Thrilling start
BEFORE we move on to the first round of ties, I think a brief introduction and recap of the Gunson Cup would be of interest.
Around the time of 1959/60, Dave Gunson, a formidable player of those days gone by (he was a five-time winner of the Southport Mens Closed Championship) thought of the idea of a handicap knockout tournament, which would give the lower teams in the league a fighting chance of winning some silverware.
So in the 1960/61 season, The Gunson Cup was first competed for.
Back then a considered handicap was given to the lower ranked side, which hopefully made it more competitive and fairer.
That system was still in place until around seven/eight years ago, when individual player handicaps were introduced.
A team’s handicap is now calculated by adding the players’ handicap together, doubling it (as they play two contests) and then taking one team’s handicap away from the other, resulting in the handicap for the lower team.
A process which is very challenging for the elected committee.
Just to add, a further addition to the Main Event was the introduction of The Gunson Plate in the 2004/05 season, which gave a ‘second bite of the cherry’ to all those teams beaten in the 1st round.
Well, here we go, and to ensure we arrive at the round of 16 teams, there were three byes given to Argyle C, Argyle G and Sandstorm F.
Unfortunately there were two ties that were conceded, Rainford and Argyle D progressed after Argyle E and Crosby B conceded respectively.
Net Team Handicaps are shown in the brackets. So, eight contests of first to eleven points, with 440 team points available, with every point counting.
SANDSTORM C (64) 402 CROSBY A 397
WHAT a great start we had in this all top tier clash. With 64 pts to make up, the visitors came so close to overturning the hosts advantage, even by winning seven contests outright they still fell short by just 5 points. Great cup tie.
CROSBY E (278) 401 ARGYLE A 440
THIRD division Crosby, gave an excellent account of themselves in protecting their 278 pt advantage, but a match winning performance from Julian Quirk, who only dropped 21pts in his two encounters, saw the visitor’s through with 39 pts to spare.
SOUTHPORT C (38) 368 FORMBY VILLAGE C 384
ANOTHER close tie here with the 3rd division hosts just being edged out by a Formby team only four places above them in the league, Just 16 pts was the gap with Brian Crolley who was the only player to hit a maximum 110 pts in his two contests being difference between the sides..
SOUTHPORT D (178) 374 SANDSTORM D 434
A near perfect performance from one of the Division 2 frontrunners was just too much for the Division 3 leaders who to be fair were understrength. Phil O’Mullane with 70 pts won was Southport’s best performer against Nick and Ged Wilson, whilst Pat Merry and Jeff Cummins did well against Dave Britton and Martyn Coleman. Young Kian Holt took the brunt of the Sandstorm’s assault, but certainly showed plenty of spirit and a pretty good topspin forehand, keep it going young man.
SOUTHPORT B (132) 383 SOUTHPORT A 416
A terrific opportunity lay in wait for Southport’s 2nd Division B team against their illustrious first Division A team, and with Liam Chau recording an aggregate 92-92 against Mark Barnes and Danny Woods, the prospect of sneaking a ‘bragging rights’ win looked to be a distinct possibility.
With both Baljeet Saluga and Liam Whiteley also chipping in with good performances against Jonny Cummins and Bernhard Frank then this one could well go down to the wire.
But then disaster struck, when Jim Irving in the last contest of the night had to retire injured, in effect handing the A team 52 points, and the match by a 33 point margin.
Tough on the B team, but their sites will be now on the Plate.
SANDSTORM E (78) 389 CROSBY D 403
DIVISION 2 leaders Crosby D travelled to Princes St to face Sandstorm E who had a 78 pt advantage. Great performance here from the hosts, highlighted by the fact they restricted the visitors to just one 55 pt maximum score and overturned 37 pts off their maximum target. Sarang Sapre and Issy Hamer were the key performers in their victory by just 14 pts in the end.
FORMBY VILLAGE A 330 SANDSTORM B (24) 383
STRANGELY, Sandstorm B who are four places above their hosts were 24 pts the better off at the start of this all first Division clash. This was mainly due to their inclusion of Norman Cutler stepping up from their F team, who turned out to be the matchwinner with an 84-100 aggregate score, which helped increase that start to 53 pts winning margin.
FORMBY VILLAGE D 260 CROSBY G (10) 342
CROSBY G or Family Glowacki plus Hubert certainly had their ‘tails up’ in this one against an understrength Formby side, so much so that with an 82 pt lead, the last contest was not played.
ARGYLE F (190) 324 FORMBY VILLAGE B 438
WHEN the side without the handicap only drops two points, and the margin of victory is 114 pts, then the only conclusion is the handicaps were somewhat array. Of course there is also the fact the hosts are in their first ever season, up against a very experienced outfit. Rethink in progress!
CROSBY F (218) 459 ARGYLE B 436
THIS was a great all round team performance from the ever improving Crosby youngsters. With a decent advantage of 218 pts, against an experienced Argyle B, they did exactly what they had to, clinching the win by 23 pts. Looked like a fabulous match.
CROSBY C (312) 420 SANDSTORM A 440
EVEN with the largest advantage of the round, the hosts with a 312 points start, was not enough to keep the runaway leaders of the Division 1 at bay, who were just one of two sides who recorded the maximum 440 pts. Ominous!
Well, overall not a bad result concerning the handicaps. Obviously there will need to be a few tweaks here and there, and maybe more than just a tweak in places, so hopefully the Committee will be on them in time for the next round during w/c 29th January.
Also The Gunson Plate 1st round will be played alongside the main event.
So, all information can be found at southport. ttleagues.com