We’ve now reached the mid-season break, and it’s time for the half-year report…starting with the good news.

The D team juniors (plus leader Paul Lunan) are still flying high in Division 3, having dropped only 11 points in their run of 9 straight league wins, and looking as though they could well gain promotion by the end of February.

Also in Division 3, the E team are holding their own, while the youngsters of the F team are learning rapidly that competitive play is quite different from practice, but the improvement is already beginning to show.

In the 2nd Division, the A team’s early promise has faltered somewhat due to illness and next year will be difficult without John Goulding, and with Jim Irving available only from the end of February. Thankfully Colin Fyles will be back in action hoping to resume his 100% winning streak.

The bad news is that both the B and C teams are struggling near the foot of Division 2, and will need to make a sustained improvement over the next 3 months to stay in the division. Whilst we do want the D team to win promotion, we certainly don’t want the B and C teams to replace them in the bottom tier. The time for action is now, while there may still be enough matches available to recover lost ground - watch this space!

You can download the latest league tables and results from the District website.

In the knockouts, the C and D teams are the sole survivors, each having progressed to the 2nd round in both the Anon Plate and Gunson Plate competitions.

The practice evenings have once again been well attended, considering most members have match commitments in the same week.

The second half of the season starts on 5th January, giving everyone plenty of time to recover from the festivities! And on that note, may I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2009.

Alan
Secretary

There is a link in the left-hand menu (2008/9 League Tables) so you can see how well your team is doing after 5 or 6 matches.

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.

The first four weeks of the season seem to have flown by, and the bottom line is that out of 21 results to date, Southport teams have won 10 and lost 11. The ‘Result’ column is from the Southport point of view.

# Deyes High cancelled at very short notice (45 minutes).
* Southport ‘F’ won after a countback of games won.

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!

We’re off! And galloping into the lead is the new junior ‘F’ team, led by Jeff Cummins. Unfortunately, this is a somewhat hollow victory, as the opponents didn’t actually turn up. [Should we claim the points or offer another date? Opinions please?]

Close on their heels is the other team of juniors, the ‘D’ team - leader Paul Lunan, with his lads proudly boasting individual 100% records. Also with 8 points is the ‘B’ team, after we were notified that one of their opponents had played out of order, so we gained an extra 2 points.

Fourth past the post is the ‘A’ team (though I’m not sure which one is Mr T.) just a nose ahead of the revamped ‘E’ team.

Bringing up the rear is the outclassed ‘C’ team, losing heavily in their first division 2 match.

• Mon: North Meols ‘A’ 9 - 1 Southport ‘C’
• Tue: Southport ‘A’ 7 - 3 St Teresa’s ‘D’
• Wed: St Teresa’s ‘C’ 2 - 8 Southport ‘B’
• Wed: Southport ‘D’ 8 - 2 Paraplegics ‘A’
• Wed: Southport ‘E’ 6 - 4 Formby HT ‘E’
• Thu: Southport ‘F’ 10 - 0 Formby TTC ‘F’ (w/o)