The division's two newly created teams faced each other for the second time this season and despite the Dean team's valiant efforts the Grange 4 steamroller carried on with the third 20 pointer in a row.
Opening the night was Ian Forbes against Alan Jamieson at No 4. The first game began with a close tussle looking in prospect but as the game progressed Ian asserted his dominance and took it well. He moved away even further in the next two games and didn't give much away at all with a good solid 3-0 win.
Avoiding a repeat of last week's "geographical embarrassment" Dean Woods arrived on time and went on at No 5 against Luke Williams. He did his darnedest to live up to his reputation as a perennial first game loser but just did enough to snatch it 9-8 at the death. He stepped up a gear and took better control in the next two games and his tight play forced a few too many errors out of Luke for him to really threaten. A comfortable 3-0 in the end.
At No2 Andy Whitelaw had a long five setter against Ian Walford. On the colder of the two courts very few balls threatened to hit the glass wall at the back and each rally really ended up boiling down to whoever could contrive to get the drop shot in first. In the event it was Andy with the greater percentage and a 3-2 win to show for it.
At No 3 was Mark Dutton up against Fraser Maxwell. Once again Mark's "mixed" serving strategy payed dividends with quite a lot of points won relatively cheaply either directly off the serve or by pouncing on poor returns. This time that was backed up by some very tight switch backhand drops to the forehand corner that had Fraser regularly wrong-footed and a little frustrated. Fraser picked up his game very well in the third and cut off a lot and pushed Mark around the court and had he managed to snatch that game it could have been an interesting remainder of the match. As it was Mark tightened up his squash and reasserted dominance to take the game for a 3-0 win.
The most entertaining match of the night was Dougie Brown's against the tall Ross Anderson (well…about a foot and half taller than Dougie, anyway) at No 1. It was a see-saw battle throughout with Dougie having long periods where he'd play some brilliant forehand drops and tricksy switch backhand drops and likewise Ross giving Dougie a hard time by running everything down and being particularly effective in turning some of Dougie's attempted lobs into tightly dropped shots into either corner. Doug lost the first game and took the second where his touch for the drops and boasts was at its best. That touch deserted him a little in the third which he lost closely and he chose to move to a much more precentage based length game which proved to be the right decision as he took the fourth in another close tussle but then ran out a very easy winner in the fifth as though all the previous struggles had been an entirely different match. The champagne moment of the night came in the second game where Ross had barely managed to retrieve a Dougie drop and had finished up laying flat on his back at the front of the court with the ball bobbing out to Dougie standing in the T poised for a winner. Dougie, being the gentleman he is, of course refrained from playing the shot and the stroke was duly awarded. The challenge then came from Ross who claimed on a technicality that it couldn't have been a stroke since Dougie could actually play a shot to any part of the front wall and it was only the tin that his prostrate form was preventing Dougie from hitting. To referee Forbes' credit, he was unswayed by that eloquently argued case and the stroke stood.
It’s also worth making note of the unusual scene of the bicycle convoy that made its way from St Georges to the Grange club afterwards. Usually it's only Dean but on the night three intrepid cyclists ventured out into the cold with their blinking lights for the pleasant downhill trip through the backstreets of Ravelston and Stockbridge.
The match result of 20 points to 4 is another big one for the 4th team and sets us up nicely for the match next week against the strong Waverley side. At this stage of the season that's looking like the match most likely to have a bearing on the division title.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
1. Well played, Grange.
2. Who is "Alan Jamieson"?
3. Why would anyone think that a stroke is awarded under the circumstances described?
Check the rules Ref! There's no mention that cowering below the tin is acceptable!!
12.8 The Referee shall award a stroke to the player if:
....12.8.4 the player refrained from hitting the ball which, if hit, would clearly have struck the opponent going directly to the front wall;
Also on interference:
12.2.4 freedom to play the ball directly to any part of the front wall.
Freedom to play the ball into the tin is not excluded!!
Forbes clearly knows the rules well, but I agree, it does seem a bit harsh under the circumstances.
Al
Al
But from 9.1.1 (and many other places, including 12.2.2 in the same region whence you quote), it's very clear that any reference to the front wall in the rules by default only cover that part of the front wall that constitutes a target for legal returns.
The only exception is in the part of the rules that disambiguates that area from the board (section 6.2). Even in that case, the Contents use the general wording, "Ball must strike front wall".
Ok Ros..er I mean Ref... ;-)
the rules also state that the incoming striker can hit the ball at a time of his choosing before the second bounce.
Suppose Dougie choose to hit the ball just 1mm before it touched the ground, and aimed it 1 mm above the tin. Suppose the "other player" (aka Ross) was lying dead flat halfway between the ball and the front wall. Then by some elementary trig, the player would have to be less than 19inches/2 above the floor at all points from head to toe to avoid interference and a stroke. Otherwise, instead of just being dead flat, he'd also be, well, dead ;-(
I suggest you replicate this experiment at your club with the hardest hitter you can find and report back on how many times out of 100 that you avoided big bruises ;-)
Sucking in your stomach is not allowed ;-)
ps The pseudonym Ref is reserved by George Tierney. "There can only be one". (The Highlander)
Ah now, you're making some basic mistakes there, "Christy". I will now reply in the idiom of A.Einstein.
1. The appeal freezes the action at that point in spacetime. Was the ball 1mm off the ground at that point? If not, you can forget that line of (and I use the word in its loosest possible sense) reasoning.
2. Your basis for the experiment you propose presupposes that I'm a member of a squash club; an unjustified assumption so any such experiment (if not invalidated by point 1, which it is) would have to remain a Gedanken.
3. I have a niece called Ros, so I presume you were going to say "Ros's uncle", but changed your mind for some reason.
;-)
Dear Prof R.E.F. Einstein,
E=mc^2
which meants that as Dougie's appeal approached the speed of light, spacetime did not freeze but approached infinite mass... and the referee could no longer resist the "weight" of the evidence before his eyes.
QeD
Dr Max Plank
ps "Gedanken" - speak English (not that I can)
pps Ros's uncle: I suggest a "Rules of Squash" booklet & DVD for her next birthday, with a sly peek beforehand for yourself te hee ;-)
Yeah, who is Dean2 #4 "Alan Jamieson"? Mark probably filled in the report from his copy of the scorecard so either:
a) Dean2 captain Luke brought in a gun-for-hire in Div 5 and never told Ross ;-)
b) Mark recently got beat by Grange member Andy Jamieson and the guy has stuck in his subconscious ever since. ;-(
Post a Comment