No halting Princes’ march to the treble
CROSBY B ..................... 370 PRINCES ST A .............. 420
OUR end of season finale, the Gunson Cup Final was finally fought out between the same teams that contested the Premier Division Cup aka The Anon Cup.
Yes, Crosby B’s ‘Young Guns’ had the chance of revenge against league Champions Princes St A, but this time they would be awarded a 90-point advantage over their illustrious rivals, who themselves could clinch a remarkable treble.
There was just the one change to the line-up in that 1-6 loss, Josh Tomlinson came in for Toby McLaughlin at number 4.
So, could that change anything for the young Crosby side?
Their Captain Ciaran Lynch was first up to test the water against Colin Turner, who got off to a flyer, taking the first 4-11.
It was much better from Ciaran after that shaky start as he clawed back to salvage a very decent return of 40-52 to Colin.
Charlie Williams then set about challenging Princes St number one Matty Wilson, and was in fact making great progress trailing by just five points, until Matty’s experience began to tell in the final two games which he took with some ease, giving him a valuable 35-54 win.
Well, that was a third of the advantage gone in just two contests, and things got decidedly worst for the ‘Young Guns’ in the next two games, as first Jack Savage and then Josh Tomlinson felt the brunt of Sam Piece and Captain Michael Stewart’s masterful play, mustering just 51 points between them against the Champions 109 points.
An ominous feeling now seemed to have descended on the Crosby camp, with that advantage down to a solitary point at 216-215 at the halfway stage.
Ciaran then tried to recover the almost lost cause with a 35-55 valiant display against Matty, before Charlie again proved how much he had improved this season with an outright 48-47 win over Michael.
Not forgetting he is the leagues reigning Singles Champion where he had taken quite a few impressive scalps on his way to that famous victory.
Back to the present though, and with a deficit of 18 points to overturn the ‘Young Guns’, threw ‘caution to the wind’, with first Josh taking a sizable chunk from an out of sorts Sam, in a 32-50 loss.
After which Jack rounded off the evening with an impressive 39 point haul against Colin, which gave us a final score of 370-420 Princes St A, and the ‘Treble ‘was theirs.
Congratulations to them and commiserations to a wonderful entertaining young Crosby side, who are indeed a credit to their club and the Southport League.
A great night’s Table Tennis with probably the right outcome in the end was concluded with the presentation of the trophies and the all-important Gunson Cup. A very surprised Irene Mullan, was plucked from the audience to do the honours. Much appreciated Irene, a very good job!
Well, that’s it for this season, and fittingly it has ended with the Crowning of an exceptional team Princes St A, who are the first team to do the feat of the Treble since 1975 when St. Teresas A completed it 47 years ago.
Of course, there is a distinctive connection here, St Teresas TTC first became Waddington TTC, before another forced move meant they became
Princes St TTC and that’s where this present team has its root’s embedded, just history repeating itself I suppose.
Overall, not a bad season at all, (a great one in fact) although there were some doubts at the start, the new structure of four Divisions really paid off in the end.
With the Cup Competitions being purposely held back to after the league programme was finished, this did cause a few headaches, but the return to play after Covid and the subsequent season we have experienced, can be regarded as a triumph.
Just a small niggle, as there always is, the Gunson handicaps could have been better, but without a ‘crystal ball’ then the task will remain a difficult one.
Thoughts and ideas on a postcard please.
Looking forward, changes will certainly be on the agenda for next season, but we will have to wait and see what develops there.
In the meantime all information can be found on our website at southport.ttleagues.com. You never know, you could get involved – cheers and take care!