Wednesday 8 April 2009

Grange granpa's @ Watsons walking-aids (Tue, Apr 7,'09)

Top of the order batsman Brian Buchanan went to 5 with Jenko, Paul closing out 9-3 in the fifth. At the tail, Stokesy also went to five with Forrest but levelling it upby taking the fifth 9-7. Roger Moore officiated and it was like Ramsay's kitchen nightmares with plenty decisions disputed.

Oh well, not close and no cigar at the middle order. PKN Wilson gave Loobster a lesson in trickle boasting 3-0, Ali G also suffered a whitewash at the hands of masterchef Moore and Tony G couldn't shift Colin Grant off the T for their 3 games. Overall 4-1 to the Myreside masters.Back at the bar, the very football-knowledgeable barperson told us there should have been at least 6 goals in the Man U/Porto match but we saw the last 2 goals before abandoning for soup, sarnies and fruit.
The Myrerside Masters now go on to the Over-35 cup final with Edin Sports Club Elderlies, good luck with that! The team season finishes for the Grange apart from the much anticipated nite-out.

Friday 3 April 2009

Mini-leagues Season '08-'09

The overall analysis of the min-leagues based on the first 5 leagues only:

The winner is Andrew Claymore who played 100% of possible games, scored 160 points and moved up 4 leagues (11 to 7). Second equal in points terms were Alastair Ross and Will Henderson, both on 153 points. Alastair played 100% of his games (max 25) and moved up 2 leagues (13 to 11). Will played 92% of his, but moved up 3 leagues (6 to 3).

Other stalwarts playing 100% of possible games and playing 23 or more (max was 25) were Jonathan Frame, David Thomas, Neil Love, Robin Pollok, Chris B and Chris Mair. There were many others not far behind and showing fantastic support for the leagues. (Dougie Brown)

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Club Championships (Fri, Mar 27,'09)


After 20 fans followed the pulsating semi-finals on Monday, a crowd of 40+ turned up on the balcony to see the champions crowned. Max MacKenzie played Alasdair McIntosh in the junior final. Karen Kennedy beat Sarah Robertson in the ladies plate while Jonathan Frame managed to win the plate 3-1 from Ian Forbes.
Ian Forbes was a busy boy because he later played & beat Peter Young in the handicap final. The ladies final saw a new (to us) star in the making as Donna Cruickshank played Fiona McLaren. This was a hard fought final with Fiona doing tremendous retrieving and some fantastic flurries at the front of the court. Donna's hitting saw her just about get a lead in the first 3 games and despite a concerted comeback from Fiona, Donna took it in straight games.

In the open final, a new name on the cup was guaranteed. Allan Hamer had put himself into the mincer to beat Brian Buchanan 3-1 on Monday while Ian Green woke up at 2-0 down to beat Chris Mair 10-9 in the fifth. So who recovered best and would turn up with their A game to put a new name on the cup?

The first game was a close fought marathon with some lung-bursting rallies interspersed with unforced errors seeing Allan shade it 9-7. Ian threw in a lot of errors in the second to lose that quickly 9-3. He had been geeing himself up without his play responding up to that point. Suddenly in the third, it was responding and the drops were clinging, the errors went away and he won it 9-6. You could sense those who had been there on Monday thinking "has the tide turned?". Allan got an early lead in the fourth but Ian upped the pace again and began to catch up. However he didn't maintain it and a few winners later from Allan, he had earned his first club championship.

A total 70 people competed in the club championships which is a fantastic turnout from the mini-leagues. Andrew Claymore was crowned "Mini-leaguer of the year". This and all the other prizes were presented in the bar after everyone had a feed of Jambalaya cooked by the excellent competitions organiser Peter Young.