In the first game after the mid season break table topping Sandgrounders made the short trip to 2nd in the table Mawdesley – well skipper Nick Foss lives 2 miles away and Chris Foley only 100 yards away from the cricket ground , whilst Ged Wilson is handy for any venue.
The Mavericks were clearly taking this one seriously as they had Paul Petts ( 100% average ) , new signing from Preston George Walmsley (100%) and captain Mick Mahon who has a paltry 75% average.
To make matters even worse Messrs Petts and Walmsley play with dreaded dodgy bats ( long pimps) which dear reader I must hasten to add are , of course , perfectly legal even if they are terrible to play against for most ping pong mortals.
To make matters worse still both Phil and George are top , top players and expert proponents of these bats and to rub salt into the wound are thouroughly nice blokes as well!
And so the humiliation began with Captain Nick having dragged himself off the sick bed to kick off against Phil. Well at least it didn't last long as he was despatched 3-0. He can't even rely on the “virus defence “ as Phil seemed to be coughing just as much !
Ged then took a game off George – only the 2nd time this has happened in Wigan this season – losing 3-1.
Chris , however started a fightback of sorts for the league leaders with a superb 3-2 against Mick , I'm not sure she has played better , super stuff. No doubt she was helped by the fact that after 2 games Mick remarked “ Oh I didn't know you were left handed”.
Ged then made history as the first , and so far only , player to take Phil to 5 although somewhat inevitably Phil prevailed in the final game, but what a fantastic match with some amazing points. At least Ged made Phil sweat like Prince Andrew , or perhaps that was just his cold coming out.
Next up the two captains , Nick against Mick. After consulting his little white book of TT tactics the Fossmeister noted that Martin Machin usually beat Mick by retreiving and lobbing. Only 2 problems – Nick had no energy and the space at Mawdesley is very , very restricted. No matter he managed to get a few gulps of air , avoid hitting the side wall too many times and eventually beat Mick in 5. Perhaps Nick was helped by Mick not realising he was left handed – who knows ?
The Mawdesley 1&2 were far too strong for Chris and Ged in the doubles .
George picked up 3 more points for the home team against Chris but she did really , really well to claim a game against the peerless , pimpled, Preston player ( try saying that after half a shandy ) .
Mick found his mojo together with a huge slice of luck to account for Ged 3-1 .
George continued to impress beating Nick 3-1 before Phil rounded off the evening as he had started it with a 3-0 win this time against Chris.
The lovely Ian Pemberton (who opened the hall and had so much difficulty turning off the bleeping alarm that he suggested that they may have to play through the background noise “WHAT !” screamed Nick , so he could be heard ) left early thinking that it was all too easy – which is actually true .
After this result the Sandgrounders lead at the top of the league was cut to 8 points.
If the Mavericks play this line up in every game they will walk the league. Ah well they could always bring in Mike Dunn . What's his average I hear you ask ….....100%!
