Rainford double up on silverware
WITH the table tennis season racing to an exciting conclusion we were entertained with three matches this week.
Let’s start with the first semi final of the Gunson (Handicap) Cup between 2nd Division Princes St D and Premier League high flyers Crosby B.
With a modest 122 point start it looked like the Princes had an uphill struggle against a young, talented Crosby team.
Crosby skipper Ciaran Lynch got the visitors off to a great start beating his opposing number 1 Colin Fyles 55-24. The expected Crosby dominance continued unabated as they clawed back the points deficit but this understates the valiant fight put up by the Princes. However, by halfway the score was Princes 243 Crosby 219 with the start all but eroded.
Jack Savage won his games against Frank Proffitt and Ian Lunt.
Josh Tomlinson also won both his games but was made to work hard by Karen Gibson and especially veteran Frank Proffit. In what would turn out to be the octogenarian’s final match before retiring, he was able to take 29 points off young Josh.
Karen played superbly in her defeat to wonder kid and current Town
Champion Charlie Williams but with two games to go it looked over for the Princes as they trailed by five points.
In the penultimate match Colin played the game of his life only losing by five points to Charlie and even took a game off him. So, in the final match between the two captains could Ian complete a miraculous comeback? No, was the very quick answer as Ciaran very professionally took care of business to guide his team to the final. Crosby win by 53 points.
In the second semi final Premier League Champions Princes St A took on their F team of the 2nd division. This turned out to be an absolute epic match.
Matt Wilson pulled back 34 points of the F team’s 166 advantage beating Dave Noden. However a tremendous performance by F team’s Darren Taylor limiting his loss to Colin Turner to just 10 points helped redress the balance. Things got even better for the F team when Dave Noden actually beat the A team skipper Michael Stewart 50-43, an incredible result. Could the all conquering Princes A be going out?
Normal service was resumed with Sam Pierce beating Darren 55-22, quickly followed by Matt securing a 35 point win against Genady Michael beating opposing captain
Mullan 55-20.
In a tremendous fightback Genady and Colin and his Dave produced some excellent table tennis before Colin secured his 55-27 win and Sam was run extremely close by Dave Mullan losing a game before completing a 52-39 win. This all added up to a 15 point margin of victory – brilliant handicapping – and the A team progressed to what is sure to be a wonderful final with Crosby B.
Despite two wonderful matches the best was yet to come.
The Division 2 final was held at Argyle where the Champions Rainford took on Princes St D – who had played so well against Crosby the previous night. The Princes recalled Christine Foley for the now retired Frank but were otherwise unchanged.
Rainford lined up with Division 2 closed Champion Rob Midgley, Jim Bolton, Nick Roberts and captain Paul Melling.
The first game between Chris Foley and Nick Roberts set the tone for the night; close, tense, top quality and played in an excellent sporting spirit. After five nail biting games Nick won 3-2 to give Rainford
a great start.
Next the no 1s played each other. Colin Fyles v Rob Midgley and Colin continued his brilliant form with a superb 3-1 win. The final, match winning point had to be seen to be believed. Incredible returns from both players ending with an unstoppable winner by Colin.
In the battle of the captains Paul Melling restored Rainford’s advantage with an excellent 3-1 defeat of Ian Lunt.
However, Colin was having none of it and returned with another powerhouse display to account for Jim Bolton to equalise the match score.
Not to be out done in the Player of the Match competition Nick then took on and beat Karen Gibson three straight.
The two doubles matches proved to be pivotal with Rainford winning both to take a 5-2 lead. Again, the play was high quality and Nick’s match winning shot beggars’ belief
The Princes needed to win the remaining 3 matches to tie the final, could they do it?
Karen produced a sensational performance to beat Paul 3-2 .
In the penultimate match Chris took on D2 champ Rob and against all the odds secured an amazing 3-1 win, 5-4 to Rainford with one game to play.
Princes captain Ian took the first to get their hopes up but Jim battled back and prevailed 3-1 . Rainford win 6-4.
This was a deserved victory for Rainford to cap a brilliant season and the double for them.
You have to feel sorry for Princes D after two narrow defeats in consecutive evenings but in all honesty, table tennis was the real winner.
All information can be found at southport. ttleagues.com