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!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

An incredibly long night. So long in fact, that it took a year to complete if you read the first sentence .... "our final match of 2014."

GrangeSquashClub said...

oops! Now fixed.