Crunch time in the Gunson knockouts
IT’S the return of the Gunson Cup and Plate and Quarter Finals week and in our search to bring you as much action as possible we made the journey to Crosby High School to watch no less than three Quarter Finals in one night – two in the Cup and one in the Plate.
In the main hall Crosby’s two First Division teams the B and C teams were doing battle in the Cup with Princes St B and Southport A respectively whilst their F team took on Southport C in the Plate.
Crosby B came into the match with high hopes and Mark Davies and Elliot Cooper were knocking up impressively. The Princes’ were led by star player Phil Petts, Steve Collins, Josiah Nix and, stepping in for the still injured Ray Hibbs, Gennady from the Second Division.
As the Princes’ warmed up and the clock ticked to the start time of 7.30pm there were worried looks on the Crosby faces as they were still two players short.
Handicaps were worked out based on the presumed Crosby players and the Princes had a modest start of 24 points.
Frantic phone calls were made to find the missing players as the first match between Mark Davies against Steve Collins was called on.
Steve made a wonderful start winning the first three games, conceding just 15 points and you had to wonder if Mark’s mind was elsewhere wondering about the absences.
Just as Crosby’s No1 Josh Parker walked in Mark staged a great fight back winning the final two games 11-7, 11-7 but it wasn’t enough to prevent an overall loss of 47-37 to stretch the Princes’ lead.
On the other table Elliot
Cooper fought out a close and entertaining match with Gennady securing a narrow 48-46 point win but crucially only taking two points off the Princes’ lead.
Elliot stayed on the table to play Josiah and what a game we were treated to. Both players went for their shots with long rallies with both of them just away from the table looping with venom and power. Josiah proved to be just that little bit more consistent, eventually winning 45-37.
Josh was immediately pressed into action to face the impressive Phil Petts. Phil with his combination of long pimples and spiny rubber was simply unplayable and Josh appeared to become more frustrated with every point. Phil showed no mercy winning 55-18 to enable the Princes’ to take a huge step to the semi final.
Josh stayed on the table and, now warmed up and playing someone with a conventional bat, gave a fine display beating Steve Collins 48-39 in an open match where both players were looking to attack.
In the unfortunate absence of their fourth player Crosby then conceded those two matches and the outcome was sealed.
In a competition where every point counts you need every player to play to their maximum and it is impossible to win without a full team.
The remaining game was played out but with no great enthusiasm by either Mark or Gennady with the Prince prevailing 54-40 to seal what, on paper, looked a very easy win overall for Princes St B. In reality what should have been a great match never had a chance to catch fire. The Princes’ advance to the Semi Final.
In the other Cup Quarter Final played that night Crosby C in the guise of Stefan Schober-Thomson, Charlie Williams, Toby McLoughlin and Josh Tomlinson took on the experienced quartet of Mark Barnes, Danny Woods, Jonny Cummins and Bernhard Frank representing Southport A.
After a difficult start to the season the Southport team have really hit form and were confident about their chances especially as they were awarded a 50 point advantage. This turned out to be a really enjoyable entertaining match.
Reigning Town Champion young Charlie Williams kicked things off taking on Jonny Cummins. Charlie needed to get his team off to a great start to claw back some of that advantage.
However,
Jonny had decided that he was going to go for everything and he looked to attack and hit at every opportunity. Great tactics as he limited Charlie’s eventual win to only 8 points.
A big indicator of how the match was going to pan out came in the next match when the vastly experienced German defender Bernhard played young Josh and recorded an impressive 55-27 win for the Southport team.
That lead was stretched even further when Mark Barnes won an exciting match against his opposing No1 Stefan, adding five points to the visitors’ lead.
Toby McLoughlin beat Danny Woods in a tactical game where each player kept the ball short before looking opportunities to attack but was only able to erode Southport’s lead by three points.
Jonny emphasised Southport’s superiority on the night beating Josh 54-34 and that 20 points added to the widening gap.
Crosby needed a couple of big wins and wonderkid Charlie duly delivered, beating Mark Barnes by 21 points.
However, any Crosby momentum was stopped in it’s tracks by a wonderful display by Bernhard beating Toby 54-35.
At this point it looked like the home team needed a miracle but none was forthcoming. In fact Danny pulled off yet another shock taking out Stefan 51-46 to confirm what in the end was a comfortable Southport win 414-320.
Where the Crosby B team was unlucky to play with only three players their C team simply met opponents who on the night, played fabulously well, and thoroughly deserved their place in the semi final.
In the Gunson Plate quarter final the Crosby F team had no more luck than their higher ranked club mates, losing by just 45 points to Southport C who had to overcome a combined handicap of 46 points.
Andy Bush and Mark Wilson were Southport’s destroyers in chief, winning both of their matches by a total margin of 37 points each.
Fellow Third Division team Princes St F joined Southport C in the Plate semi finals beating Second Division Southport B. The Princes’ had a 56 point start but wonderful individual wins by Barry Meadowcroft (beating both his higher ranked opponents), Dave Williams (pulling off a great win against Alan Nolan), Brian Holden and Jack Pierce ensured a 56 point win meaning that if there had been no handicap awarded the teams would have been level on points so a fabulous display by the lower ranked team who look forward with interest to the semi finals.