No Greek Tragedy For Cypriots As They Win Mike Tunningley Shield

Stanley Street Cypriots followed up their runners up achievement and promotion from Division Three by adding the Worksop Leagues flagship cup competition, the Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield to their trophy cabinet. The Cypriots have had a fabulous season and also individually as Graham Stent won the Division Three Singles title and then teamed up with Mitchell Radford to add the Division Three Doubles title to his collection. Fiona Halpin-Stent has marshalled her troops superbly this season and none more so than in the Mike Tunningley Shield. The Cypriots had a bye in the first round but then beat 2nd Division opposition in Ryton Park Cougars and then followed that up in the quarter finals with a win over fellow Division Three side DTH Redlands Tarr Babies. In the semi finals they came up against Division One side DTH Redlands Roosters who were duly dispatched to give the Cypriots a place in the final against fellow Division Three side On-Line Elks. The Elks have also had a good season finishing comfortably in mid table and then making the final of The MBE Trophy losing out to Redlands Tarr Babies and were going to be no pushovers in the final.
The handicapping points which would be revealed after the match had finished were in the sealed envelope but because of the teams league placings both sides knew that the Elks would be awarded the handicap points and it would just be a case of how many.
The Cypriots set about their task of building a lead straight away with Mitchell Radford defeating Jonno blood by 7 points, George Makrakis beating Neil Houghton by a single point but then Graham Stent lost to Glen Gillgrass by 2 points to leave a slender lead of only 6 points which was never going to be enough if they were going to take the title. With this in mind they upped their game with Makrakis beating Blood by 19 points and Radford taking 12 points off of Gillgrass to leave them in a much better position leading by 37 points. Graham Stent then got in on the act by defeating Houghton and then Blood to increase the Cypriots lead and when Makrakis beat Gillgrass and Radford saw off Houghton in the last match of the night it gave the Cypriots a lead of 90 points before the handicap points were revealed. The envelope was opened and the On-Line Elks had been awarded 36 points and when added to the totals it all meant that the Cypriots had been victorious by 367 to 313 points.
On the same night and at the same venue the final of The Reg Wilcox Handicap Trophy for 2nd Division sides was also being played between Stanley Street 'C' and Manton Sports. Street 'C' probably went into the match as slight favourites on the count of finishing one place above Sports in the league table but knew due to the handicapping system they would have to give Sports a 33 point lead. Stanley Street's task of reducing the deficit didn't get off to the best start as the Street's Daniel Cutts lost by 10 points to an in-form James Weston followed by Andy Kirkland's loss to Keith Smith which increased the gap to their opponents to 49 points. In the next match Weston and John Lowde teamed up in one of the doubles sets against Kirkland and Paul Linfield and Linfield's experience told as he and Kirkland managed to drag back 8 points and when Linfield then beat Smith by 9 points in the next singles match it was suddenly game on again. Their joy was short lived though as the Sports increased their lead even further in the next 3 matches with Lowde having a good win over Cutts, Smith and Lowde then beating Cutts and Kirkland in the doubles and then in perhaps the singles win of the night James Weston made short work of beating Linfield by 14 points. Stanley Street 'C' did try to make a fist of it when Kirkland beat Lowde in the singles but the writing was already on the wall and it was left to Smith and Weston in the final doubles match to show that they had the ammunition to fire Manton Sports to victory in the final game of the night beating Linfield and Cutts 21-18, 21-18. Captain John Lowde has put some real thought into his team selections all the way through the competition and mention must also go to Alan Wilson who despite not being selected to play in the final made some vital contributions in earlier rounds. Manton Sports won the final by a scoreline of 492 points to 425 but a measure of how well they played on the night is that they would still have won the match even without any handicap points being added to their team score.