Keen competition in bid for cup final slots
WITH the Cup campaigns coming to a climax there is still all to play for in the Southport Table Tennis League for many teams. This week saw the semi finals of the three Divisional Cups.
We start our round up with two tremendously close encounters in the Division 3 competition.
First up Formby Village C were hoping to put the disappointment of just missing out on promotion to one side and beat visitors Argyle E to make the final.
Angus Taylor, happily restored to full heath after a recent heart operation, got Argyle off to a great start beating Terry Hurst three straight, only for the ever impressive Jackson Cockbain to level things up beating Ray Clarke.
Mark Jagger restored Argyle’s lead with a straight forward win against Dave Dunne and Ray Clarke extended the lead when he beat Les Page 3-1.
Andy Horne took Argyle into a 4-1 lead with a win against Terry only for Jackson to complete his customary double with a three straight win against Mark to make it Formby 2 Argyle 4.
Angus Taylor beat Les Page conceding only 10 points in the process only for Dave to record a super win against Andy to give Formby hope of a great recovery.
Argyle must have expected to clinch the win when they paired their two most experienced players Mark and Angus in first doubles but their nerves must have been stretched to breaking point when Jackson and his partner Terry pulled off an incredible 3-2 win to bring the match score back to 5-4 to Argyle with just the final doubles to play.
Those nerves must have been shot when Dave and Les took the first game but, to their credit, Ray and Andy rallied to take it 3-1 and clinch the match 6-4 to see Argyle progress to the final.
Argyle F entertained Champions Crosby E in the other semi. Robert Yeung got the hosts off to a superb start with a 3-1 defeat of Crosby captain Harry Hobson, only for young Callum Critchley to redress the balance beating Phil Marshall three straight.
Callum stayed on the table to take on Les Lord and after an epic battle managed to win 3-2 to give Crosby an early advantage.
Callum’s father, Mark, then increased the lead for the visitors beating Paul Marshall. This was another match that went the distance, Paul doing really well to battle back from 2-0 down only to lose the decider 11-9.
Les then took on Crosby No.1 Peter Crichton and again the match went to five games this time in favour of Argyle.
Peter remained on the table this time playing Robert who pulled off a superb win for Argyle to level the match score 3-3.
Harry got the Champions back on course beating Paul before Mark completed an excellent double beating Phil to increase the Crosby lead to 5-3.
Les and Robert took the first doubles against the Critchley’s but any hopes that Argyle had of pulling off a shock win were extinguished by a professional performance by Harry and Peter against the Marshall’s to give us a final score of Argyle F 4 Crosby E 6 and set up a Final between Crosby E and Argyle E which will be held at Princes St on Wednesday 23rd March.
In the First Division Princes St B took on Argyle A for the right to meet Champions Princes St A in the Final. Princes St A had been due to play Crosby B in the other semi-final but they unfortunately conceded the game due to unavailability of eligible players.
Our featured match involved Princes St B who were hosting Argyle A.
It has been a great season for both teams. Princes St were promoted last season and exceeded all expectations by coming second in the League whilst Argyle have had to overcome adversity in the form of unavailability of star players Julian Quirk (injury) and Ben Aitken (work commitments) for much of the season.
Despite that they still finished a creditable fourth.
With Stephen Collins unavailable and a long term injury to their captain Ray Hibbs, Princes St had made sure that Gennadi and Jordan Pipet from their E team were eligible to play by playing sufficient league matches for the B team and not being cup tied.
They were joined by Phil Petts and Josiah Nix. Argyle came with Julian Quirk, Michael McCormack, Monica Coogan and Paul Lunan playing up from the B team.
Unfortunately the Princes’ captain spotted a problem because whilst Paul wasn’t cup tied he hadn’t played enough league matches for the A team to qualify to play in a semi final.
Sportingly, Ray Hibbs pointed this out to the Argyle team because had Paul played then they would have been disqualified for playing an ineligible player. So, Paul withdrew and Argyle started the match 2-0 down – a difficult situation but not one was wasn’t retrievable.
Julian called himself and Josiah Nix on as the first game. This was a fascinating game with both players putting outrageous amounts of spin on the ball and long rallies with great hitting and wonderful retrievals ensued. Julian took a 2-0 lead but Josiah won the next two games to level it only for Julian to redouble his efforts and take the decider 11-7, a brilliant match.
The next match was between Gennadi and Mike and most observers thought that the established First Division player would beat the Latvian.
Not a bit of it though as Gennadi produced a peerless display, undoubtedly his best of a wonderful season for him, to win three straight.
Normally Mike’s heavy topspin loop is a potent weapon but on this occasion Gennadi blocked and hit through it.
On this form Gennadi will make some impact on Division 1 next season.
Jordan Pipet then took on Monica Coogan. Monica is a superb player, a really doughty opponent. She never gives up, pushes and chops with backspin and patience and pounces on any errors with a vicious forehand kill. Jordan, on the other hand, is an attacker happy to loop on both forehand and backhand.
Monica with her measured game took the first but Jordan levelled in the second and won a nervy third game 12-10.
Monica dug in and Jordan started to miss a few attacking shots. Monica sensed a weakness and picked off any errors with her forehand of unnerving accuracy.
The decider marked a complete change of tactics from Jordan as he retreated from the table and allowed Monica to take the initiative and hit with Jordan looking to return sometimes with float and sometimes with topspin.
The tactics certainly worked well and seemed to surprise Monica as Jordan took the final game 11-3 and give Princes St a 4-1 match lead.
Julian returned to the table to take on the Princes’ No.1 Phil Petts. Julian was unable to get his game going against Phil who uses long pimples to great effect. Julian tried everything but was unable to make any impression in the match losing 11-6,11-5,11-6.
The Princes’ clinched the match in the next game with Josiah beating Monica three straight. Josiah was once again in tremendous form looping on both backhand and forehand and making improbable returns off
Monica’s forehand hits. Final score, 6-1 to Princes St B who now play their A team cousins in the Final at Princes St on Friday 24th March.
In the Division 2 Cup we had two tremendous matches, Crosby D were home to divisional runners up Rainford Synergy whilst in the other semi final Formby Village B travelled to Argyle C.
Despite an inspired display by Crosby’s Cherith Graham, comfortably winning both her singles and partnering mum Sylvia Graham to win their doubles match, Rainford triumphed 7-3 to take their place in the Final.
Rainford captain Paul Melling was effusive in his praise for Cherith. He said: “She was absolutely outstanding and absolutely battered Josef (Koudelik) and Rob (Midgley, Division two singles champion)”.
The other semi final was an absolute classic. Ted Cramsie made a great start for Formby beating Tony Sawyer but home captain Adrian Hyland levelled things up with a win against Steve McGing.
Lewis Hible then beat Ned Hassan to give Argyle the lead. Janette Hutchings produced one of her best performances of the season beating Les Dodd in five games.
The doubles were then shared between the team to leave the match score 3-3.
An excellent win by Steve against Tony restored the lead for Formby and things got even better for them with Ted beating Lewis 11-5 in the fifth.
Ned gave his all to try to beat Les but the Argyle No.1 is not only an impressive player but a real competitor and prevailed 3-1. So, going into the final game of the evening Argyle captain Adrian had to beat Janette to level the score and take us to count back.
Formby must have thought that they had one foot in the Final as Janette, again playing superbly, took the first two games. Adrian won the third game 12-10 and then the fourth 11-2.
The fifth game was a real nail biter with both players having chances to win. Fittingly the decider went to deuce but agonisingly for Janette, Adrian completed a remarkable comeback to win 14-12. Final score 5-5.
Count back was 20-20 in games but Argyle won 413 points to 391 to take their place in the Final against Rainford Synergy on Thursday 23 March.