Thirds @ Dalgety Bay 3 (Wed 5th Oct, '11)

Having successfully negotiated the logistical nightmare that was getting a team to Dalgety Bay for a 6pm start, the thirds were a bit less successful in negotiating their way through the strong Dalgety Bay third team.

First up was Gavin Fulton at no 3 against the rangy Gerry Burton. Gavin hadn't played many matches due to a long standing injury and that showed somewhat in the first two games that went fairly convincingly to Gerry. Gavin professed himself reasonably happy with the way he was going given that recent history and then proceeded to give Gerry a thorough trouncing in the third game. Unfortunately Gerry responded to that by returning the favour in the fourth game to give a 1-3 loss for Gavin.

Being elevated to the dizzy heights of third team squash for the first time, Richard Nisbet took on the useful Willie Schulz at no 5. For the first two games Richard was playing the actual rallies well enough but was making plenty of mistakes much to his own annoyance to hand Willie a 0-2 game lead. It looked like it was going the same way in the third game but then a magical transformation occurred that saw Richard forcing the mistakes fom Willie to take a close game. Richard continued playing well and took a close fourth game. The fifth was likewise a titanic struggle and Richard had match point but it was rescued by Willie who eventually snatched the game 9-10 from under Richard's nose. Richard was rightly pleased with that effort considering how the night started for him.

Matt Pearson at no4 had a very torrid time against the very experienced Alan Jones. The first game was quite competitive but the remaining two were well dominated by Alan giving Matt little opportunity to get back in. Matt seemed a bit tentative in his squash on the night and knows that he would have needed to be a bit more forceful in asking Alan some squash questions.

At no 2 Mark Dutton took on the young whippet Scott Boswell. The first game was very hard fought with Scott just sneaking it due to his terrific speed around the court (amongst other things..). The second was likewise a very even struggle with some good squash being played all round and it went to Mark. It was looking like a monumental 5-setter was in prospect but at the start of the third game Scott suddenly found his length and width and Mark was always behind the eight ball from that point with Scott taking the remaining two games reasonably comfortably. The first few dives of the season were seen….the first being a particularly successful point-winner.

Trying to save the teams blushes at no1 Christy took on Craig Pounder, a player from whom he hadn't taken many games in past encounters. He soon put that to rights in the first with a 9-1 win, but Craig put the brakes on after that. Christy knew that to win he'd just need to keep going for everything and if it came off he might be able replicate the first game success. In the event though, Christy found himself often having to force shots that weren't really on and the percentages started to tell against him with Craig comfortably taking all of the remaining games.

A 7-20 loss for the thirds.

This account can’t end without relating one of the finest umpire put-downs that has been heard for a while. Christy (who on Monday had some dentistry to remove his front teeth) enquired of Willie Schulz whether he'd like to play to one point or two when a game had reached 8-8. His numerically correct answer was…"How many front teeth are you missing?"

A fab meal of pasta bolognese at the very fine Hill End pub completed a great social evening.

Pos Player Rubbers Games Points Player Rubbers Games Points
1 Christy Looby 0 1 12 Craig Pounder 1 3 28
2 Mark Dutton 0 1 18 Scott Boswell 1 3 34
3 Gavin Fulton 0 1 21 Gerry Burton 1 3 29
4 Matt Pearson 0 0 4 Alan Jones 1 3 27
5 Richard Nisbet 0 2 33 Willie Schultz 1 3 42
Total 0 5 88 5 15 160
Competition Points 5 18