Wednesday 29 June 2011

RB home v Linlithgow(Tue, Jun 28)

A warm sunny evening, Linlithgow rolled up around 7:45. Ali Ross was first on with John Ralph and set a new PB for rallies scored, 11-15, 3-15, 8-15. Off he went to the kitchen to conjure up some food magic.
Mike Douglas made his team debut against Captain Keith Barrett. It was close, he lost the first but took the second and the also swapped he next two games before Keith got his nose in front in the fifth to take it 15-12. Christy at #2 was in the battle of the paddies as he played Paddy Duff. He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the second, having been 14-10 up! Got cuffed in the other 2.
Dean at #1 faced John Stephen. The tactic of just dolly-ing the ball back was working early on but then John stopped tinning it and cruised the first two. The third was a royal battle which Dean took to 13-13 but John got the nod from there.
At #4, Brian Sloan played Matt McIlroy and this was another grinding slog with some marathon rallies. They swapped the first two games but Mark got the third convincingly and another royal battle for the fourth which Mark got.
Overall 3-18 which is 3 points more than we got when we played there.
Ali Ross served up stuffed pasta on a bed of salad with lots of sauce and everyone discussed Wimbledon, squash and racketball while munching and pinting away.

Friday 24 June 2011

A trip down memory lane....



2006 East Mens C Winner - Christy Looby (properly attired in club colours) with Raymond Ross R-up.

2005 East Mens A Winner - Richard McIntosh; East Mens C Winner - William Kerr (improperly attired in West Ham colours?)

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Racketeers home v ESC(Tue, Jun 7)

ESC fronted up with Graeme Hartop, Les, I?, Alastair & John. Guy Tulloch played John at #5 and kept his man on court for the regulation 50 minutes. Jordan was slumming it at #4 as he had cooking duties - he was 2-0 down against Alastair, got it back to the fifth but unlike Lazarus, he went down for good in that game.
Dave Grieve played Les and these guys were really playing squash with a larger ball- lobs, drops, serving out of the hand, asking for second serves after hitting the first one out, this match had it all. Except we lost.
Dean outlasted his opponent I? 3-2 for our only win. Christy blazed his way around the tin (again) to succumb a bit too meekly to Graeme Hartop.
Jordan magicked-up some chicken & veggie fajitas so the food bill was £24 and the bar bill £56! A good night's entertainment, topped by the story of how ESC had bandited against one team whose number 1 fancied himself, fancied himself so much he argued for a silly stroke and then Simon decided he wasn't going to see the ball for the rest of the match.

At this point in the season, halfway, we need to take stock of our leading position... in our own Gratrix... the scores in red are somewhat fictitious as I guessed/made-them-up. If Team 8 hadn't been scared of playing us, we'd have beaten them 18-0 anyway!

Thursday 2 June 2011

Racketballers at Dean(Wed, Jun 1)

The local derby's are coming thick 'n fast with The Dean providing the opposition this week and Edinburgh Sports Club next week.
6 players on both teams this time, we won 4-2. I arrived for pizza leftovers and the post-mortem so I don't have any blow-by-blow accounts. Apart from our #1 Steve Eyles taking a blow of a ball to the body... still won.
The Dean line-up was missing Ross Anderson but had Matthew Hunter, James Birkhead & Ian Walford aganst our line-up of Steve, Dave Grieve, Brian Sloan, Jordan Fleming, Dean Wood and Guy Tulloch.
The banter over the food was mainly to do with the French Open and Andy Murray. Matthew challenged me to a drag race afterwards, my trusty 125cc steed versus his 600cc Kawasaki crotch-rocket. I'm still spitting out the rubber bobbles and fumes left as I saw him disappear into the horizon ; -)