Saturday October 31st saw the semi-finals and final of the SCPA Autumn Cup competition being played. With a shortage of suitable venues in the current circumstances, a big thank you to Cranleigh for making the long trip to Burridge. In atrocious conditions with strong winds and continuous rain, heavy at times, the matches got underway at 11am.
Cranleigh Cougars had been quarter-final victors over Handcross, the number one seeds from the group stages, but found the reigning 6-a-side Champions, River Hamble, too much of a handful. They put up a very good fight, with two games going to 10 and 11 points, but in the end in they succumbed to a 5-0 defeat.
The other semi-final saw Cobbetts A up against Fareham Conifers, always a close match. Cobbetts A narrowly won both triples and looked well set for place in the final. However, Fareham fought back to take the first two doubles to level the match at 2 games all. The final doubles was neck-and-neck all the way, but Cobbetts eventually ground out a 13-10 win.
After a short break for lunch, it was great to see the sun come out as the play-off for places between Fareham and Cranleigh got under way. Both triples ended in very narrow 13-11 wins for Fareham but, sadly for Cranleigh, the doubles were not so close and Fareham ran out 5-0 winners to take 3rd place.
In the final, River Hamble won both the triples and quickly followed this up with a win in the doubles to ensure that they won the trophy. Cobbetts did fight back to win the other doubles though, to make the score line a more respectable 3-2.
Dave Stubbs
- Winners: River Hamble
- Runners-up: Cobbetts A
- Third Place: Fareham Conifers
- Fourth Place: Cranleigh Cougars
