the players competing tonight were -: 

L.C.C. 'A'   Tony Whelan, Ahmed Thabet (Captain), Dave Tagg.

Fords   Mal. McEvoy, Terry Turner, Tim Wearden (Captain)

 A disappointing start for the match official of what should be the top final of the Liverpool League, well after the official start time we have in attendance the 3 players for Fords, no supporters, 1 player from L.C.C. ‘A’, no supporters, 2 independent spectators, Bootle.YMCA. Sec. Jim, and me, so well after the official starting time, away team Fords call on the only L.C.C. ‘A’ team player there, Dave Tagg  to Play Mal McEvoy. First game and Dave takes the game to Mal, defending well and attacking with his forehand looping, Dave winning 11-7.  Then L.C.C. players and supporters started to arrive, whether this had the effect of taking the steam out of Dave’s game, Mal won the next 3.

Next on, newly arrived Ahmed, called himself on against Tim, Tim winning the first two games 6 & 8  against a ‘cold’ Ahmed, Ahmed then settled down, winning the next two 6 & 9, but couldn’t keep the momentum going, Tim getting the 5^th 11-8.

Third set, Fords call Tony on against Terry, a hard fought 5 game set ended with victory for Tony to put L.C.C. back in the match.

Next L.C.C. call Dave to play Tim, at one game all Tim gets the important 3^rd, 12-10, and completes the set winning the 4th 11-9.

Next call to Fords, Tim calls the two 1’s Tony v Mal, games 1 & 2 both going to 13-11 and both to Mal, Tony playing his positive attacking style, but just not getting the breaks, Mal too relaxed in his play and pulling off many  “shouldn’t have got that one” shots, finishing the set off with the next game 11-6.

Set 6 and Ahmed calls Terry to play himself, a set which L.C.C. need to win to stay with it, and Ahmed started with a more positive attitude than his first set, winning 11-7, but Terry settled down, encouraging Ahmed to go for more loose returns, which Ahmed just wasn’t getting on, there seemed to be a lot of “funny” bounces effecting all players during the night, Terry won the next two games 9 & 11, Terry got off to a good start in the 5^th game, trading top rate shots with under pressure Ahmed, but with that extra bit of confidence Terry had, he pulled away to win11-5 and give the match to Fords 5 sets to 1 to retain the Trophy for another year

Result -:  L.C.C. ‘A’ 1   v  Fords  5

R.W.