Thursday 18 February 2010

Heriot Watt 3 vs Grange 4 Feb 17th 2010

The Grange 3rd team might have their fancy unbeaten record while the 4ths have to live with the ignominy of the sole defeat at Waverley early in the season, but the challenge is still being thrown down by the 4ths as to which team will end the season with the most points per match. The 3rds have 255 from 14 matches while after last night's second 20-pointer in a row the 4ths have 270 from 15.

A visit to the students can sometimes be a bit of a worry depending on the current crop who happen to be passing through this term, but on this occasion it was Grange 4 well in control all the way with a 20-5 win.

The night opened with Will Henderson at No 2 against Brendan Forrester. Will had contemplated being a late pull-out due an ankle injury he'd suffered just a few days earlier, but played on through the pain to record a good 3-1 win. He opened well and took the first two games in a close struggle by adopting a slow lobbing and dropping game better suited to a chap with a gammy ankle. Brendan finally got the hang of that in the third game and pushed Will around the court but in the fourth game Will turned the heat up and took it easily.

At this stage it should be noted that the panic level in regard to Andy Whitelaw's continued non-presence was low at Defcon 1.

Gordon Sloan took on Alistair Ross at No 4 and as is now virtually guaranteed every time Gordon walks on to a court for the teams he took games 1 and 2 for just the loss of a couple of points. Alistair then put him to a much sterner test in the third game and for a while Gordon was doing his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. He regained control though and closed out for a good 3-0 (again…).

Now at Defcon 2 for Andy Whitelaw….defined as "mild concern…but SURELY he knows he's playing….doesn't he?"

Alan Stokes at No 1 was up against Richard Gordon and also up against the clock as he was keen to be off for a dinner date. The dinner (and the date) had to get cold though as Alan was taken to 5 games in a titanic and high quality struggle. Alan took the first two and then went walkabout a little in the third and fourth. He controlled the fifth game well enough although it did take him four goes to actually take the match point. He was last seen singing snatches of "Fly Me To The Moon" as he quickly packed his kit and raced off to see what could be salvaged of his by now thoroughly shrivelled starter.

Defcon 4 raised so Mark Dutton now prepared for the ultimate sacrifice of playing at Andy's No3 spot in case he couldn't be found and we had to forefeit No 5. That match started against Michael Last Name Indecipherable On My Notes(Ross). A quick and quite heavy loss in the first game was reversed in the second with both players making sequences of mistakes to lose points rather than points being won. The very strange sound and grey front wall of the all-glass exhibition court really do take a little getting used to. The third game went to Michael LNIOMN(Ross) and Mark dug deep to save the fourth game to take it to a decider. Mark finally hit his straps in the last game and won it easily with just a couple of points conceded. 3-2.

In between games, urgent phone calls were made trying to find Andy's mobile number (which rather annoyingly isn't on his mini-league table). Finally got Christy on the second attempt who knew Andy's number. Called Andy who was in a quite relaxed state of blissful ignorance in front of the telly at home. Luckily hadn't yet had his dinner or the planned bottle of Chardonnay and was in a fit state to play and said he would be there very shortly. I can't be certain but I might've heard a muttered "oh damn..." when I informed him that "there" was in fact out at Heriot Watt.

Panic now over, Andy arrived just as the No 3 match had finished and walked straight on to court at No 5 against Zsolt Hosz (great name for a Scrabble triple-word square). The rush out to the courts didn't seem to have affected his game in any way and all three games were put away very comfortably to complete Grange's clean sweep.

A very pleasant surprise was to find that old Grange stalwart John Graham had taken a look at the fixture list and had decided to pop out to make his re-acquaintances with some old team mates. He was in fine form and says "hi" to all of the other folks at the club.

The food was pretty good. Hamburgers and chips all round. MOTM.....probably Stokesy.

1 comment:

Christy of the haymaker swing said...

The seconds are also in the running for amassing the biggest haul of points. However the 4th have an advantage, there are 11 teams in their league compared to 10 in the others.
I hereby decree that the team with the largest average points per match at the end of the season be called the Team of the Season (ToS). Who wants to be called ToSsers?