Grange 5 at DLL2 – Wednesday 05/12/2012

The fifths were playing at the David Lloyds Corstorphine this evening.

Firstly, I must apologies to my fellow team mates as I was about as much use as a pound of mince, and my first match in eight weeks saw me getting thoroughly humped 9-2, 9-1, 9-0 by Elaine Inglis.

First up for the Grange at No 5 was Angus McPherson, who agreed to play for the fifths after the list of possible replacements all said no and it was not until he arrived at David Lloyds that I realised that Angus was making his team debut at the age of 14. Angus was playing Steve Lea and after a keenly contested first set that Steve won 9-6, Angus went missing and lost the second set 9-0 in quick time. A coaching session and words of encouragement followed and Angus was a different player in the third, hardly any boasts and lots of straight drives saw Angus take control of the third and quickly move into a 7-3 lead, Steve got back into the game and was serving for the match at 9-8 only for Angus to keep his composure and take the third set 10-9, by this time a crowd had gathered to watch this match and Angus was playing some nice shots and pulling Steve all around the court and took the fourth set 10-8. Steve then raced to 7-1 in the fifth and we thought that Angus’s gallant effort was about to be ended, but Angus kept playing nice length and was making Steve work for all his points, a few mistakes crept in to Steve’s game and he was spending much of his time at the back of the court and Angus was hunting down anything that was being thrown at him, gradually Angus drew level at 7-7 and then held his nerve for a fantastic win taking the fifth set 9-7 for a 3-2 win on his Grange team debut and a superb performance, well done Angus.

Bill Marshall was playing Eamonn Keane at No 4 on the other court and Bill never managed to get a foot hold in the match and went down to the 3-0 loss, 9-3, 9-2, 9-5, At least you managed to score more points than me.

Next up was Stephen Davey at No 1 playing Ian Gallacher. This was a strange match in that each of the five sets one player dominated and they took in turns to do so. It was important to get the first set and Ian prevailed and went on to win 3-2, 9-3, 5-9, 9-4, 1-9, 9-2.

Tom McEwan was last on court playing at No 2 and his opponent was Blair Lochrie. This game saw two players with contrasting styles play out a tight competitive match that Tom managed to win 3-2. 9-7, 8-10, 9-7, 8-10, 7-9.

Match result 16-8 to DLL2.

DLL2 then treated us to soup and wraps, before we headed out in the freezing cold for home.

Match report – Neil Love