MAJOR FINALS' NIGHT
AT KIPPAX BRITISH LEGION - MONDAY 30.5.22
The
first FTQL major Finals' night in two years passed off successfully, with the new boys on the block, Lofthouse Lions,
scoring their second trophy of the season, when they took the Knockout Cup to add to their debut league championship and make
a first time double for their team. Carleton Grangers also capped a successful season by defeating Golden Lion Dudes in the
Plate Knockout Final to end the season with some silverware also.
The even commenced with the Plate Knockout Final, Dudes vs Carleton Grangers and Dudes took an early lead, winning
Round One 8 to 4 but after that it was one-way traffic, with Carleton Grange winning 10-2, 9-3, 7-6 and 5-4 o hold a lead
of 35-23 at the halfway break. Dudes never recovered in the second half, with Round 6 and 7 hammerings of 10-1 and 11-0.
They did manage to draw the last round 7-7 but by that time the damage was done and the Plate trophy already won, with a final
score of 74-43. However, Dudes have managed to reach two Cup Finals this season, which surpasses their single point
achievement in the league campaign by some way.
So secondly,
Lofthouse took on perennial FTQL winners Wanderers in the Knockout Cup Final, but Wanderers were not at their strongest,
with television quiz man from Eggheads, Barry Simmons, being absent due to filming commitments and also other regular
Ian Dalziel was missing because of Covid19 in his house, so Wanderers were up against the might of league Champions Lofthouse
from the start.
Right from the beginning, Lofthouse took a commanding
lead and found themselves leading by a score of 44 points to 29 at the halfway stage in the quiz and by the conclusion
the win was conclusive, with Wanderers only having won one of the ten rounds with two rounds drawn and the final
cup winning score was 85 to 64 in favour of Lofthouse, possibly one of superteam Wanderers' heaviest defeats in a Final.
The teams and audience refreshed themselves with food and drink and then the trophies
for the season were presented by Ben Doughty Head of the League's kind sponsors Layers Cleaning of Normanton. Ashley
Handley of Flanagan's Army was presented with the Individual competition award having won it now for the third time in
four runnings, which is no mean feat as it is a difficult competition to win and the Carleton Grangers were presented
with the Spirit of the Game Trophy to go with their Plate win. The SOTG is voted for by all teams and
eligible members for the most popular team or player of the year and the Grangers were a very popular choice in winning this
time.
After a well-supported raffle, the Member's draw for
all present registered players on the night was drawn to complete the evening's proceedings, the prize for which is a
free season's league fees for one team. The free season raffle was won by Upton Bees. The Chairman and the
Secretary both addressed the gathering (not party...) and paid tribute to the teams that had carried on and made it back to
the FTQL after the worldwide pandemic of Coronavirus. They also thanked the Kippax British Legion for staging the event,
Ian Moore of the Featherstone Hotel for being questionmaster for the night and looked forward to seeing everybody again and
hopefully some new members too next season as part of the rebuilding process for the FTQL post-pandemic.
