Friday night saw the four the best performing teams from the first season of Knox League come together and duke it out for the right to claim their respective titles.The Monday night competition had Purple facing off against Green, who had just snuck in front of them in the last round of the season to get straight through to the final.
Due to illness, Purple had a last minute recruit in Peter Reed who had to take on Wayne Arazny, who had excellent results at number 3 all season. What followed was a titanic struggle, Peter sneaking the first game 10-9. Wayne hit back to take the next two games but Peter didn't let him have it all his own way coming right back in the fourth but just fell short, eventually going down 9-7.
Two's were next on and Purple's Peta Bolger put in a solid performance to take out former team mate Tanya Brook in 3. Purple had a slight edge of one game coming into the last rubber but it was still anybody's night. Mark Rankine eventually proved too strong on the night for Gary Miller at number 1 and brought Purple home to claim the first Knox League Monday night Crown.
Tuesday night's competitors Red vs Blue were next door on court 2 and it proved to be an even closer affair. Red's Ed Kefford had put in some extra training time leading up to the final which paid off as he dispatched Blue's Brendan Smith in 3. Brendan threatened to pinch the third game but Ed held him off to score first blood for Red.
The number 2's were next on and a winner could not easily be predicted. James Hill and Daniel Gayton had a great match with some fantastic rallies but Daniel found a little extra firepower to take the match in 4 and keep Blue's hopes alive.
It all came down to the number 1's and they didn't disappoint. David Salter of the Red team had been the strongest one through the season, but Blue's Mark Lowe had taken a match off him leaving their head to head record at one each. They traded the first two games with some great Squash but Mark took the third to put Blue in reach of the title. David dug in for the fourth and ran away a comfortable winner 9-4 and leave the result in doubt.
Coming into the last game of the night, a win from David would put Red ahead winners by 1 game while if Mark won, games were even and it would come down to points. Mark went hard out of the blocks went 6 points up and things looked grim for Red. Mark got stuck at 7 and David started to pull the points back, one by one. Mark managed to find his measure again and took the match with a fantastic winner, taking the game 9-6.
But was it enough? The night now had to be decided on points and out came the calculators. After it was all said and done, Blue had fallen over the line with a 3 point win, upsetting the form guide and beating Red 90 points to 87.
Full results from the entire season including the fina are available here.
The centre put on a free BBQ to enjoy over presentations and the winners were presented with their prizes. You can see the presentation pictures here.
We'd like to thank everyone for playing and we look forward to seeing you all next season.
