All go at business end
HERE we go four Finals in five nights, it can only be the last week of the season!
Let’s take them chronologically.
Monday – Gunson Plate Final Southport D v Formby Village B at Argyle Tennis Club.
Third Division Southport were given a 62 point start against Second Division Formby in what turned out to be an all time classic match with the result anyone’s guess until the final nailbiting game, a great start to the week.
Formby’s Janette Hutchings played Jordan Shandley first up and was remorseless and ruthless in equal measure as she took a stranglehold on the match winning and only conceding 21 points in the process- a great start for Formby.
Liam Whiteley has been in great form for Southport this season and he was selected to play Formby’s Audrey McGing, surely one on the League’s most improved players. Five very close games and 49-41 to Liam the outcome.
Southport had halted the Formby momentum.
The next match was a huge result for Southport with Baljeet Saluja beating the Formby No.4 Steve McGing 54-31 to widen the gap between the teams. Southport’s Liam Chau has had a debut season to remember and came into this match as the League’s D3 singles champion.
His opponent Ned Hassan has made a great recovery from injury and is now hitting his best form.
Both players were looking to introduce their attacking shots and we were treated to five super games with Ned coming out on top 55-45. At the halfway point the score stood at Southport 233 Formby 182.
It was imperative for Formby that they made some quick inroads into that lead and Steve did just that beating Liam Whiteley 51-40 and clawing back 11 points but was that enough? Ned gave Formby further hope with a great 52-36 win against Baljeet.
In the penultimate game Audrey played Jordan and Formby really needed a big win but Jordan did well to limit the losses to just five points.
That left Janette with having to beat Liam Chau by 16 points and to win every game by a least 3 or 4 points. It was a difficult task and the youngster eventually prevailed 47-40 in a tense and nervy affair to give the final match score of Southport 398 Formby 374. An utterly enthralling game and a brilliant start to the week was capped off with Southport League legend Jim Booth who kindly donated the beautiful new Plate trophy presenting it to the winners, Southport D but honestly congratulations must go to both teams for a wonderful match.
Tuesday – Gunson Cup Final Southport A v Princes St B at Argyle Tennis Club
The shock news coming out of the Princes camp was that their No.1 and talisman Phil Petts was injured so they called up
Jordan Pipet from the E team.
The teams were very evenly matched as illustrated by the handicap, a start of just 16 points for the Princes’, reflecting the fact that they had not one but two subs from the E team as Genadi also played in place of the still injured Ray Hibbs.
Josiah Nix gave Princes St a great start beating the dangerous Jonny Cummings 51-42. The second match between Princes’ Steve Collins and Southport’s Mark Barnes was a mirror of the first match with big hitting and countering and with Mark shading an incredibly close contest by just two points.
Southport’s Danny Woods managed to get the better of Genadi but only by four points.
The closeness of these contests set the tone for the evening. However serendipity was about to show her hand as late sub Jordan produced a fabulous performance to beat the experienced German defender Bernhard Frank 50-39.
Mixing patience with attacking intent, Jordan waited for the right ball to loop and kill.