Saturday 14 December 2013

Minileague 3 Results

Another very active league (apart from league 18!) with 187 games played.
Over the next few weeks I will work out the standings for Minileaguer of the Year and let you know.
All the best for the new league and for Christmas and New Year

Dougie

Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view

Sunday 8 December 2013

GRG2s Vs Tyne (4/12/13)

A trip to Haddington brought the first half of the season to a close for Grange 2's on Wednesday night.

Wearing South African colours, Georgie, slotting in at 5th position, started well and opened up a two-game lead vs Graham Morrison. Sadly for Grange, the Tyne man clawed back and with the game poised at 2 each, could have gone either way. As it happened, Graham tore into a 7-1 lead before Georgie started getting the rhythm back - impressively clawing back into contention, and eventually over-taking and winning the 5th game 9-7. Impressive stuff.

Slotting in at 4, and with Ron Pearman taking charge of the ref duties, Stokes started reasonably well and managed to get ahead after 3 games only for Tyne's Donald Smith to turn the screw in the 4th & 5th: finishing 3-2 to the home side.

Mike Gore next and in great form of late vs Nigel Pearman. Both with very similar style, a great match to watch with a full balcony taking advantage. Another 5-setter resulting in a win for the visitors. Boom.

Sloaner at 2. A better performance from the captain, converting the win in 4 games - a much needed confidence boost ahead of the Christmas break!

Finally, Pete Cockburn at no. 1, not playing his best with Alan Russell unrelenting in pressure. Despite levelling after 2 games, The Cockburnator lost in 4. Nonetheless a great night for the 2nd team. And despite faltering mid-way through the half, we're in a good mid-table position. Time to take stock & enjoy some turkey, ready to come back strong in Jan.

Thursday 5 December 2013

GRANGE 3 vs EDINBURGH SPORTS CLUB 6

Tuesday 3rd December
"The Night of the Long Fives..."

Team Captain elect Richard Nisbet (now that Mark Dutton has gone AWOL
for a few months) put together a team to compete against ESC6, who were
only two places below GRG3 in Division 4, for our final match of 2013.

Richard and Ant Fitzgerald were first up against Moira and Matt
respectively.
Moira took control from the off and had Richard on the ropes with a
swift 9-3 win in the first.
But our Richard is a feisty fella and after taking stock of the
situation in the interval, came out swinging (the racket) and recovered
to take the second 9-1.
Fortunately for us, Moira recovered in the next two, but not enough to
knock our man to the canvas and Richard eventually closed out the game 3-1.

Ever the leader, Richard even took the opportunity to call Brian Sloan
(our #4) before his final game to find out whether Brian was ever going
to turn up that evening?
It turns out that at that moment Brian was at home with his feet up
tucking into a sumptuous dinner coz he planned to play on Wednesday!

Ant and Matt-the-younger had very similar styles: run like the flames
and leather the ball fek hard!
Ant was even wearing a go-faster stripe round his knee to help with the
image.
Ant was the victor in the first game, 9-6. But Matt came out fast &
furious in the second to burn Ant 9-2.
The third was a much more even affair and it was a long slog that took
them to 8 all.
Matt chose set 1 - always a risky choice - but it ended well, with Matt
recovering service and then serving to win the game 9-8.
2-1 to Matt.
Well, Ant must have had some special antipodean potion at the interval
because he came out in the 4th and scorched to a 9-3 win.
2 all.
Like the third, the fifth was even and yet another long slog took them
to 8 all for the second time. Set 2 was called this time, but like the
third, Matt won out 10-8 to take the rubber 3-2.
And so ended the first of the long five setters of the evening...

Andy Beames was up next to play Matt-the-taller. Now if you thought
Richard had been off to a slow start, you should have seen this fella.
Matt took the first 9-3 in a matter of minutes and not long after was
looking for his second at 8-2 up.
Perhaps Andy thought he was playing on Wednesday with Brian?
Perhaps Matt took his foot off the gas?
Whatever it was, Beamesy found himself in the ascendency, and against
the run of play, not only recovered, but took the second 10-9.
The third also went Andy's way, 9-6, and now it was Matt wondering what
on earth had happened?
One should point out at this juncture that Matt was a veritable diving
machine on the squash court, rekindling memories of our erstwhile
captain Dutton. Ahhh...
The fourth game went on and on, Matt recovering from the shock of
finally having an opponent and the game went to 8 all.
Receiving serve on the forehand, Andy chose set 1 and recovered service
to serve for the match. Matt dug deep, saved the match point and
immediately won the game point to level the score at 2 all.
So, after having been on the court for nigh on an hour, Matt and Andy
squared up for the final game.
Except that Andy had left the building! Matt finished as he had started:
game over in minutes, 9-1, Matt wins 3-2.
And so ended the second long five setter of the evening...

Andy Whitelaw and Ronan, seeded #1, were playing on the other court, and
this was to be the last of the long five setters.
Andy and Ronan slugged through the first four games turn and turn-about:
9-4, 6-9, 9-7, 6-9.
And so it was down to the fifth.
Ronan was still skipping around the court like he'd just walked on,
whilst Andy was doing an excellent impression of someone who had played
9 cometition games in 7 days and was now an hour into his 10th.
Ronan forged ahead to 7-2 - the writing was definitely on the wall for
Andy - so it pains me to say it, but rather than see the culling of my
team-mate, I retired for a nice shower...
Which means the following transcription is based on the gossip bouncing
around the hallowed walls of Grange Bar in the pizza / beer session
later on...
'I have never seen such winners!'
'I played every shot hoping it was going to end the rally!'
'I thought he was out for the count!'
'Ahh, he always does that!'

Suffice to say, Andy came back to win the fifth 10-8!

But what happened to Brian? I hear you say. What indeed?!
Brian finally rolled up (literally since he was full of food!) in the middle of the
two Andys' matches.
By that stage it was getting really late and there was no sign of either
game finishing any time soon, so Brian and Thomas (and Ant, the ref)
were dispatched off to the Grange to play their game there.

Sadly Brian's messed up evening went from bad to worse with
(1) Thomas whupping him 3-0 so quickly that Brian offered to play
another game to at least make the evening worth his while
and
(2) Brian finding out that he had exited his house in such a rush he had
left his house keys in the front door...
He left to see whether his house was still there...

The remaining players eventually wound up proceedings just after 11. A long night indeed!

Wednesday 4 December 2013

FREE WEEKLY VIDEO ANALYSIS FOR ALL GRANGE SQUASH CLUB MEMBERS

Dear Grange Squash member,
You may or may not be aware that I’m part of a coaching team which includes the Former Ladies World No 1 Player Sarah Fitzgerald. There is a opportunity for any Grange suash member to register free of charge and receive free weekly squash shot Videobyte clips directly into your  email box.
Just click on http://www.squashanalysis.com/index.php to register.
Last but not least, if you know anyone, or any Santa who has your best interests at heart with regards becoming a better squash player, you can now order ‘tailored’  Xmas  Squash coaching vouchers or Xmas  Titan Racket vouchers.
Just email surgeofchi@yahoo.com or text 07834736296
yours in squash,
Mike

Monday 2 December 2013

Grange 2 v Edinburgh University 2


27th Nov saw GRG2 host Edinburgh University 2 at home.  A tough fixture against well-bred, bored-looking but well-spoken whippersnappers and with the usual captain of arms Sloan on first team duty Wallace stepped forward to captain Messrs Forbes (2nd string), Stokes (3), Brown  (4), Whitelaw (5) to a victory … of sorts.
At 5th String Whitelaw obviously drinking beforehand – or drunk with success from surviving his 9thconsecutive game of squash in 7 days – dispatches his opponent Shaakir Salam with customary verve in the first game 9-5, and then I can only imagine goes on a mystic journey within, to lose the next two games in a matter of minutes.  Andy rallies in the 4th to take it 9-5 and it looks like he’s done it again but loses out after digging deep in the 5th.  2 valuable points to Grange.
At 4th Brown wins the Silver Fox Man of the Match who must have tied an invisible string to young Neil Campbell who was in all corners of the court twice a rally for most of the match and never really caught onto the annoying well place dinky wee drop shots – sound thrashing delivered - 3 points Grange.
3rd string Stokes mans up against Luke Park – I didn’t see much of this one and gladly wasn’t marking but did witness Stokes with a pint in his hand soon after claiming to have lost 3-1 ad the pizzas were ordered, but another crucial point in what I gathered was a hard fought game.
2nd sees Forbes reinvent himself into an aggressive go-getter and bad ass that trumps Emmanuel Cedillo (who looked quite handy) in a straight 3-0, not without effort but I saw this and it was all Forbes Forbes Forbes.  Nicely done.  “Tres puntos por Grange, muy triste!” as Emmanuel says in his native land, I imagine.
1st was the longest game of the night lasting 137 changes of serve.  Wallace takes 1st easily enough 9-5 to lose the 2nd, win the 3rd, lose the 4th and be closed out in the 5th  by a steady Luke Hardingham.  3-2 against.  Too many errors at the front of the court and a phantom referee from the balcony - but it was all over by that stage of the game – put paid to a traditional victory but read on…
11 points for GRG2 + 2 ref points = 13 points. 
9 points for EU2 + 3 match points = 12 points. 
So a victory (of sorts) for GRG2 and an enjoyable evening with great squash and good guys from EUS2.

AW

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Calendar of national league "home" matches


National League Matches @ Grange

DATE TIME OPPONENTS Team

TUE 26 NOV 7pm Newlands Women

  "      "    "
Colinton Men

TUE 14 JAN 7pm ASRC Women

TUE 4 FEB 7pm ASRC1 Men

TUE 18 FEB 7pm Bridge of Allan Women

  "     "   " 7pm Giffnock Men

Tue 18 Mar  7pm ESC1 Women

Sun 13 Apr 7pm Thurso Men

 







East of Scotland Clubs - Then & Now

Continuing series on East squash (click here for Ladies Episode 3) ... now the turn of  Open leagues

58 Clubs that have played in East/Lothian Leagues 1969-2012

Up to 80 miles of travelling

View Squash clubs that played in East of Scotland Assoc in a full screen map

 

17 Clubs presently playing in East Leagues

Up to 40 miles of travelling

View 17 Clubs now in East of Scotland leagues 2013/14 in a full screen map

Friday 22 November 2013

Receive your Free £5 Titan Racket Discount Voucher

Are you Looking to upgrade your squash racket?
A Christmas Gift to start your squash new year?
Why not try before you buy by taking advantage of a FREE trial ‘HIT’ and receive a £5 FREE Racket product Voucher.
WHEN:   Saturday 7th December  @ 10.45am
WHERE:   Court 1 at The Grange Squash Club.
To reserve your  Titan Racket Trial ‘Hit’ contact Club Coach and Titan Club rep Mike Hall
surgeofchi@yahoo.com
tel/text 07834736296.
P.S. If  Saturday 7th December is not convenient please contact  Mike to choose a more suitable time and date.

Friday 15 November 2013

November Newsletter

Hi All,

Another packed newsletter, there is so much happening at your club.
Top of the bill in this newsletter are the two squash treats in store for you this month.

TOP Class Squash
The weekend of the 23/24th hosts the Grange Open, attracting top players from all over. There really will be some top class squash here and it is FREE to watch for members AND guests.
On the Saturday after the squash matches is a not-to-be-missed exhibition game between Greg Lobban and Dougie Kempsell, last year's exhibition game was spectacular this one will surpass even that.

The next squash treat is on the evening of Tuesday 26th - both the National League AND the Ladies National League are playing at the Grange, come down and cheer on the home sides. Again this is FREE to members AND guests. Our 4th team also play their home game at the Academy that night, the bar will be jam packed full with great banter, come along and  enjoy the evening.

Opening Night
A very popular evening, the fun competition was again superbly organised by Karen Kennedy, and food provided by David Grieve.
The winning team look suitably impressed with their prizes!


New Squash Courts
It's started. It really has. The eagle has landed (actually that is a dummy bird on the grass tennis courts, it's not a real eagle, despite all the photo's being taken by passers by) and the building work has commenced. Please see the attachment from the club Chairman with more details of the racket sports development and restrictions on parking.

Quiz Night
This Friday 15th. Club night as usual at 7:00, as always some will slope off to the bar - er quiz early and others will keep the club night going.

O'Brien Bucket Final
Is on Friday 22nd, the oldest trophy in the Grange squash club will again be keenly contested - come along and cheer your favourite player on the night.

Fun Rules Night on a Friday
We haven't forgotten about the promise to do some fun rules nights, let me know if you would be interested in this - numbers would have to be limited to 12 or so, but if it's popular we can do several more nights. The idea is to watch a few set plays from the balcony, listen to the players pleas, and vote on the outcome of Let, No Let or Stroke. Then hear what the call should have been and the referees explanation of why. The emphasis will be on fun as much as learning, and it won't take all night.

Gameball
We now have a few more participants, another 3 or 4 will make all the difference. It's still great odds for that £100 prize cheque every month.
Harvey won last month, on the same night his team won the opening night prizes. He fairly skipped out of the club that evening!


Calendar
Andrew Beames has kindly 'volunteered' to do the social media side of the club, so if you have anything you want put on the website, placed on the blog, stuck on Facebook or put in the online calendar drop him a line, the contact email is in the signature block at the bottom of this email.

Personal Accident Insurance
This is already included for registered competitive players of SSRL (i.e.team players) however SSRL have offered the same cover for £10 to all other registered players.
Please let me know if you are interested and I'll collate the figures.

And Finally
I found this link from Squash Ezine very useful:

9 videos of squash scenarios requiring a refereeing decision, with answers - how many did you get right? (I got 7 and 8 wrong)

Enjoy the squash,

Bill.
--
The Grange Squash Club
Facebook/Blog/Website/Calendar etc: loobken20@gmail.com
President:        Bill Marshall      grangesquashclub@gmail.com
Hon President  David Grieve      davidgrieve5@aol.com
Open Events:   Kevin Moran      kevinmoran03@hotmail.com
Mini-leagues:   Douglas Brown  grangesquash@yahoo.co.uk
Competitions:  Jonathan Norrie  jnorrie71@o2.co.uk
Juniors:           John Bain          johnrbain_42@hotmail.com
Ladies Teams: Karen Kennedy  karen.kennedy@blueyonder.co.uk
Open Teams:   Pete Cockburn   grangesquash@yahoo.co.uk
Social:            Ali Ross            alastairross33@hotmail.com
Treasurer:        Nick Lyth          nick.lyth@irri.org.uk
RacketBall:     David Grieve      davidgrieve5@aol.comMembership secretary:            membership@grangeclub.co.uk

   Facebook: GrangeSquash
   Twitter:      @GrangeSquash
   Blog:         grangesquash.blogspot.com
   Web:         grangesquash.co.uk

Sunday 10 November 2013

Up-coming social events

New events have been added to the Grange Calendar.
Take a look!
You can add it to your own calendar app by linking to: squashcalendar1@gmail.com
OR
view the calendar via the Grange Squash website: http://www.grangesquash.co.uk/events.html

This is a quick summary:

15th November 
Quiz Night

27th December Table Tennis evening

3rd JanuaryQuiz Night

25th JanuaryBurns supper and ceilidh

Club Closures Over the festive period the club will be closed as follows
24th December - from 1pm
25th December
26th December
31st December
1st January
2nd January - club open but bar closed

Thursday 7 November 2013

Fourths Stay Top with Tight Win

Grange IV stayed top this week with a hard fought game against Dean

This week's intrepid adventurers were Andy Beames, Andy Claymore, Anthony Fitzgerald, Rocco and myself - a pretty good turnout for the fourths.

Being first up, I was a little alarmed to see a fresh faced student who was 'just getting back into it' which usually means 'I used to play Division 1'. But as it turned out, I was able to benefit from his rustiness for a 9-3, 9-3, 9-1 win.

On the other court, Anthony was involved in a ding dong, and by the end he had almost broken sweat! The first two were exchanged 6-9, 9-3 before entering a tense third. From 1-5, Anthony brought it back to 6-5 before it began to slip away and he faced game point at 7-8. But some heroic retrieving kept him in the game and he closed it out 10-8 before taking the fourth 9-2 for a 3-1 win. Well fought Anthony.

Andy Claymore up next, looking to follow up on his debut win last week. Great court speed gave his opponent little chance and the game was soon over 9-6, 9-2, 9-7 for a 3-0 unassailable lead.

Andy Beames went on court to keep the score turning over. But while his opponent played well, Andy simply didn't. What can I say? After winning the first game 9-5, the second was soon lost 7-9 and the tide was turning. The third went 9-2 and we waited for that famous fitness to kick in.  And so it did. But it didn't do much good. In the fourth, Andy seemed to think he was playing racketball and played through countless lets and strokes. In the one game alone he didn't claim three points where the ref had called stroke, only for Andy to play the ball and keep the rally going, only to lose the point. That's called making life hard for yourself. The game went 6-9.

When's the next ref's course?

Rocco was on next. To be fair he was rushing from work. I went for a shower, but when I went downstairs to their dungeon court, they were already shaking hands on a 2-9, 2-9, 2-9 loss.

So, overall a 3-2 win and a return to the top of the table. What's not to like.

p.s. Neil Love says sorry he missed the match - he'd have loved the pineapple pizzas.

Mike

Wednesday 6 November 2013

2013 Grange Open

Hi All,

2 weeks to enter in the Grange Open 2013 Sponsored by Bonny Sports!

Set to be another great weekend of squash, the weekend of the 23rd/24th November 2013! 

Watch two of the best Professional players in Scotland on the Saturday of the event night (Saturday the 23rd). Great chance to watch some top quality live squash in Edinburgh.  

Exhibition match:

Greg Lobban:        Scotland #2
                                 World #86
Dougie Kempsell: Scotland #3
                                 World #129

Entries close for the graded Grange Open 2013 on Friday the 15th of November.

Entry forms can be found here...

www.essasquash.co.uk

Hope to see you all there!!

Cheers,
Kevin Moran
--
The Grange Squash Club
Open Events:   Kevin Moran      kevinmoran03@hotmail.com

   Facebook: GrangeSquash
   Twitter:      @GrangeSquash
   Blog:         grangesquash.blogspot.com
   Web:         grangesquash.co.uk

2013 Over 50's competition

Hi All,

Please see here for details of the imminent 2013 Over 50s competition.
There are only 7 entrants so far, and looking around the club I can't believe there are so few over 50s ;-)

Sign up on the sheet on the notice board, or ping an email to Jonathan.
Finals night IS lucky Friday 13th December.

Bill.

Minileague 2 results

Wow, that's more like it!

This was our most active league for 2 years, with 194 games played, up from 143 last month.
Well done to leagues 3, 10 and 12 for getting all their 15 games played. 
There were several others missing only 1 or 2 games.

We also had the closest league ever, in league 5, Nick Guise, Richard Nisbet and Matt Pearson were all tied on 32 points!

And between the 3 of them, they all managed one 3-1 win - I had to draw lots for promotion
Finbally, congratulations to Angus McPherson in gaining promotion to League 1 at the tender age of 16. Watch out!

Dougie

Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view


Wednesday 30 October 2013

Grange 2's

Grange 2's continued their impressive start to the season with a visit to Watsonians 3rd team for week 3. A team consisting Dougie Brown, Forbes, Gorzer, Wallace and Sloaner walked away with 4 wins out of 5 with only The Sloan Ranger struggling to convert with Mike Sinclair proving too much to handle at position 1.

However, overall we've lots of positives going into Week 4 with a visit from Abercorn 1's to look forward to - another tough test at this early stage in the season. Watch this space for more on our results as the season develops.

Sloaner.

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Grange 1 Vs Colinton 2s Tuesday 29 Oct 2013

The ones were at home tonight fresh from a good pummelling by Edinburgh Uni the previous week.
 
Nick got us of to a good start by winning in 4 against Stuart Keane.  Dunc struggled to acclimatise after his holiday to take any games from his opponent.  I broke myself to win one game against Jon Nimmo.  Chased everything but was generally outclassed.  Matt Bain made his Grange comeback at 2.  Close games but lack of match practice meant he couldn't come up with the goods.  Pretty sure he will do later on this season as he will definitely push on from here!
 
Will Kerr was unlucky to get pipped by Mark at 1.  A good dingdong of a match.  Both players at time just going for everything which meant some excellent shot making to wow the gallery.  Equally meant a few too many errors which unfortunately saw Will come in second
 
 
 
Event: East Open 2013/14, Round: 4, Division: 1, Match Date: 29/10/2013
Last Modified: 30/10/2013, By MyMatrix Logon: Pete Cockburn
Home Team: Grange 1Away Team: Colinton Castle 2
PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints        PlayerRubbersGamesPoints
1Will Kerr0234Mark Lord1338
2Matthew Bain0021Neil Thomson1328
3Pete Cockburn0113Jonathan Nimmo1334
4Duncan Walker0012Adam Lord1327
5Nick Wood1335Stuart Keane0120
Total16115413147

Thursday 24 October 2013

GRG3 v WTN4 , Round: 3, Division: 4, Match Date: 24/10/2013


A maiden victory for the Grange 3 side against Watsonians 4.
First up was Andy Whitelaw at No 5 against Martin Gillie. Andy had been carrying a bad muscle tear injury and had tried to pull out of the match and would have succeeded other than for his captain's cunning expedient of not being at work to pick up any emails that day. Turns out that hanging around the T and trying to make the other guy run instead is actually a pretty good way to play the game (think I read that somewhere once). It was quite a close match with games going turn about but Andy pulled away in the last to win 3-2.
Andrew Beames made his third team debut and gave a creditable performance at No 4 against Iain Clark. Won the first and the remaining three quite close but Iain a bit too strong in the end.
Next up was captain Dutton at No 2 against Andrew Constable. A very hard fought match with every point like pulling teeth. Fortunately Mark proved the slightly better dentist and grabbed the three games, all of them from a good way behind, including a notable clawback from 4-8 in the third.
Richard Nisbet continued his excellent form for the thirds with a 3-1 win against David Hutton. Unfortunately the author was playing while that was happening so no details to report.
Best match of the night was Georgina Jamieson at No 1 against Paul Macari. A high quality and very entertaining match with lots of hard accurate hitting mixed with delicate drops, lobs and boasts. A pleasure to watch. Could have gone either way but Paul was the tighter when it really counted and ran out a 1-3 winner.
16-9 to Grange 3 on the night.
Thanks to Georgina's marathon it was a 10pm finish at the Accies and cold pizzas all round by the time we finally got to the Grange.

Event: East Open 2013/14, Round: 3, Division: 4, Match Date: 24/10/2013
Last Modified: 24/10/2013, By MyMatrix Logon: Mark Dutton
Home Team: Grange 3 Away Team: Watsonians 4
Pos Player        Rubbers   Games    Points    Player       Rubbers   Games    Points
1
Georgina Jamieson 0        1            19      Paul Macari   1              3           31
2
Mark Dutton           1        3            28   Andrew Constable 0         0           20
3
Richard Nisbet        1        3            32   David Hutton    0              1          25
4
Andrew Beames     0        1            24     Ian Clark         1              3           35
5
Andrew Whitelaw  1        3            42   Martin Gillie    0               2           25     

Monday 21 October 2013

Grange Open squash tournament and Exhibition Match

Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th November 2013

Open/Mens grades : A/B/C/D
Ladies event : A

Plate competitions for all events

EXHIBITION MATCH
Two of Scotland’s top professional players will display their skills in an
exhibition match
on the Saturday night of the Grange Open
FREE to all entrants

Complimentary food for competitors on Saturday & Sunday

For more information and an entry form, please click me

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Grange 1 Vs Linlithgow 1s

First home match for the newly promoted Grange first team on Tuesday.

Having had a tough re-introduction to Div 1 from Sports CLub 2 last week (not blog worthy in the Captains opinion!!) we were hopeful we could maybe manage slightly better against Linlithgow who were effectively promoted with us last season.

We did do better, but only very slightly.

Home Team: Grange 1Away Team: Linlithgow 1
PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints        PlayerRubbersGamesPoints
1Will Kerr0111Richard Northin1332
2Pete Cockburn0121Martin Lamb1335
3Duncan Walker0010Martin Jack1327
4Stuart Moffat0010John Smith1327
5Mike Hall0010Simon Lamb1327
Total0262515148






Monday 7 October 2013

Captain's Curse returns to Haunt 4ths

Aficionados of the former Barbarians blogs will fondly remember the 'Captain's Curse' season. This is where the result obtained by the Captain was reversed by the team. It got so bad, that the Captain had to resort to losing matches, just so that the team could win 4-1.

You get the drift here ...

So, with the Barbarians consigned to be a distant memory, the 4ths took to the field for the first game of the season against Waverley.

Up first was Stephen Davey at 5 who showed no signs of rust as he raced to take the first 9-0. Yvonne looked a little shell shocked, as did Stephen who went on the retain the upper hand and close out the game 9-5, 9-4.

Meanwhile on court 2, Neil Love set about ensuring that the infamous run called 'Neil Love Love' was not repeated as he also got off to a flying start winning 9-2, 9-2, 9-1.

I went on to court with John Allan who played like a revitalised Nadal. The first game edged my way 9-7 and all was going well at 6-1 up in the second, when I noticed Dave Grieve on the balcony. This was strange because he went onto court after me. I heard talk of a sprained ankle, and I thought that 'sicknote' must have succumbed.

How to ensure victory I thought? It came in a flash, if I extended some courtesy to our hosts, we'd be bound to win the game. And so it materialised. The 6-1 lead evaporated into a 7-9 loss which was followed by 4-9 and 7-9 as I proved that being big doesn't mean you can hit a ball past midcourt.

The crowd on the balcony (now joined by Andy 'Tigger' Beames who had also finished) seemed to not get my brave efforts to take one for the team! Surely I had deserved the Victoria Cross?

Turns out Dave Grieve had won 9-4, 9-1, 9-4.

And Tigger had also made light work with a 9-2, 9-5, 9-1 victory.

Ok, so I was rescued by a great team effort. Good start team.

Mike Douglas

Friday 4 October 2013

Grange 2s Vs Bank of Scotland - 03 Oct 2013

20:20 Vision The Grange 2's took the full buna on Thursday night - 20 points from 20, away to newly reported Bank of Scotland.

First mention goes to Angus Macpherson at position 5. A young talent, Angus played exceptionally well to close out his match in four games (9-5;9-7;7-9;9-8) vs the much more experienced Vic Loughlin. Angus played sublime shots from all areas of the court - particularly when given a little space at the front. With more experience, he'll continue moving up the ranks - a huge asset for The Grange in this big season ahead.

Stokesy & Aoife Kerrin at positions 4 and 3 also played well. Aoife dropping a game but winning reasonably comfortably in the end.

Gorzer at 2 had an interesting match - winning the 1st, 3rd & 5th games with ease but slipping up in the 2nd & 4th. And playing at 1,

Captain Sloan Ranger managed to lead by example early in the evening to bag an early lead in the overall match. Following a slow start to last season it's nice to get some early points on the board this year in what will prove another long, challenging season ahead!

Grange 3s Vs Colinton 4s 03 Oct 2013

Folks,

The season opener proved a tough one for Grange 3 with a clean sweep for Colinton Castle 4.

Everybody performed very creditably though against opponents ranked anything from 40 to 95 points higher than them on the matrix.

Best performance of the evening was that of Brian Sloan who had Eric Donohoe (95 matrix points higher!) absolutely on toast with a 5-0 lead in the 5th game when he tore a calf muscle. He tried to carry on after the statutary 3 minute injury break in the hope that he could slam four straight winners into the nick….but he couldn't and chose wisely to retire once Eric had clawed back to 5-7.

Georgina Jamieson had a very close tussle with Mike Brown before succumbing late in the 5th game.

Richard Nisbet recovered from a bit of a nightmare first game (one handout all he had to show for it) to take the second game well. The remaining games were hard fought but Stuart Keane pulled away at the end of each.

Anthony Fitzgerald had a very tough match against the speedy Mark Williamson. The contest was a lot closer than the three 4-9 results would suggest but his opponent always had enough of an edge.

The attempt by the captain Mark Dutton to rescue Grange club honour at the end of the night proved a touch too difficult against the long reach and steady play of Colin Grant. All of the games were close with Mark leading two of them quite a long way in but ultimately Colin had the edge in tightness and asked a few more squash questions than Mark could pose in return.

Not a bad season start against a very strong team who must be amongst the favourites for promotion from this division.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Squash Calendar

Note that the public calendar

squashcalendar1@gmail.com

now contains all the upcoming Grange Squash events, including all the Men's and Women's team fixtures.

Import it into your own calendar view to keep up to date with Grange events
or nip over to

Grange Squash Open

Kevin is organising this year's Grange Squash Open
Saturday and Sunday 23rd and 24th November.

See the poster for full details.
Please send all replies to Kevin.

Minileague Results

Results of minileagues ending 27th September




League 1








Name123456Total
11Duncan Walker

8
8723
12Will Kerr






13Mike Hall2


6210
14Allan Hamer






15Nick Wood2
4


6
16Peter Cockburn3
8


11









50












League 2








Name123456Total
21Aoife Kerrin
64
2
12
22Ian Forbes4


2612
23Mike Gore6

7
316
24Andy Whitelaw

3

25
25Allan Wallace88


319
26Gordon Sloan
4787
26









90












League 3








Name123456Total
31Dougie Brown
2442416
32Donna Cruikshank8
286226
33Colin Williamson68

7223
34Alan Stokes62

4
12
35Andrew Beames8436
223
36Angus Macpherson688
8
30









130












League 4








Name123456Total
41Doug Sherriffs

243211
42Peter Young

84
416
43Mark Dutton82
62826
44Anthony Fitzgerald664
7225
45Georgina Jamieson7
83
624
46Andrew Claymore86284
28









130












League 5








Name123456Total
51Richard Nisbet
3846
21
52Mike Slack7
323318
53Brian Sloan27
88429
54Mike Douglas 682
7225
55Roger Hamilton4723
319
56Peter Roberts
7687
28









140












League 6








Name123456Total
61Matt Pearson
4
28822
62Rocco Pannozzo6


6719
63David Gibson


2

2
64Nick Guise8
8
8832
65Jon Fraser24
2

8
66Anthony Graham23
2

7









90












League 7








Name123456Total
71Jordan Fleming

48

12
72Brendan Walsh






73Tom McEwan4


8
12
74Dave Jones2


3
5
75Tim Bremner

27

9
76Jonathan Norrie















38












League 8








Name123456Total
81Stewart Arbuckle

777728
82John Ritchie






83Nick Lyth 3

24716
84Neil Love3
8
8726
85Douglas Paul 3
42
312
86Dean Turner3
337
16









98












League 9








Name123456Total
91Anna Gaskell
674

17
92Bill Marshall4

34617
93Gordon Cowie3


3612
94Stuart Coburn67

2722
95Derek Addison5678
834
96Alastair Ross
4432
13









115












League 10








Name123456Total
101Julia Lutte
5443218
102David Gillespie0

03811
103John Donald 4

82317
104Craig Watt652
4724
105Guy Tulloch7786
836
106Doug Wilson82732
22









128












League 11








Name123456Total
111Nigel Kerr
5887836
112Stephen Thomas-2

6

4
113Kieran Smith2

84
14
114Karen Kennedy242


8
115Graeme Thomas3
6

817
116Tim Edward 2


2
4









83












League 12








Name123456Total
121Andrew Jamieson
8
87
23
122Jason Lyons2
473
16
123Tim Fagge
4
83
15
124Steve Rennie232
4
11
125Jim McIntosh3776

23
126Jamie Dalrymple















88












League 13








Name123456Total
131Shafkat Akram
72


9
132Hubert Czaja3
24
817
133Chris Donnelly88
7
326
134Simon Hardy
63
8421
135Ash Jaswal


2

2
136Brian Lauder
276

15









90












League 14








Name123456Total
141Vincenzo Alonzi
8



8
142Chris Waymark2




2
143Nik Scopes


67720
144Nick Borfigat

4
7819
145Will Mair

33

6
146Nick Beattie

32

5









60












League 15








Name123456Total
151Alexander Forrest






152Maggie Harris

84
820
153Richard Hungerford
2


46
154Keith Schorah
6


814
155Gordon Tolland




22
156Judy Scopes
2428
16









58












League 16








Name123456Total
161Colin Forrest
8
38
19
162Rosamund Mills2


4
6
163John Davidson






164Alasdair Sibbald7




7
165Shauna Mitchell24



6
166
















38