Cummins completes Southport A success
CROSBY F (290) 435 SOUTHPORT A 436
THIS rearranged tie got the cup week off to a tremendous start, with the ‘gauntlet thrown down’ with an encouraging 290 point advantage given to the Third Division home side. Could the visitors claw it back? In the first four contests, Southport had reduced the hosts award to 147 points, so both teams were virtually on target, and that’s how it stayed throughout the second half give or take a few points here and there. Into the last encounter and the incoming Dan Hamer needed to win at least 24 points off Jonny Cummins, so close, 22-55 to Jonny and the visitors had sneaked it by just one solitary point. Great performances from Luke Pomeroy, Mark Molyneux, Oscar Wilson and of course Dan, in pushing messrs Barnes, Woods, Cummins and Frank all the way.
GUNSON QUARTER FINALS SANDSTORM C V CROSBY G
UNFORTUNATELY Sandstorm conceded to the young Crosby outfit who progressed to the Semis.
SANDSTORM B 434 ARGYLE D (114) 321
FROM the off, the advantage to the 2nd tier side looked to be a little short, and so it proved as that lead was whittled away and then topped off with a 113 point win by the 1st Division side. A breakdown of the players scores were as follows Josiah Nix 110 points, Steve Collins 106 points, Ray Hibbs 110 points and Nick Foss 108 points, and for the visitors, Brian Sharrock 61 points, Jules Dutch 41points, Mike Parker 56 points and Ray Clarke 49 points.
RAINFORD (84) 392 SOUTHPORT A 328
AFTER the excitement of getting through by just one point versus Crosby F, Southport A faced another daunting trip to Rainford. With both sides in the lower half of the top tier then a 84 point award was a little surprising. Another anomaly that is hard to get your head around, even more so considering there was only two points between the sides in their two league meetings. Southport in fact won four of the seven encounters played, but in the Gunson its every point that counts, and Rainford came out well on top in that department, so much so the tie finished with one contest to go, as the visitors had no real chance to recover.
SANDSTORM A V SANDSTORM D
ANOTHER casualty here, with the A team being unable to field four players they were forced to concede, with that possible ‘treble’ also binned.
GUNSON PLATE QUARTER FINALS ARGYLE B V FORMBY VILLAGE D
YET another casualty here, after Formby conceded being unable to raise a team.
SOUTHPORT D V CROSBY A
THIS tie is in the process of being rearranged, news of the outcome will be anxiously awaited.
SANDSTORM E 414 CROSBY E (114) 349
WITH eight places across two divisions separating the sides, and with apologies of repeating myself, the 114 point advantage awarded to the 3rd division outfit immediately looked to be wanting, and as Colin Fyles, Chris Foley and Karen Albachari all made significant inroads into that award then things were quickly beginning to look bleak for the visitors.
Mark Critchley stemmed the flow a tad, with a good 31-48 loss against home captain Ian Lunt, but at halfway the hosts were well in command trailing by just 16 points, and that’s including the full award.
Things improved slightly in the second half with Crosby’s captain leading the way with an excellent 42 point return against 44 points, but despite how hard Tony Bramham, Steve Williams and Mark tried, they could not break down the opposition and finally finished up on the wrong side of a 65 points defeat. Indeed a tough result to accept, but what a smashing cup tie it was, and a very entertaining one throughout.
ARGYLE F (124) 335 SOUTHPORT B 433
FINALLY, lowly third division Argyle F were awarded just 124 points advantage against a side 12 places above them in the league standings, which was a little mean for a team in their first season.
It is what it is, another example where even if the award was increased by 90 points the result would remain the same.
But if that was the case surely it would have given the hosts a fighting chance, which ‘in a nutshell’ was the idea Dave Gunson had all those years ago.
Well, in summary , another frustrating week, especially for those lower placed sides, as the problems with the handicaps continued, with just the one tie which kept you on the edge of your seats.
Also, there have been six cup tie’s that have now been conceded so far in the Gunson Competitions.
So, there must be an answer out there somewhere, but what is it?
And with the Semi’s scheduled to be played during w/c 11th March, will an answer be found. .
LEAGUE UPDATE
THERE were also three league matches one from Division 2 and two from Division 3 played this week having been postponed because of last week’s Finals Night.
Argyle C continued their game of leap frog with their B team in their quest to finish in third place.
A 1-9 victory away at Southport B meant they are now five points in the clear of their rivals.
A strong Southport C did their D team a big favour in going to rivals Argyle E, and coming away with a 3-7 victory, which left the title challengers eight points adrift with just two matches left, the final one being a crucial face off between the top two, which probably won’t be the title decider it promised to be. Formby Village D edged a close match at home to Sandstorm F, where a great double from Andrew Abernethy looked to have been all the difference in the 6-4 win.
All information can be found at southport.ttleagues. com