So, the unbeaten team meets the potential runners up, could the latter ruin the former’s perfect season. 

The answer was yes but not until the final leg of the final game of the evening. 

Castaways got off to a flyer with Pete beating Winston in a very closely fought game, 1-0 

Perry then had the first of his maximum three straight wins with a fairly comfortable win over Neil, 1-1. 

Johnny was up next against Laikram and played an excellent game picking off Laikram at will with some superb heavy loop attack, 2-1. 

Neil and Winston then back on the table and the latter’s night continued to be not what he would wish losing in four to Neil, 3-1.

 Pete then had an almighty tussle with Laikram, winning the first two legs, then Laikram won the next two so all to play for in the fifth and Pete ran out the winner with some luck that he was perhaps owed though Laikram was justified in feeling hard done by, 4-1. 

Time for Perry to come back to the table and he duly beat Jonny three straight, 4-2, could Comets stage a recovery, or would Castaways get over the line? 

Laikram kept the revival going with his defensive style and expert use of his rubbers with twiddling abounding making life extremely difficult for Neil so despite a deuce in the first game it was three straight, 4-3. 

Cometh the hour, cometh the Johnny who displayed a complete return to his best form beating Winston three straight to ensure a draw was the minimum Castaways were to achieve. 5-3. 

Old foes, Peter Hop Along and Perry with a Smile took to the table and in a game where Perry moved Pete around and Pete’s attack hadn’t quite got back to where it usually is Perry completed his three straight three wins in style, 5-4 and all to play for, would it be a draw or a loss? 

Pete and Johnny took on the unbeaten Perry with Laikram and from very winnable and comfortable positions the former looked to be doing the best to hand the draw to the latter. 

Then the Castaways duo finally rallied and won the next two legs to take it to the last leg of the evening! Castaways continued to dominate and went to the penultimate winning point leading 10-4 but just couldn’t get the final point and Comets clawed their way back to 10-9! 

What other way could it end, a killer net cord attacking shot from Pete finally took Castaways over the line to a win and Comets to their first “not win” of the season, 6-4. 

It does leave Castaways wondering what might have been if their season hadn’t been affected by the pandemic, injuries - particularly Pete’s knee operation, availability issues, and two matches with two players.

 Meanwhile and TBF Comets knew they had won the league, no matter what happened in this match or in their last one against Morpeth, so perhaps the foot had come off the gas a little bit.