The 4ths picked up valuable points against a stong HWU2 side. The 10-13 result (incl ref points) is just sufficient to see them remain above the students in the relegation battle with all to play for now against Inveresk in the last week.
At no 3 Gavin Fulton opened strongly against the very speedy Alistair Ross. Gavin dominated the front of the court and put Alistair away with numerous superb drives and well-placed cross-courts to take the first two 9-3, 9-4. In the third Alistair began adding some pressure of his own to his very good retrieval capability and that was way too much for Gavin who was also suffering some suspicious Achilles twinges and it went away 0-9. Alistair was likewise dominating the fourth game but Gavin was hanging in there and eventually did enough to take it 9-7 for a good 3-1 match win.
Sub Peter Roberts found the going extremely tough against the very useful Stuart Williamson at no5. Peter was under the kosh right from the start although the 0-9, 0-9 scoreline in the first two games was by no means an entirely fair reflection of how the rallies were going. Peter came back well in the third to show what might have been and was at one point leading 4-2 but Stuart gradually pulled away again to take it 4-9 to leave Peter with a 0-3 match loss.
Mark Dutton's hectic (and slightly ridiculous) match schedule since returning from Australia last week finally caught up with him against Brendan Forrester at no2. He would've needed to be at his sharpest to compete with the form Brendan was in at the best of times but on the night was the best part of a yard slower than his usual pace to every ball and struggling to stay in every rally. The 2-9, 2-9 start was a fair reflection of Brendan's dominance. With nothing to lose Mark mustered all the remaining petrol for an all-or-nothing third game and somehow managed to sneak that one 9-7, but that effort left him able to put up little resistance in the fourth and Brendan took it 3-9. A 1-3 loss for Mark.
Mike Gore was up against the hard-hitting Umair Saeed at no4. He was competing well throughout and wasn't too far off the pace in the opening two games which Umair took 5-9, 2-9. An excellent third game saw him dominanting Umair for a 9-3 win and a big match looked on the cards. Unfortunately Umair got back in the groove and Mike was pushed around the court quite a bit more in the fourth to go down 4-9 for a 1-3 loss.
At no1 Christy Looby was facing the very, very hard-hitting Orcadian, Andrew Moar. Christy's been around far too long though to be intimidated by a big hitter and took advantage of Andrew's failure to do very much more to take the first two 0-9, 0-9. In the third Andrew finally started to play with a lot more variety and court-craft and put the challenge to Christy who found himself down 6-7 with a big five-setter looking very likely. Christy tightened the noose though and ran out 9-7 for a very good 3-0 win.
The post match pizzas and conversation were very enjoyable and it would have to be said that the HWU cafeteria is a good place to watch big football matches if the atmosphere for the night's Arsenal v Barca match is anything to go by.
Man of the match…? A toss up between Christy and Gavin…with Gavin just shading it, methinks. Report by: Mark Dutton
Teams: Grange 4 vs Heriot Watt University 2
Pos Player Rubbers Games Points Player Rubbers Games Points
1 Christy Looby 1 3 27 Andrew Moar 0 0 7
2 Mark Dutton 0 1 16 Brendan Forrester 1 3 34
3 Gavin Fulton 1 3 27 Alastair Ross 0 1 23
4 Mike Gore 0 1 20 Umair Saeed 1 3 30
5 Peter Roberts 0 0 4 Stuart Williamson 1 3 27
Total 2 8 94 3 10 121
Competition Points 8 13
6 comments:
It's fantastically tight in the bottom half of division 4.
Does anyone know if all the results will be in before the final round of matches begin?
ESSA League Rules E4 & 5 are clear on this: 24 hours to get the result into The Matrix, otherwise a 10 point deduction.
Whether that has ever been enforced, I would doubt.
So I think it is up to individual teams captains as to whether the results from this week are posted by Monday.
At least Watsons & Grange put most of their results in the public domain on their websites, even if it was an away match for which late entry of results is the fault of their opposite number that week.
Colinton4 19 - 7 Grange4 to repeat one such example of a result that is overdue on the Matrix by 6 days.
I'd be surprised if the rule has ever been enforced. It's probably more just that entering results into the matrix isn't everyones' top priority.
Do you reckon you can put a result in before the match has been played? That could be fun.
Fair enough, I'd hate to see a league decided other than by play on court... The Matrix has definitely speeded up result reporting.
Seems to me that someone will put in a wrong result sometime and it won't get spotted - Horizon do this better as both Captain's have to electronically sign for the online result, which at least ensures it gets cross-checked. Stuff like Watsons putting in results before the match is played.
That's why Watsons are top of the league just now. Nobody's noticed what we're up to!
I'm surprised those rogues down at the Grange aren't up to similar mischief.
No mischief possible when the gamekeeper is aboot!
Post a Comment