CORONATION CUP 2016
Despite the unseasonal showers, a good turnout of 26 club members participated in the Coronation Cup on Sunday.
The top half of the draw saw Rita Stanley in fine form. Having overcome Alex Rimmer 21-11 in the 1st Round, Rita produced three excellent performances to reach the final by defeating strong players in Tony Wakefield (21-9), Richard Rawcliffe (21-16) and Jim Halsall (21-12).
Rita’s final opponent was to be Brian Sutton. Having beaten Steve Lomas (21-18) and Jim Finnimore (21-19) to reach the semi-final, Brian faced tough opposition in Sue Davies, who had progressed with good wins against Bill Nowell (21-15) and Wayne Graham (21-17). This semi-final proved to one of the games of the day and when Sue led 17-11 after 14 ends it looked likely that we would see two ladies contesting the final of a Hesketh singles competition for the first time. Brian had other ideas, however and produced fives 2s in six ends to book his place in the final with a 21-18 success.
Brian had to concede a handicap of 2 against Rita but was able to wipe this deficit out with singles at the first two ends. Although Rita won the third end, Brian proceeded to count at five out of the next six ends to take the lead at 12-8. Although Rita won the next two ends to close the gap to 11-12, Brian retained the form he had shown all day to win the next 7 ends. This was enough to secure the 2016 Coronation Cup, the final score being 21-11. This was third time lucky for Brian as he had previously lost in the Championship Cup finals of 2013 and 2015. Congratulations to both finalists for good performances throughout the day.
A plate competition was held for 1st Round losers and this was won by Ken Rimmer with a 15-8 win against Norman Simpson in the final.
