Table Tennis: Trimpell and St Lukes triumph in cup competitions

This year saw a new format with individual handicaps taken into consideration.

In the Coronation Cup for Premiership teams Trimpell Bulldogs played Garstang Bandits. These teams finished third and fifth in the league so the handicap was low with the Garstang team of Tommy Kennedy, Owen Bendall and Tom Clark given a 21-point advantage.

The seasoned Bulldogs team of Phil Goymer, Ray Carr and Alan Holt soon wiped out this advantage and proved too strong for Garstang winning 285 points to 224.

Pick of the match for the neutrals was Carr’s 32 points to Kennedy’s 31 points (10-11, 11-10, 11-10) with Goymer reinforcing his number position gaining most points in the match.

The Riley Cup competition for the Championship division was contested by defending champions St Luke’s E against Garstang Destroyers in a bottom vs top of the championship division encounter.

The St Luke’s team of Brendan Cronin, Ray Forbes and John Allen had a 157.5 point advantage against the Garstang team of Owen Pye, Mike Couper and Adam Couper.

Garstang had an uphill climb to overcome the deficit and after nine matches got within 14.5 points with only the doubles match remaining.

In a nervy match for spectators the Garstang pairing of Pye and Couper beat Cronin and Allen 30 points to 16 (8-11, 11-3, 11-2) resulting in an agonising half point difference between the two teams with St Luke’s E winning 327.5 points to Garstang Destroyers’ 327 to retain the cup.