The five Leicester & District League Cup finals have all been played. These are graded competitions with the idea of allowing everyone in the league, right down to the bottom division, some sort of chance to be competitive.
The top event, however, for the Rose Johnson Cup is open to everyone with the final featuring the Division One teams of Knighton Park against Electricity.
Reza Kiani was fast out of the blocks for KP to beat Andy LeButt before Karen Smith defeated Mat Hobday and Chris Rogers overcame David Grundy for the Park to lead 3-0. Grundy beat Kiani to put the Sparks on the board at 3-1 but Rogers defeated LeButt in three to put the Park within one of the finishing line. Grundy played well against Smith to take the first two games before the latter staged a typical fightback, eventually winning 11-9 in the fifth for a 5-1 scoreline.
The Corrall Cup, for players graded below 210, saw Syston Casuals with mainly Division One players overcome Knighton Park with mainly Division Three, by 5-0. Closest KP came to success was when Steve Adams took Ian Wetherly to five but the latter weathered the storm to get home, while Jason Woodfield was in fine form in winning his two, and John Szostak also took two for Electricity.
The Saracen Cup for those graded below 170 was an all Knighton Park affair with Dean Jordan in tip top form in spearheading the A team to victory, as he showed by winning all three, including a hard fought victory over Patrick Cox in five games, the latter winning two from three for the B’s. Steve Adams featured in this final as well as the Corrall to win one from two for the A’s with Patrick Carton supplying the other in the 5-3 result. As well as Cox’s two, for the B team Steve Bessant took 1 from 2.
Although Knighton Park beat Electricity 5-2 in the Frith Trophy for players graded below 140 the match was much closer than the score suggests. Much centred around Max Huggins who had two sets he won in five games for the Park, defeating both Dave Silvester and Dave Bray at crucial times to give ideal support for the fast improving Zia Malik who won both sets he played, with Martin Pember supplying the other.
For the Sparks Dan Woolman won his two and we shall never know how the two undefeated players would have fared against each other.
Finally, the Lillian Trophy features players graded below 115 with two Knighton Park teams involved, the A beating the B 5-0. Paul Ducksbury, Brajesh Patel and Mike Smith proved unbeatable against club-mates, Maya Dehnen, John Murray and Phil Wood.
Having had time for reflection on the season just ended my own “Performance of the Season” tag goes to Jared Patel of Unicorn who led his team to retaining their Division One title this term without a blemish on his results, playing above the two/thirds required to take the individual trophy. Played 53, won 53.
But it goes deeper than that. Described by his opponents as a humble gentleman off the table, he shows his complete mettle on it, but very fairly, by simply keeping winning. Over the past three seasons he has played 131 sets and lost only two, both in the middle season sandwiched by two undefeated terms.
Patel is leaving Loughborough University so will not, officially, be playing in Leicester next season and he will be sorely missed unless, by some remote chance, he happens to get a job fairly quickly in this area.