflicted more damage to the third division team’s ambitions, making the score 5-1, but a stubborn mini revival, made the D team wait another two encounters, before a 6-3 victory was eventually clinched.
With the proviso that all first division teams are seeded so as not to meet in the first round, then 11 teams would be faced with an unenviable task.
Which was exactly what happened as eight lower teams failed to register a single point, whilst the only top tier hiccups occurred when Princes St D’s Gordon Wood and Derek Aitkin with a win apiece put the brakes on Argyle A’s progression, and Waterloo A’s Peter Roberts did likewise with just a single win against Princes St A.
An understrength Argyle C kept up their good second division form against their G team from the 3rd, coming out on top 7-3, where Lewis Hible’s full quota of wins accounted for all Argyle G’s points.
That was also the scoreline in another third versus second division clash between Crosby G and Argyle E, where again the second division side triumphed but only after young Jack Savage with a three from three (including a doubles win with Pat Hyde) kept his side in it until Lol Philips clinched the win for the visitors.
Holy Trinity B’s all second division home clash with Crosby E again had a very similar pattern, home player Keith Dudley being the main reason his side were still in with a chance, two single successes along with a doubles win with Janette Hutchings, made the score 3-5, but visiting captain Elliot Cooper had the last word with his second singles win to ensure his side’s progression.
Argyle J were unlucky to lose a player very early on in their home match against North Meols, resulting in a comfortable win for the visitors. So in all, the lower sides had a somewhat tortuous time against their illustrious counterparts, but on the plus side, getting the chance to play them is surely an experience to learn from.
That was exactly the way third division Crosby H approached their visit to top tier Argyle B.
Yes, it was fairly straightforward for the home side, but youngsters Louie Cooper and Luke Govier, as well as Dan Gresty and captain Andrew Hawkins, made a great effort in making a game of it, and with all 10 contests played out, then a few lessons would surely have been learnt on the way, giving a lot of credit to both sides.
One match’s result is still outstanding leaving just Southport B’s visit to Argyle D, which turned out to be the tie of the round, by some distance.
Mike Rice making his debut for the visitors got them off to great start, overcoming Callum Richardson in four games.
Les Dodd then tied things up with a three straight win against Jeff Cummins, only for Alan Nolan to repay the compliment verses Les Lord to put his side back in front.
Despite losing the first against Jim Irving, Nick Miller then took the next three to make it 2-2, after which the doubles couldn’t put any daylight between the teams, and with one win each, it was now 3-3.
Alan then capped off a great evening for himself by just getting the edge on Callum in a five game thriller, 11-13 in the fifth, before Les Dodd too chipped in with his second win of the evening to square things up again at 4-4.
With the match score so delicately poised, countback to games won could come into play, and Argyle held the upper hand leading 17-14.
So when Nick took to the table to face Mike, all he needed was a win of any margin, and the tie would be theirs, which he duly obliged in fine style, 11-8, 11-7, 12-10.
Jeff finished the match off with a five game win over Les Lord, to even the tie up again, but was really academic as Argyle progress to the second round, 22-17 on games won.
With everyone in the hat without seedings in the second round, which also applies to the Plate (first round losers) competition, then hopefully there should be plenty of drama.
Back to league action next week, for more information go to
www.tabletennis365.com/southport