Wednesday 31 October 2012

Fifths @ The Dean (Tue Oct 30)

Winter is fair drawing in as was proved by anyone venturing near Court 2 at the Dean this evening where a novel attempt to recreate the outdoor conditions indoors proved an experiment not to the visitors liking. The leaky roof and highs of 12 degrees were not particularly conducive to high quality squash however since there is rarely much high quality squash involved with the 5ths we battled on regardless.
  First up on the marginally warmer court 1 was Craig Watt. I think Craig may have been making his debut tonight for the 5ths or maybe it just looked that way in games 1 and 2. The nerves of performing in front of the large crowd (well three of us) appeared to be getting to him and despite a number of extraordinary shots, his opponent Ian squeezed out the first two games. After a bit of coaching where it was suggested that the ball might be played into some of the other parts of the court, Craig appeared to have got to grips with his opponent and took the 3rd convincingly. Unfortunately despite a valiant effort, Ian took the 3rd for the Dean for our first loss of the night.
Whilst Craig was playing on Court 1, Bill went on in the icebox. He returned moments later where we thought he had forgotten something however he informed us he had lived up to his name and gone down 0-3 in record time.
Jordon had hoped Bill and his opponent would have warmed the atmosphere on Court 2 but he was mistaken. Watching this game I couldn't understand why Jordon wouldn't hit the ball beyond mid court and I wondered if he was being hypnotised by the sight of the rain dripping down at the front wall as he also went down 0-3.
Tom was on Court 1 where the temperature appeared tropical having just come from watching Jordon's game on Court 2. A fast start saw him take the 1st and it was looking good for our first win of the evening. In an extraordinary reversal in the 2nd, Tom abandoned his winning formula from the 1st game and allowed his opponent Ian to take control of the match. Whilst I didn't see the remainder of this game Tom didn't recover and it was another loss for the Grange, 1-3.
I took to the freezer against Craig and was still warm enough from watching on Court 1 to take the 1st game. Unfortunately my body was cooling rapidly and Craig easily took the 2nd and 3rd. Despite hitting the ball harder than I have ever tried to hit a squash ball before, I still couldn't find the back corners. The court thermometer still showed 12 degrees however I'm sure ice was forming on the puddle at the front as we began the 4th game. Somehow I managed to win this one with a change of tactics throwing up a few lobs in the hope of getting the ball somewhere near the back wall. All square going into the 5th. A few terrific nicks (or maybe the ball just didn't bounce anymore) and Craig's ability to move faster in the harsh conditions saw him take the 5th.
A poor result on the scorecard for the 5ths but a fun night never the less at our closest neighbours. Talk turned to the free rave held by the Dean's burglars at the weekend and the dangers of cycling in the big city.
David Grieve

Friday 26 October 2012

Three's at Bank of Scotland (Thurs, Oct 25)

Gorzer got on early doors at #3 against Robin Nisbet as he had to leave early. Mike quickly blasted of 7 points before Robin got on the scoreboard, leaving early with a win looked good. Then Robin got his perfect  lob serve to the backhand going, then he got his lengths, drops and boasts going.. suddenly Mike was 0-2 down in games and looking to be set for an early exit without a win. To be fair, Mike was moving and hitting well and he dug in, as he does, lifted the pace and got one game back. Then Robin slowed it down again and Mike was a beaten man in the fourth, all credit to Robin, a good match.
   Georgie was on with Alan Cochrane, I didn't see it for reffing/coaching Gorzer but it was a long match so I was surprised to hear it was 0-3 with Alan not making the error and Georgina doing, in her own words, schoolboy errors like serving out 5 times in a row.
   Matt Pearson was on a #2 against Ralph Bain. Matt has come on no end in the last 6 months but still I expected Ralph to steamroller him. Not a bit of it, Matt pushed him and got one game off him for his efforts (again I didn't see it for reffing, Ralph reckoned he lost focus for a game).
  Gavin Fulton at #1 against Rob Norris, a classic battle of movement against racket work. Unfortunately Gavin was outplayed off court in the first two. Then he started seeing the ball like a football and moving early, wiped Rob for one game with pace, power and the touch to finish it. In the fourth, Rob kept it away from the danger area's and Gavin's charge petered out: 1-3.
  Christy at #4 faced Bob Porch, managed to get control midway through all 3 games so it should have been early into the bar for pizza. Except at 8-0 in the 3rd, Bob started a comeback that took him to 7-8, Christy was tottering, fluked his way to serve a few times and luckily on his 3rd time of serving for the match, Bob tinned on an easy drop, otherwise we'd still be there.
PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints PlayerRubbersGamesPoints
1Gavin Fulton0123Rob Norris1333
2Matt Pearson0117Ralph Bain1333
3Mike Gore0123Robin Nisbet1332
4Christy Looby1328Bob Porch0020
5Georgina Jamieson007Alan Cochrane1327
Total1698412145
Competition Points615

   Just 6 of us stayed to eat food for 10, result! Talk turned to how someone stole Georgina's Princess Phiona bike in Marchmont, and her fiance's wipers had been nicked off his car. The conclusion was that some student has started a window-cleaning business with the wipers, and uses the bike to drive them around to his client houses! And if Stokesy still considered himself a "playa", seeing as he was a bit coy when encountered with Hannah while shopping in Morrisons. (BTW the match result was BOS 15-6)

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Firsts home v Colinton 3's (Tue)

PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints        PlayerRubbersGamesPoints
1Mike Hall0021Gary Speirs1327
2Pete Cockburn0122James Burnet1336
3Gordon Sloan0234Hamish Reid1336
4Michael Grinton0020Stuart Keane1327
5Ian Faber1335Kim Byers0125
Total16132413151
Competition Points616

Forbes got  good win against Kim, Michael G harvested a lot of tin against Stuart Kwik Keane, the Sloan Ranger just forgot to close out against Dr Reid, dunno what happened Cockburnator and Mike Hall was just
edged out 9-7 in all 3 games by Gary Speirs.
   Talk over pizza centred on how much of a giggle Kwik Keane and Dr Reid were going to get from seeing Kim's U-19 Scotland team photo, Mike Hall's days cruising the Adelphi in Liverpool with Jonathan Duff and Ricky Easton's stint as minder for Kwik Keane when he was reffing a difficult opponent in a distant club with a packed balcony heckling his every decision.

Forbes hovering to pick up a drop shot from Kim
Here's the Captain's account:
The 1s were at home last night to Colinton 3s. A slightly weaker sided was fielded with absences from Big Willy and Nick. Overall not a bad performance, Ian turning things round and getting a good win against Kim. A fairly poor performance by Grints at 4 considering he beat Stuart 2 weeks ago!  Gordy suffering another 2-3 defeat from Hamish! A slow start from myself made the comeback a bit too much to ask. Mike Hall pushing all the way, unlucky not to get a game on the board.

Abercorn next week. Hopefully full strength will be on show!

BTW, the epic saga of Grange, how they battled starvation, thirst, frostbite and arthritis for 19 games winless and came up with a win at the 20th time of asking - see the GrassRoots take on it, incl photo.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Lookalikes of the Grange: Season III

One is a DJ, comedian and socialite...
and the other is Danny Baker

Saturday 20 October 2012

October GameBall Draw (Fri, Oct19)

Rebecca our independent adjudicator !

Bill Marshall (Ball28) receives the cash jackpot from David Grieve
No longer Bill-Nil!















Let us know if you want to be part of the excitement. 22 members already are!

Sunday 14 October 2012

Racketball Around Scotland @ Grange (Sat Oct 13)

Thirty guys and two gals turned up at the pavilion around 9:45 on Sat for the latest RASTA tourney. Unfortunately they stood on the terrace for 30 mins while Christy frantically phoned around the find someone with keys to let us in.
   So we served off 30 mins late. Some terrific matches ensued, local interest centred around Nick Lyth & Karen Kennedy in Div 2 while Christy & David Grieve competed in Div. 1. 8 guys drove up from Dumfries, Colinton Castle, Abercorn, Hatton & Waverley from the East were well represented and also a good few folk from the West.
    Club president Bill Marshall served up soup and rolls to the hungry enthuasiasts at lunch time, so big thanks to him for helping out. Karen got a prize for being the first lady to enter the series, 89 guys have played so far!
   Brian Scott from Waverley was runner-up in Div 2, belying his 70 years and showing that racketball is a game for all ages. Christy was Runner up to Hatton's Nick Tinning (great name for a rackets player) in Div 1. The Premiership final clash between Richard McBride of Colinton Castle and Jason Broadberry of David Lloyd West End was a riveting affair with the crowd gasping at some of the shot-making and retrieving. In the end, Richard came through 2-1 to double up after winning the Dumfries round a month ago.

Next round of RASTA is at Edin Sports Club on Sat, Nov 10.

See here for a slide show of informal pictures of the day at Grange





Friday 12 October 2012

Grange 5 versus ESC5 – Thursday 11/10/2012; Venue – Edinburgh Sports Club


The fifths were playing at the Edinburgh Sports club this evening.
First up for the Grange a no 5 was Bill Marshall playing Pietro Gagliardini, who has graduated from the Juniors at the club and playing his second team game. Bill was run off his feet in the first set with some strong hitting from the youngster and lost the first set 9-5. Bill then mixed things up with some unorthodox shots which caught Pietro out and Bill took the second and third sets 9-7, 9-7, some pointers from his team mates saw Pietro return with more of the straight big hitting and Bill was unable to hold on and Pietro managed to win the fourth and fifth sets 9-4 & 9-3 for a 2-3 loss to the Grange.
I was up on the next court playing Colin Grier at No.4. Managed to win the first set before walking into Colin’s racket at the start of the second set, after a medical break to stop the bleeding the game resumed and Colin imposed himself on the remainder of the match winning the next 3 sets to take the match 3-1.
Next up was Rocco playing David Coutts at No.3, David had the upper hand in this match from the start and Rocco was unable to get established in the match, with both players throwing wistful glances at the gallery as they obviously disagreed with my umpiring decisions. Win for David 3-0.
Stephen Davey was playing Glyn Cave on the next court and some good retrieving and tight shots down the wall, saw Stephen recover from one set down to go on and win the match 3-1 and capture the fifth’s first rubber win of the season.
Brian Sloan was taking on Scott Beard was last on court at No.1 and was always behind in the match half a yard of the pace. Scott managed to cover and return everything Brian could throw and him and took the match 3-0.
Match result 18-8 to ESC5.
ESC5 then treated us to Lamb Curry & Rice, which was very tasty and talk turned to the current redevelopment plans for the Edinburgh Accies Raeburn place.
Match report – Neil Love

Teams:Grange 4 vs Heriot Watt University 3

PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints         PlayerRubbersGamesPoints 
1Georgina Jamieson0233Stewart Morrison1334
2Anthony Fitzgerald009Stuart Williamson1327
3Doug Sherriffs008Peter Western1327
4Peter Young008Mark Everard1327
5Andrew Beames1327Andrew Fernie000
Total1585412115
Competition Points515

Thirds home v Heriot Watt Studs 3(Thurs,Oct 11)

#1's went on first with Colin Williamson taking on the talented Umair Saeed. Colin took a game to get up to speed but in the second game his deft touch payed dividends. After that Umair re-asserted himself.
  Fifth string Christy was in control mostly against Gary Diggens. Except for one memorable rally where Gary was well lobbed but the contortionist came out in him and he wrapped his back around his backside, got his racket behind the ball and stroked away an unbelievable winner.
  Second string Gavin Fulton and Nick Spath by their own accounts were not playing great stuff but scrapped their way to 2-2 at which point Gavin was running on fumes and had to yield in the fifth game.
 Mike Gore took on #4 Leonard Bedneau (signed before the transfer window from SC Dominica) who showed unbelievable speed around court as well as good touch. He ran everything down and Mike literally had to win evy point 2 or 3 times to get the rally. Down 2 games, Mike went point for point in the third until half way when the tank was empty and Leonard closed out comfortable.
  Andy Whitelaw took on #3 Andrew Moar, the man from Orkney with a howitzer arm hitting the skin off the ball. Andy looked cooked at various points in the match but his variety of shots saw him through in the fifth.
   Back at the pavilion, talk turned to now-defunct Edinburgh Squash clubs (Andy having played at Marcos and Gary/Gavin/Christy  played at Agilent), cricket, the history of Grange since 1832 and how busy Grange's & Heriot Watt's courts were.
Pos Player Rubbers Games Points Player Rubbers Games Points
1 Colin Williamson 0 1 13 Umair Saeed 1 3 33
2 Gavin Fulton 0 2 27 Nick Spath 1 3 34
3 Andrew Whitelaw 1 3 33 Andrew Moar 0 2 33
4 Mike Gore 0 0 8 Leonard Bedneau 1 3 27
5 Christy Looby 1 3 27 Gary Diggens 0 0 8
Total 2 9 108 3 11 135
Competition Points 9 14

GRG1s away to Dalgety Bay 2s (10 Oct 2012)

Momentous Result for Grange 1s


Well what a night for the 1s. First win in 19 matches!

Grange travelled away to Dalgety Bay - the second time for the club in just 9 days. It started off well-enough for Grange with Duncan Walker making a smooth conversion with a 3-1 win at 5th position, continuing the strong start to his season. At 4th position, the Sloan Ranger had a battle with Gerry Gemmell. The game see-sawed throughout, and with the game poised 7-6 in the fifth in the Bay’s favour, Sloan somehow managed to claw out a victory. Two games in and going strong…

Playing number 3, Captain Pete Cockburn felt inspired but he made life difficult for himself. After winning the first game he soon found himself 2-1 down. No matter, he closed out the match 3-2 to take the bonus points home. In 2nd position for The Grange, Nick Wood had a testing match losing the first game (sound familiar?) only to draw level in the second. Dalgety Bay stepped up the tempo in games three and four resulting in a 3-1 loss for Nick.

Finally at number 1, Will Kerr and some exhibition squash for the gallery. Again, Will struggled initially, losing the first game 9-6 only to bring it back in an epic second game, 1-1. The game once again swung in the Bay’s favour only for Will to pull it back – pushing the Bay into a fifth game. Fortunately for Will, he managed to streak to a 7-2 lead and finally closed the game and match out 9-4.

Great night for the visitors – hopefully more success to come this season...

Gordy

Firsts get their own "The Sun" stylee headline...

Last weeks match report: Colinton Towers over Grange  geddit?
Including american-style reporting of total rallies won. The Squash Matrix has been taken too far, I fear.


Sunday 7 October 2012

Journalists put the professional finish to team reports

Week 1 of the Grange Squash teams season published on GrassRootsSports - wins and photos needed next week!

A big thank you to all the clubmen who ever penned a team report, Sloan Ranger, Cockburnator, Duttz, Grievester, Sloan Leftie, Love-love & Douglaze are the regulars.
  And to the regulare commenters, Myreside MacIntosh and ESClubber plus all the other lurkers from other clubs.
Loob

Friday 5 October 2012

Grange 5 host Watsonians 4 – Thurs 04/10/2012 @ Edinburgh Academy

The nights were drawing in, the wind was blowing a hooley, and it was is dark and dreich as we assembled at Edinburgh Academy for the opening match of the 2012/2013 Squash season and our first opponents were Watsonians 4’s.
First up for the Grange making his team debut was Craig Watt and his opponent for the evening was Barrie Turnbull. The first decision was to agree to play a let should any balls hit the nasty hole in the front wall of court 1. The game commenced shortly after and Craig got into action straight after receiving serve, his instinct was to return to the T after returning the serve and stare resolutely at the front wall determined that nothing shall pass, unfortunately he didn’t see Barrie follow his return off the side wall and he was in perfect position to get a royal welcome to team squash as Barrie let fly off the back wall and with unerring accuracy find Craig’s coccyx, job done, stroke awarded and Craig had won his first point in team squash. What followed was some tight shots above the tin and some not so tight shots from various parts of the court and Craig took the first set 9-5. Barrie then stepped up his game in the following sets and his superior nuance and court positioning meant that he took the next 3 sets 9-2, 9-2, 9-0 for a 1-3 loss.
On the other Court Bill Marshall was playing at number 4 and his opponent for the evening was Iain “the matrix statistician” Clark, with Bill desperate to shed his moniker of “Bill Nil”. The game was played out with a lot of grunting and chastising for hitting the tin from both players and Iain emerged as the winner, 3-9, 1-9, 5-9. Never mind Bill, Nil doesn’t have to mean zero, it can also be “Nil a Japanese rock band”, “Nil: A land beyond belief, a graphic novel from 2005” or “Nil – North Island Line, a proposed extension railway of Hong Kong.
David Gibson was playing David Hutton at No. 3. David was up against a strong opponent and soon lost the first set 2-9, a strong rally saw DG take the second set 9-7, unfortunately DH regained the upper hand and took the remaining 2 sets 4-9, 3-9 for a 1-3 loss.
I was up on the next court playing Roger Weir at No.2. The first set, set the tone for the match with both players trying to end the point at the earliest opportunity with a combination of good and poor shots in equal measure and I went on to sneak the set 9-7, after Roger missed what would have been a glorious overhead that hit the wrong side of the bottom line. Roger took control after this and took the next three sets 6-9, 5-9, 6-9 for a 1-3 loss.
With the match won at 4-0 to Watsonsians, it was the turn of the No. 1’s to do battle for personal honour. Stephen Davey was playing Derek Davidson. Derek’s tight control at the front saw him take the first set 6-9, Stephen turned thing round in a marathon second set which he edged 9-8, unfortunately despite some strong chasing down Stephen was unable to improve the situation and lost the match 6-9, 9-8, 5-9, 6-9. A higher error count than his opponent was the difference in this match.
Match results including ref points was 20-6 to Watsonsians. So congratulation to Watsonsians for a winning start to the season and a could do better next time improvement notice to the Grange. “There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time – Malcolm X”
Back to the Grange for Beer and Pizza, which was eventually finished off, as we were determined that there was no wastage. Talked tuned such diverse subjects as the Higgs boson large hadron collider and innuendo in children’s TV programmes, which led me to remember the following script from an unseen episode of Rainbow with innuendo all the way, which may or may not have happened. Many thanks to the following link for the information - http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/rainbow_tv_episode.html
Script from Rainbow

Up above the streets and houses....paint the whole world with a Rainbow!

The sketch opens with Zippy peeling a banana ...
Zippy: " One skin, two skin, three skin, four"
George: " Zippy, where is Bungle? "
Zippy: " I think Geoffrey is trying to get him up"

We see a view of the door and hear Bungle moaning from behind it.

Bungle: "Geoffrey, I can't get it in "
Geoffrey: " You managed it last night "
Bungle: " I know, lets try it round the other way. Ooooooh, I've got it in"

Bungle and Geoffrey enter the studio with Bungle carrying a hammer and peg kit.

Bungle: " Would you stick this on the shelf, George "
George: "I can't reach, you'll have to stick it up yourself ".

Geoffrey (to camera) " Hello everyone, today we are talking about playing "

Bungle: " Playing with each other, Geoffrey? "
Geoffrey: " Yes Bungle, do you have a special friend that you like to play with? "
George: " Yesterday we played with each other's balls. Are we going to play with our friend's balls today?"
Bungle: " Yes, and we can play with our twangers as well. "

Geoffrey (to camera) Have you seen Bungles twanger?

Zippy: " Oh I have, I showed him how to pluck with it. "
Bungle: " It's my plucking instrument. "

Geoffrey asks the audience if they can pluck like Bungle

Zippy: " I can, I'm the best plucker here. "
George: " And I'm good at banging. My peg's hard isn't it Zippy? "
Zippy: " Well of course it is, your peg wouldn't go in if it was soft. "

Geoffrey: " Let's get back to Bungle's twanger. "

Bungle: (excited) " Oooooh Geoffrey, we could all play with our twangers couldn't we? Let's play the plucking song. Rod and Freddy can get their instruments out and Jane has got two lovely Maracas. "

Singers Rod, Freddy and Jane enter.

Freddy: " We could hear you all banging away "
Rod: " Banging can be fun. "
Jane: " Ooooh yes, and I was banging away all last night with Rod and Freddy. "
Freddy: ( looking sad ) " Yes, but it broke my plucking instrument. "

Rod: (to Jane) " Do you want to blow on my pipe while I'm twanging away? "
Jane: " Oh no, I was banging away with Freddy last night. But would you like to play with my maracas?
Zippy; " No, let's just pluck away with our twangers. "
George: " Yes, it doesn't matter what size our twanger is. "
Zippy: " I've got a big red one. "
George: " I've only got a tiny twanger. But it works well and I like to play with it. "

Geoffrey: (to viewers) " Well, have you got your twangers out? And remember you can bang your balls at the same time. If you haven't got any, ask a friend if you can play with his. Now, let's all play the plucking song. "

Everyone in studio: "Pluck, pluck, pluck along, we're going to pluck all day".
Apparently it was recorded in 1979, when the show had been running for several years.
It was never intended to be shown on TV. In fact, the sketch was performed simply for the amusement of the cast and crew, and would have been lost to history, were it not for the
OBA 1 Christmas tape put together by Thames TV engineers.
Match report – Neil Love
Pos
Player
Rubbers
Games
Points
Player
Rubbers
Games
Points
1
Stephen Davey
0
1
26
Derek Davidson
1
3
35
2
Neil Love
0
1
26
Roger Weir
1
3
34
3
David Gibson
0
1
18
David Hutton
1
3
34
4
Bill Marshall
0
0
9
Iain Clark
1
3
27
5
Craig Watt
0
1
13
Barrie Turnbull
1
3
32
Total
0
4
92
5
15
162
Competition Points
6
20

Thursday 4 October 2012

Grange 1 Vs Colinton Castle 2 (02 Oct 2012)

First match for the 1s.
Pos Player Rubbers Games Points Player Rubbers Games Points
1 Will Kerr 0 1 24 Mark Lord 1 3 34
2 Mike Hall 0 0 21 Adam Lord 1 3 28
3 Nick Wood 0 0 3 Jonathan Nimmo 1 3 27
4 Pete Cockburn 1 3 37 Roddy Robinson 0 1 26
5 Michael Grinton 1 3 31 Stuart Keane 0 1 28
Total 2 7 116 3 11 143
Competition Points 7 14

A good effort all round.  A sore one for Nick who was just back from NZ.  Tight games at 4 and 5 for Pete and Mike G.  A hard fought one for Mike Hall, unlucky not to nab a game.  Will Kerr looking good in the number on spot.  Pushed his opponent far as we have alway come to expect from the big man!

Last season was a tough one.  Hopefully we can now find our feet in Div 2 and start getting some wins!  Definately a possibility based on this first performance.

onwards!

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Threes at Watsons 3's(Tue, Oct 2)


Date:2/10/2012
Teams:Grange 3 vs Watsonians 3

PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints         PlayerRubbersGamesPoints 
1Christy Looby0010Mick Hay1327
2Mike Gore0019Jim Dougal1328
3Gavin Fulton1337Gordon MacDonald0235
4Andrew Whitelaw0228Mike Sinclair1331
5Georgina Jamieson0119Andrew Constable1334
Total16113414155
Competition Points617

Man of the Match was probably Andy Whitelaw who was getting a drubbing at 0-2 down and managed to salvage the next 2 games. Good closing out from Gavin. Georgie turned it around for 1 game and pushed her man all the way. Gorzer faced the enigma that is Jim Dougall and was unlucky not to get the first game which went to extra points. Christy surrendered supinely to Michael Hay.
   Man-size portions of lasagne, salad and bread rolls, Mike Sinclair put Grange to shame with his plans for World Squash Day Oct 20 (Back-the-bid-2020) and a 20-a-side match.

Second team at Dalgety Bay 4's(Mon, Oct 1)

The first match in the 2012/13 season saw the second team hop over the bridge to the Kingdom of Fife for a warm welcome (the heaters were on a few days in advance but I'm not complaining) at Dalgety Bay.

First up, Mark (Jose Maria) Dutton. Dressed in Seve Ballesteros blue, Jose had a tough start losing 6-9 in the first only to bring it back level in the second winning 10-9. A number of trademark dives (even twice in the same rally) indicates the dedication the captain has for the team this season. Sadly, he lost the third and fourth match. At the same time, Stokesy (Poults) had an equally tough opponent who wore the red of USA. Poulter struggled in the heat losing 3-0.

At number 3, the veteran, and recently retired Dougie (Paul Lawrie) Brown used all of his experience to thwart a 3rd win of the night for the Fifers. Great victory for The Grange, Lawrie won 9-4, 9-5, 10-9 and set the wheels in motion for a comeback of European proportions.

Duncan Walker (Justin Rose) could sense the change and duly out-gunned his opponent with relative ease winning 3-1. Those long pre-season games are doing him the world of good and setting him in good stead for his Himalayan adventure in the coming weeks.

Poised at 2 games each, The Sloan Ranger (aka GMac) huffed and puffed his way into the match. With warm courts, a young opponent, and full gallery, the squash was exquisite and rubbish – sometimes in the same rally. The wee man in the end couldn't find 5th gear and succumbed to the sustained pressure in the 4th game losing 3-1, resulting in an overall loss for the team. The tears on Monday night weren't of joy.

Pub grub followed at the Hillend as usual - very nice it was too. Not a great result to start the season but we're off and running and things can only get better... Special mention again to Duncan Walker who continues his training in the remote regions of Nepal! - good luck Dunc.
(Report: The Sloan Ranger.)

Pos Player Rubbers Games Points Player Rubbers Games Points
1 Gordon Sloan 0 1 29 Stephen Literacki 1 3 34
2 Duncan Walker 1 3 28 Colin Boswell 0 1 10
3 Dougie Brown 1 3 28 Willie Schultz 0 0 18
4 Alan Stokes 0 0 5 David Edwards 1 3 27
5 Mark Dutton 0 1 20 Grant Sinclair 1 3 36
Total 2 8 110 3 10 125
Competition Points 8 13