Wednesday 9 November 2016

Winter minileague #2, 2016

Here are the results of Winter minileague #2 for 2016.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.


Tuesday 27 September 2016

Winter minileague #1, 2016

Here are the results of Winter minileague #1 for 2016.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.

Thursday 2 June 2016

Improver Course

Lisa is planning an improvers squash coaching course from Tues 15th June 6.15-7.15 for six weeks with the cost being £40.00 each for the six week block.
On the course you will brush up on technique, movement, taking the ball early and controlling the "T" Zone, shot selection, drills, conditioned games and fitness.
Please contact Lisa directly at lisa@lisasquash.co.uk or on 079 1287 7042 to sign up / further details or add your name to the sheet on the notice board at the club.
Lisa McKenna - lisasquash.co.uk

Monday 2 May 2016

Beginner / improvers six week coaching course

Starting on Wednesday 4th May 6.00-7.00

Learn the basics on this coaching course

Over the six weeks we will cover different elements such as movement, grip, swing, drives, volleys, serve, return of serve.  There will also be conditioned games and match practise which will give me the chance to look at each players shot selection with a little bit of fitness thrown in at the end of each session!!

The sessions will be good fun and varied and also an  ideal opportunity to meet other people of a similar level.

The club is very generously subsidising this so it will cost £30.00 pp.

If you would like to book a place or indeed have further questions then please contact Lisa on 0791 287 7042 or e-mail lisa@lisasquash.co.uk

Friday 15 April 2016

Winter minileague #6, 2015

Here are the results of Winter minileague #6.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.

Wednesday 16 March 2016

4th's home v Kirkcaldy (Tue, Mar 15)

The denouement of the season came with the long-awaited return visit of Kirkcaldy. Unfortunately despite being the only team to beat them legally after a great night out in Fife before Xmas, they were unbeaten since then (as were we) so the gap was insurmountable (26 points).
    Still we wanted to copper-fasten our promotion position. Christy hacked his way to a 3-0 over #5 Andy Cant with nary a let being called. Iain Gallacher was 2-0 down against Rab Lawson at #2 and not seeing the front court boasts at all, even the ones above the service line! Somehow he brought it back and took the fifth. Chapeau!
   Richard Nisbet lost out to James Stirratt 1-3 in a curates egg performance- good in parts but mostly mince :) (To be fair, Richard has played well all season). Will Henderson bt Jim Taylor at #5 3-0 with the lob serve and counter-drop proving the difference. To give us the tie and the bonus points.
  Finally Jamie Helme at #3 v Alex Allan lost 0-3 this time. Everyone incl the away team stayed to watch the women's #1 tie in the national league between Mhairi Charlton of Western LTC & Claire Gadsby.
        After pizza, we were treated to pavlova & trifle courtesy of the Grange Cricket Society dinner having a surplus.

Well done Kirkcaldy on the overall Div 5 win, very consistent.
Well done the 4's, great team spirit and after 3 years of earning promotion but being thwarted by the demotion of the 3's, we finally get our just reward, Div.4 squash next year.

Thanks especially to Neil Love for captaining, emailing, etc,  mostly non-playing, as he came to ref on most home matches and contributed on court when we needed him most. And brought choccy bars to supplement the pizza.
 

Thursday 10 March 2016

Staggered home v Watsons 3's in The Knockout Cup

Our guest reporter today is David Hutton, captain of the opposition

Match 1 (the 3s) David Hutton vs Georgia Jennings
After a lot of thrashing, some good rallies, plenty of good weight on the court, some interesting chat from Christy (marking) and a little bit of difficulty from me in judging the pace, it was 2-0 to G. Time to knuckle down and work out the pace. Duly done and more of the above and it was 2-2. I think we got to 13-13 and she got a stroke (really Christy, another one?). Any normal chat would have been, “handout, 14-13, matchball”. Not from our friend Christy. 13 all he said. No Christy, G and I said, its 14-13 to G. Cue some maniacal giggles (Christy). 14 all match ball. No Christy, its 14-13, match ball to G… you can see how this one ends. On a stroke to G. 3-2 to the bad girls.

Match 2 (the 5s)  Tommo vs Rocco
This is the oldest continually running fixture in squash, believed to date back to the early squash courts of the Colosseum in Rome. I didn’t see this (see above) but caught up with Tommo in between a couple of the games. It went, 0-1, 1-1 and then we lost touch. I could hear him (he was next door) and it sounded good. Was it a victory roar? No, 3-1 to the bad guys (but squash’s magnificent history was a winner…).

Match 3
Barrie vs a really tall guy (L=Laszlo)
I saw the end of a very close first game and was astounded by the L of a reach (get it?). Barrie was playing his usual tough guy squash with a fantastic number of recoveries and an array of shots but this wasn’t phasing the big guy. 1-0 to them. I then went and marked Chris’ game. Tommo reported that Barrie was playing very well (fantastic number of recoveries and an array of shots) but the big guy was reaching everything. I consensus was that 3-0 to them didn’t do our Barrie justice…

Match 4 (the 2's) Chris Green vs Jamie Helme
A welcome return to the fold from our man Green. Looked great in the warm up and carried it into game 1. Hard hitting, court covering, occasional lobbing, nice dropping and controlling, There was nothing Green about this dude. 1-0 to Chris. Game 2 followed the same pattern. 2-0. Game 3 was chugging along the same way until Chris called one of his own shots down and it was over to Jamie serving. I think this was at about 12-7 to Chris. The next few points were a display of utmost sportsmanship by Chris (some would say lack of concentration/boredom) and it got a bit close. Nothing to worry about though, normal service resumed and it ended 3-0. Not content with that, Chris and Jamie played on for a few games. Not content with that, Chris got one of the Grange’s youngsters on for some routines. Latest reports are that he’s getting some breakfast, then having a game with the cleaner and should at work just after lunchtime (or the best of 9, whichever is later…)

Match 5 (the 1's) Andrew vs Richard
This game was worth the wait and worth its weight in gold (or at least squash balls). Close first game in which the upper hand was back and forward like one of those cats in the Chinese restaurants (I know that’s up and down but whatever…). 1-0 to them. More of the same in game 2 with some great weight from both and at least 3 shots plucked from the air that had Barrie and me talking about “Jedi sh1t”. 1-1. When I say this was a blur, that is meant in as good as possible way. Somehow it was 2-2 already. Great squash, huffing and puffing, good weight and plenty of Jedi sh1t. The last game followed the same pattern. Very close, tense and a joy to watch. In the end it was all about weight (and that Jedi stuff). Andrew forced him back. He boasted and forced himself forward, Andrew forced him back, he boasted and git forward, Andrew knocked it past him… 3 or 4 rallies like this and Richard was bust (as was Andrew to be fair…). 3-2

Alas, we’re (Watsons) out.

On their show courts Grange 1 were hosting ESC 1. I was told that ESC were 4 points ahead of Grange at the top of division 1 and this was a crunch match (obviously). I poo pooed this as I was sure that our boys must be top. Maybe they were playing for second place? 

Some of their squash – quite good (Grange won so they must be second to our boys? Ra ra Ritchie’s team)

Food – pizza and very good. 2 pepperoni, 1 chicken and mushroom and 1 vegetarian

Chat – very good, its hard to believe that I used to think some of these guys were nutters

Christy – a stalwart of east coast squash
  
Good luck to the Staggered crew in the following rounds
(Thanks David, a top night's squash and Staggered move to the next round v Khaledo's Dragons(ESC) in the cup. -Christy, non-playing Captain)

Wednesday 2 March 2016

Winter minileague #5, 2015

Here are the results of Winter minileague #5.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.

The 4's home v Waverley 3's on Tue night

Fantastic atmosphere & buzz on the balcony as our National League team also hosted Newlands in a terrific exhibition of tight hitting and full-stretch retrievals.

Waverley 3's came a calling, and were duly sent home to think again. But they gave us a good scrap.
1. Andy Whitelaw 0 v John Usher 3 (9:15, 10:15, 3:15)
2. Ant Fitzgerald 3 v Peter Cochrane 2 (15:11, 15:9, 8:15, 8:15, 15:13)
3. Iain Gallacher 3 v Heather Spens 2 (15:12, 15:17, 5:15, 15:12, 15:11)
4. Richard Nisbet 3 v Dave Fergusson 0 (15:10, 15:13, 15:12)    
5. Jamie Helme 3 v Gary Loake 0 (15:12, 15:11, 15:4)

"Bit ropey from the boys at the top of the order but Jamie and I kept them right".

Overall 15:7 win for the Grange. So we gained 8 points on them to maintain 2nd place & keep them in 3rd and cement our promotion entitlement. They are still in line for promo but will be a bit more nervous in the title run-in.
Next week at Watsons on Tue & if we don't drop points there, the final match the following week against Kirkcaldy could leave us with a mathematical chance of the outright win. A helluva party either way. "Also £75 still in the kitty so no cars for the last game of the season!!!!!"

Chat over pizza's was Neil P's romantic engagement trip to "Paree" plus the promotion race in Div 5 and the demotion battle in Div.4.
 (Report: Richard N)

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Grange 4 vs. Colinton Castle 5

Grange 4 vs. Colinton Castle 5
Played at: Grange Sports Club
When: 23rd Feb 2016 at 7:00pm
Tonight’s fixture saw us hosting CCS5, with the team looking to extend their unbeaten run of 7 matches, to keep up the pressure on the leaders in division 5.  
First up were Iain Gallacher and Jamie Helme playing Mike Gibbs and Mark crease at 2 & 4 respectively. Iain had a solid game winning in 3 sets despite his opponent serving for the second set at 14-13 and 14-15, taking the match with a 3-0 win (15-11, 17-15, 15-11), meanwhile on the other court Jamie also proved to be too strong for Mark, winning the match 3-0 (15-10, 15-13, 15-10) put Grange 2 nil up after the first round of games.
Next up was Richard Nisbet and Christy Looby at number 3 & 5. Richard was playing John-Paul Hughes and was looking to getting back to winning ways after a couple of bad results, Richard started brightly and won the first two sets comfortably, the third set was a tighter affair, with JP rallying to serve for the set only for Richard to come back and overhaul him to take the match with a 3-0 win (15-9, 15-6, 19-17). Christy was playing Lynn Grant on the other court and Christy was always in charge of this match and won 3-0 (15-8, 15-6, 15-12).   
Lastly it was the turn of the number 1’s and Anthony Fitzgerald was playing Bob Baikie, Anthony quickly imposed himself on this match, despite Bob being turned down on a couple of shouts for strokes from the balcony, and went on to win the game 3-0 (15-8, 15-7, 15-8) to complete a clean sweep for the 4ths, with a match score of 18-0.
We then retired upstairs to the bar for drinks and Pizza’s, followed by a Bounty to finish off proceedings. Topics for discussions were diverse and included the proposed route of the new £9 million cycle route linking the east and west of Edinburgh and whether Donald Trump was a serious candidate for the US Presidency or just a joke figure.

Saturday 13 February 2016

Grange 3's bank maximum points against Bank of Scotland

The Grange 3s went round the houses, out of necessity thanks to diversions and dubious navigational aids, to reach Colinton Castle on Thursday to play Bank of Scotland. All five players located the match venue successfully, a minor triumph in itself.

Sam Collin and Ian Ross were first on court - Sam was on and off in a flash
with an efficient 3-0 win. Not a single exclamation nor clash of racket with wall was
audible (I could only hear from the court next door); only clinical drives that delivered a quick win.

Ian Ross was a pleasure to watch, with his considered shot choice proving too much for his opponent who was frequently seen scrabbling at the back of the court as lob after lob landed delicately in the back corner. 3-0.

Anthony (Fitz)closed out another quick 3-0, demonstrating typical Aussie ruthlessness.

Andrew (Reeve) avoided fluffing the first game as has often been the case in previous matches, helped by a frantic warm-up to get the blood pumping! A brief scare in the second saw his opponent back at 13-13, but he succeeded his teammates with another 3-0 win.

Match of the Day went to Stuart (Moff), who went head to head with a player of similar stature at 1. The power of the two men was evident with frequent long rallies of big hitting. Stu kept the crowded balcony entertained with some self-directed rants and apologies to his opponent for the low standard of his squash. It was balanced on a knife edge at 13-13 in the fifth before Stu snuck it on an error, to rapturous applause. Grange 5-0 winners, celebrated with lime and sodas (and the odd non-alco beer for the more adventurous).
A critical 18 points for the 3s who still have a lot of work to do to secure promotion at the end of the year. (Report: Andrew Reeve)

Monday 8 February 2016

Thirds home v The Dean Club II's

    • Grange 3's slay neighbours Dean 2

    Thursday 4th Feb saw the visit of Dean's 2nd team to The Grange.  With a mid-table position, Grange 3's are in need of points and it started off in promising fashion with Allan Wallace vs. Duncan Cleat.  A fit and spirited Duncan gave Wallace some concern but the Grange Man managed to close out safely in 3 matches.  Had it gone into more games, Wallace may have struggled - exploits at last weekend's Edinburgh Open taking its toll on those little legs!  A fairly standard match (easy to mark from my perspective), it was made all the more interesting in the latter stages with Christy joining the spectators upstairs, making himself heard and providing much needed support.

    At 5th string, Ian Ross cruised to victory in straight games.  New to Grange in this 15/16 season, Ian's an East of Scotland veteran and a valuable asset for the 3rd team.  At 3rd string, Moff had a wobbly start but again, managed to secure the 3-0 win.  So far so good.

    Andy Reeve vs. Craig Wallace proved more eventful... Andy lost the first game 9-15 but showed composure to edge out the second 15-13.  From this point, there was only going to be one winner - Andy powering through the 3rd game 15-3 and closing out the 4th 15-6.  Nicely done.

    Then to perhaps the most eventful match of the night.  Yours truly vs. David Thompson.  Behind for most of the first match, I managed to take it 15-11 but tired legs / general lack of fitness gave Dean the 2nd (14-16) and 3rd (12-15) .  Eeesh.  The 4th game saw David race away - stealing 14 quick points... but then the comeback!  From 10 points, I clawed back to 14-14 and somehow edged out the required two point gap.  Phew.  And with momentum swinging in Grange's favour, the 5th game finished 15-11.  

    Overall 18 points to 3.  In the bag.  More of the same needed next week before we take the mid-season break.  A few more big pointers might prove enough to wriggle into the top 3.  Maybe? (Report: Sloan Ranger)

Thursday 28 January 2016

Grange 4 vs. Heriot-Watt 4

Tonight’s match saw the 4th team playing HWU4, looking to carry on our fine run to keep up the pressure on the teams above us in the league.   
First up was Richard Nisbet and Jamie Helme at number 4 & 5. Richard was playing Mark Hounsell  and despite taking the first set, found himself second best for the rest of the match as Mark won 3-1,  (11-15, 15-11,15-12, 15-11). Meanwhile Jamie was playing Lee Calder on the other court, Jamie looked in control for the first two sets, before a lapse in concentration allowed Lee to take the third set, before Jamie closed out the match winning the fourth set to take the match 3-1, (15-10, 15-10, 14-16, 15-9).
Next up were Anthony Fitzgerald and Iain Gallacher playing Malcolm Lunn and Andrew O’Donnell 2 & 3 respectively. Iain got things off to a great start, taking the first two sets before Andrew retired in the third when the score was 8-0, to take the match 3-0 (15-7, 15-12, 15-0), meanwhile on the other court Anthony always had in nose in front against Malcolm, coming through to take the match 3-0 (15-13, 15-12, 15-12) to put Grange 3-1 up after the second round of games, securing the match points.
With the win points in the bag it was the turn of Andy Whitelaw to play Zsolt Husz at number 1, Andy was slow off the blocks and Zsolt was winning points with great touch and tight boasts at the front to take the first set, Andy found his range and forced Zsolt to the back of the court and Zsolt was unable to find the same accuracy with Andy taking the next three sets to win the match 3-1 (10-15, 15-10, 15-6, 15-5) to complete the team victory for the 4ths, winning 16-5.

Due to a private Burns supper being held upstairs, we were unable to get our usual spot in the long room and we invited our guests up to the committee room for the usual fayre of pizza and a drink of their choice and conversation turned to the strengths and weaknesses of the other teams in the division.

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Winter minileague #4, 2015

Here are the results of Winter minileague #4.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.

Winter minileague #3, 2015

Here are the results of Winter minileague #3.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.


Winter Minileague #1, 2015

Here are the results of Winter minileague #1.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.

Thursday 14 January 2016

Grange 4 vs. Waverley 4 Played at: Grange Sports Club When: 12th Jan 2016 at 7:00pm

The opening game of the second half of the season saw us entertain Waverley 4 at the Grange, looking for a win to consolidate our position near the top of the table.  
First up were Piers Wilkinson and Iain Gallacher playing Gary Locke and Stuart Payne at 2 & 3 respectively. Iain got things off to a great start, always in control on the way to a 3-0 win (15-7, 15-3, 15-9), meanwhile on the other court Piers was having a harder time getting to grips on the match with some unorthodox hitting from Gary. Piers eventually edged the match 3-2 (15-5, 15-17, 15-9, 13-15, 15-10) put Grange 2 nil up after the first round of games.
Next up was Richard Nisbet and Jamie Helme at number 4 & 5. Richard was playing Chris Jeffrey and by his own admission Richard was slow off the blocks and found himself behind from the outset, Richard battled to square the match 2-2 and with the momentum in Richard’s favour he managed to see off Chris for a 3-2 win (13-15, 15-10, 8-15, 15-8, 15-7). Meanwhile Jamie was playing Mark Butler on the other court, in the kind of match that he relishes, lots of length being returned with pace and then maybe a rally would break out or a winner would be put away. Jamie was always in charge of this match and won 3-0 (15-10, 15-6, 15-13).   
With the win points in the bag it was the turn of Andy Whitelaw to play Neil Kempsell at number 1, Andy always had his nose in front in this match, with Neil questioning if the court heaters were working, and trying to keep the ball warm by hitting it as hard as he could, Andy went on to win the game 3-0 (15-7, 15-11, 15-10) to complete a clean sweep for the 4ths.
The usual food offering was expanded this evening, with Christy making a pot of Chilli Con Carne to offer as an alternative to the usual offering of Pizza’s from Franco’s, this went down well with the people who went with this option. Not that we should expect this treat for every home match as Christy may be expected to turn out for the team instead of turning his hand to creating gastronomic delights.