It’s only a week since the juniors of Argyle ‘C’ held the ‘old men’ of Southport ‘C’ to a draw in the first round of the Gunson Cup, but they haven’t half improved since then. Last night, with an early start so they could get home to bed at a reasonable hour (school this morning!), they showed just how much they have learned in 7 days. The teams were exactly the same as last week, so there could be no excuses by playing substitutes, etc.

It was Andy Hickey’s misfortune to be the one who arrived first and had to face both Nathan Thistlethwaite and Tom O’Malley in quick succession. Whether they had been given special coaching lessons, or eaten a double helping of porridge, we’re not sure, but they certainly showed they meant business, with Nathan improving by 15 points and Tom by 11 points compared with the previous week. This was no fluke, though, as first Mike McCormack (+12) and then Paul Jervis (+13) consolidated the Argyle fight back against Alan Nolan and Tom Banton respectively and by half-time, Argyle had improved by an astonishing 51 points!

Another steady game by Mike McCormack retained his single point advantage over Southport’s Tom Taylor, and then Nathan showed once again how much he likes the home conditions with a gain of 18 points against Tom Banton. We thought we might still miraculously save the game if Tom and Alan could win by 100 points difference; Tom Taylor did his best to that end, with a very tense 55-10 victory. However, on recalculating the scores it was clear that Argyle had already won the tie, and the final game was now academic, much to the relief of all concerned! The final scoreline was Argyle ‘C’ 467 points, Southport ‘C’ 402.

The match was once again played in an excellent atmosphere, and we would like to thank Angus Taylor and his juniors for their warm welcome and hospitality, and wish them all the best in the remainder of the competition.

Details of the replay can be downloaded from here.

Tonight’s Gunson Cup match between Southport ‘C’ and Argyle ‘C’ (+180pts) finished in a Draw, and will be replayed next Wednesday at Argyle.

Beginning with an advantage of 180 points, the young division 3 team needed to stay within 4 or 5 points per game, on average, of their division 2 opponents to have a chance of winning the match. Angus Taylor, the Argyle captain/manager chose the two number ones for the first encounter and it was soon clear why. Star of the show was young Mike McCormack, doing much more than staying close - in fact beating Alan Nolan by 46 points to 45. What a start!

On the other table, Tom Banton, after losing the first game 9-11 to Nathan Thistlethwaite, woke up and eventually won by 53 points to 26 to restore some semblance of normality. Most of the other games went more or less as expected, and we were then left with the final match - Tom Taylor against Mike McCormack. This was already in play as we added up the scores, and although we knew the scores were going to be close, we hadn’t told Tom and Mike. Mike finally won this contest 49 to 48, and a last reckoning produced a final result of 419 points each.

Never having been in this position before, we looked up the handbook (rule 32c) to find that the only way of deciding the winner was to replay the match at the opponents’ venue, and if that is also a draw to continue replaying matches until a winner emerges (rule 32d). We could be in for a long winter!

Details of the match can be downloaded from here.

Thanks to Angus Taylor for bringing a very friendly team of promising juniors and well done to Argyle - we look forward to the [first?] replay next week.

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The ‘C’ team finds itself in a completely different league this season, or at least a different Division!

After 3 league matches and the first round of the Anon Cup, the record is not one that stands much scrutiny: played 4, won 0, drawn 0, lost 4. In the league, we have won only 3 sets out of 30, with Tom Banton involved in all three of them (2 singles wins and a doubles). And we haven’t even played any of the top teams yet!

In the Anon Cup, a 6-0 result was again a fair reflection of the strengths of the 2 sides, with Formby HT ‘D’ making good use of the net cord and table edges! Seriously, though, if they get more nets than their opponents, it’s probably because they are able to play the ball closer to the net in the first place, so good luck to them.

One consolation, though not much of one - at least we’re in the Plate competition!

Southport ‘E’ ( ‘E’ for expired )completed the season’s fixtures with a visit to Argyle on Monday 17th March & improved marginally on the result in the home fixture but still went down 1-9.

Following the victory in the last match and the draw in the one prior to that there was hope that the improvement would continue but a strong Argyle team led by Chris Coogan gave little away.

Pitting Ken against Argyle’s no. 3 proved a good strategic move & gave the team great psychological boost when Ken ran out the winner in 5 games. That proved to be the extent of our success, however, as the remaining 9 games were lost despite sterling efforts by the rest of the team. To Ken’s great glee he finished the season by being able to say that he won one game against Chris Coogan in his singles encounter.

Southport ‘B’ 6 - 4 Southport ‘A’

In the upset of the season, Southport ‘B’ pulled off a remarkable win against their higher-ranked, and higher-placed ‘A’ team colleagues. (more…)

The ‘E’ team, (’E’ for ecstatic) finally achieved their season long ambition and notched up a firm 6-4 victory over Argyle ‘C’ on Tuesday 3rd March.

This following a 5-5 result in the last match indicates that we have been able to not only last the pace but also to finish strongly. The final game of the season will be against Argyle ‘B’ who, no doubt, will be out to avenge our defeat of their juniors but until then we will revel in the E uphoria of our first win.

It was a sound team performance with Ken,Tom, Norah and Charles all returning singles and/or doubles victories. Young Ken was the star performer despite, or because of, having his car stolen earlier in the day as he won both his singles and the doubles. The result hinged on the final doubles in which Ken & Charles lost the first game but then took the next three to seal the victory.

Courteous goodbyes were exchanged with the visitors but it is hoped they didn’t hear the raucous bellows of the victors as they left the building. Well, we’ve got to make the most of it.

After the comprehensive drubbing by the ‘C’ team last week the ‘E’ team ( E for elated but only mildly) travelled to the Paraplegics venue for the fourth time this season and came away with a hard fought 5-5 draw.

All team members enjoyed success in singles or doubles but Ken was the star by winning both his singles ( one v Ian Littlewood ) and the doubles with Charles. Tom & Gil returned excellent singles victories to help the team claim it’s second draw of the season but an outright win still E ludes us. Maybe next week…..

The E ( ‘E’ for extremely unsuccessful ) team met Formby TTC this week and failed to improve on the 1-9 result against the same side earlier in the season. In fact the result was even worse as we went down 0-10. Comparing the results over the two matches,however, some comfort can be taken from the closeness of many games and the fact that a number of events went to four & five games.

Next up the ‘C’ team (’C’ for calamitous ? )- will be for us!

The ‘E’ team which is comprised of Aughton & Ormskirk U3A members have the prospect of a match against Mawdesley U3A but the date for the match is uncertain as Mawdesley’s hall is being re decorated. Just as well we are not going to be there during the refurbishment as there might have been the dubious distinction of being whitewashed twice!

Passing swiftly over 3 more League defeats in recent weeks, the ‘E’  (E for eliminated) team enjoyed a close encounter with Formby H T ‘D’ in the Gunson Plate on 29th January.

After the adjustment of the handicap Southport lost by just 11 points. This outstanding achievement was made by Ken winning one singles and amassing valuable points in the other. If Charles, Tom & Norah had managed to scrape a further 12 points between them in their games the match would have been won. Nevertheless it was a creditable performance against a very strong Division 2 side.