This years final of the John Ford Trophy took place on Thursday 5th April at Alsager Leisure Centre. The team were as follows:
Weaverham selected the same six as for the semi: Kevin Ashley, Andy Brown, Andrew Lewis, Maureen Warburton, Hannah Jacks and Sian Lewis
Crosses also remained unchanged with Karl Jones, Craig Delury, Matt Wain, Helen Shatwell, Pauline Hubbard and Fiona Barlow
On paper at least it was reasonable to expect Weaverham to have the slightly better of it mainly down to the greater experience of the gents. Crosses on the other hand boasted the proven talents of the match experienced ladies so a good
battle was expected. Most games went to prediction. Maureen and Sian scored an excellent 21-10 victory over Pauline and Fiona which may have been unexpected. The second game of the two went back to expectation with a 21-17 victory to Pauline and Fiona. For
Crosses Craig and Helen recorded a very notable win against Andrew and Sian 21-19, again the second game reverting to expectation 11-21. All in all the less experienced Crosses team did an excellent job. Particularly in mixed games, the relative strength of
the gents can often sway the result, to that end Weaverham would have expected to dominate. Indeed the mixed games yielded 204 points to 151 in favour of Weaverham equating to 5 points a game. The level doubles should in theory have been a touch closer and
there the difference was 164 to 113 or just over 6 a game.
In the expectation that Crosses might need some help the handicappers had pre-allocated 60 points to them. In the end it wasn’t quite enough as Weaverham had a 104 point win ( 5.7 a game). With the 60 points handicap the difference became
44 points equating to 2.4 per game. A great effort from both sides. It is nice to see reward going to Weaverham for their consistency in team selection and effort. On the way to the final Weaverham beat Holmes Chapel by 8 points, Northwich Meteors by 40 points,
Goostrey by 63 points using only 8 players (Helen Weaver & Janet Thorpe were others). Four of their players in the final have been regulars for some time, Andy, Kevin, Andrew and Maureen have seen and done it all now. For Hannah and Sian to step in was a big
challenge which they have done really well. Crosses on the other hand had 4 relatively new and inexperienced players. This epitomises the spirit of the competition, and whilst they didn’t quite get there this time the potential is there to be seen. In Matt,
Craig, Karl and Helen they have a great basis, whilst we can expect Pauline and Fiona to offer the experienced support they will need.
Congratulations Weaverham