Grange I v Watsonians III (Wed, 29.11.06)

Last night was the big one. We stand joint 3rd in the league, and Watsonians are top, undefeated, and massively confident. The fight for the top 3 is shaping up.

The opening game looked shakey - Stokesy went down 0-1 against a high standard from Jack Calder, but responded well with ruthless play and evil shots to win 3-1. Meanwhile, Gerald stepped into action and took out Roy Cowper 3-0, to put Grange 2-0 up.

Watsonians ambitions of an undefeated 1st half were crumbling.
Al went 2-0 up against Gordon Fruish, and a decisive 9-0 in the third spelled the end for Watsonians.Dougie had a tall order - Jim Dougal (scotland over 55) 0-3.

Mike v Ed Murray was a full balcony spectacle, with the bonus points in the bag and and an apparently inpenetrable opponent, we were all cheering in the hope of 1 more point, but Mike stuck in and finally cracked the big man to win 3-2.

Man of the match: Mike Perring

We shattered Watsonian's unbeaten run Overall 4-1 (15-6 on points). They were gutted! Grange morale is through the roof! And we didn't forget to mention that our usual no. 1 is out of action!

For a full appreciation of how chuffed we are, speak to Stokesy, he's still reeling! A quick look at the recently updated rankings is interesting - they're well ranked at 1 to 3:
1. Mike (368) v Ed Murray (343) 3-2
2. Dougie (594) v Jim Dougal (331) 0-3
3. Al (406) v Gordon Fruish (352) 3-0
4. Gerald (465) v Roy Cowper (667) 3-0
5. Stoksey (622) v Jack Calder (997 this one can't be right) 3-1

Ladies home v Watsonians II (Mon 27/11/06)

The ladies played host to Watsonians this week. Caroline should have played at 5 but got her dates wrong. Profuse apologies accepted, w/o to Watsons.

Jo P played a stormer at 4 and surprised herself by beating her opponent 3:0. Jo L played at 3 and was decidedly unhappy with her performance. Her opponent may have been rusty but her skill level was unmistakable. 3:1 to W.

Sheila played at 2 and is really getting into the swing of these 5 setter games. Sadly her opponent was a bit more composed than Sheila in the fifth so 3:2 to W.

Gil played at 1 and had a great game. Sadly youth triumphed over experience in the fifth so another 3:2 to W.

Final score was 15: 8 to Watsonians but it could so easily have been 13: 10 to us.... Bit of a mix up with the garlic bread but the cakes were fab. We have a bye next week so next game is a rearranged match with Dalgety Bay on 11 Dec.

Cheers, Karen.

Seconds at Watsonians 4 (Tue, Nov 28, 06)

The motliest crew of a second team turned up 7pm at Myreside but the Watsonians IV opposition took another 20 minutes to arrive. Mark Dutton at #2 went on with severe tennis elbow and shaded the first game with Andrew Constable 9-7. Sporting about 6 square inches of scuffed skin from recent and new dives, Mark thrashed an innocuous short ball from his opponent cross court... and thrashed his elbow too. Only able to play drops from then on, he battled in vain in the next 3 games. It was excruciating to watch him wince whenever Andrew put the ball on the sidewall and Mark had to take the shock of racket on wall; 1-3.

Peter Tweedie turned out at #5 for the seconds and coasted past their sub (the mysterious Alastair whose surname even his team-mates didn't know on the team sheet)(Alastair Crawford, I've since been told by Richard "Rogan Josh" MacIntosh, the Watsonians captain) for the loss of a handful of points;3-0. Peter Cockburn at #4 similarly cleaned out his man Barrie Turnbull who was sporting a spectacular shiner courtesy of walking into a racket on a racketball court some days ago; 3-0.

Christy had a surreal game against big Roger Weir, not so surreal as to lose though;3-0. Ian Sinclair fronted up against Martin Macari at #3. After last week's dry run in the Over 35 team, Ian felt compelled to take it to 5 games again. This time though he built a good lead in the fifth and to spite Ian spurning a few game-balls, his opponent tinned; 3-2.

Overall 4-1 (16-4 on points) to put us back on track after 2 close losses.

Man of the Match: Ian Sinclair (not match fit but still stuck in for the win)

Some good haggis, neeps and tatties topped up with sarnies, the talk in the clubhouse was mainly Scotland's early promise at Murrayfield against Australia and how to stop the All-blacks.

O'Brien Bucket final (Wed, Nov 15, '06)

The O'Brien Bucket went to 5 games, Peter Roberts took an early lead in the fifth but Tim Hannay came back strongly and there was a marathon ding-dong rally for the final point, with Tim Hannay winning 15-14 to take the O'Brien Bucket for 2006. Click the pic to enlarge

Competition secretary Peter Young presents The Bucket(don't forget the wine, hic!) to the 2006 winner, Tim Hannay.

Peter Young presents a bottle of wine to the runner-up, Peter Roberts. Click the pic to enlarge

Bill Marshall took these photos in the bar.

The bar was full of squash players - Kenny, Gordon Tolland, Stokesy, Josh, Peter Roberts, Pete Young, Tim Hannay & Bill, and Harvey, David Grieve, Mike and John Mathews were came up after their usual Wed night hit on court. A very charming young lady member, Sue Chin, had just joined the club & was enquiring about the club night.

Congrats to the winner, Tim Hannay is also a new member at the club.

Well done also the handicap committee, for ensuring closely-fought matches while continuing the tradition of a different winner every year. Thanks to everyone who supported the oldest handicap competition in the club and we hope you enjoyed the knockout format this year. Take your partners for the next handicap on the squash court, the Over-40 cup will be contested in Feb.

Grange Old farts home vs Tyne's old fogeys (Thurs, 23/11/06)

Christy took to court with new racket and surprised their #1, the balcony and his opponent to win the first two convincingly. Lovely Jubb-y, his opponent was not his usual mobile self after winning the Grange Open "B" on Sun and a string of reverse-angles and x-court nicks later, the windmill was celebrating a win against someone 200 places higher up the Scottish Squash Rankings

Stephen Davey got on court with the vastly more experienced #5 Jerry Ireson and played the longest 3 setter I've ever seen. Close games and long rallies, well done our third team tryo.

John Bain played Tynes's hammering #3 Nigel Pearman who threatened to burst the ball with ever crushing blow from his racket. 0-3.

Ian Sinclair kept the crowd entertained with some great lobs and flicks. Their #4 Raymond however traded his own winners and it went 2-2. Lack of match practice saw Ian run out of steam; 2-3.

The tie lost, Stokesy went into exhibition mode with Graham Morrison who, unlike Dave Jubb, was still full of running after taking the Grange Open "B plate" on Sun. Alan took the first and Graham had to edge 3 very tight games of terrific squash.

Overall we lost 1-4 and proceed to the O35 plate.

Man of the Match: Christy (self-awarded ;-)

Grange I v Colinton-Musselburgh (Wed, 22/11/06)

Stokesy took out no.5 for starters 3-1.
Gerald had a bizzare scoreline against #4 John Hamilton: 9-0, 9-5, 2-9, 0-9, 9-1
Al had a lengthy battle with Norman to turn 1-2 into 3-2.
Dougie came up against Richard Easton on top form, 0-3.
Mike put in a good performance against Colin Grant to close out 9-10 in the third just before the gas ran out!
Overall 4-1 (15-8 on points). A good result off a strong team.
We need to keep on getting these points to go up. These were all close matches. Dogged determination is the order of the day.

Man of the Match: Ali G (for the comeback kid)

GRG II @ Linlithgow II (Tue 21/11/06)

Peter Cockburn turned out at #5 against Ian Forshaw and unfortunately the home player knew how to play the courts with Peter either overhitting or going short too early. Still he brought it back to 1-2 down before succumbing 1-3.

Mark Dutton went on the sauna that was the other court after the social players had set the thermostat to "boil". Some terrific rallies with #2 Joe Andrew, Mark boasting a run of winners but Joe running everything else down. A little vignette of Mark diving to drop, Joe just about gets it but can only drop across... back to where Mark is still sitting on his bum, Mark drops there and Joe scurries across the front wall, jumps over Mark's prone carcase and puts it away. Cue howls of laughter in the balcony & on court. It went 1-1,2-2 and Joe's engine went into turbo to take the fifth. 2-3.

John Bain faced Dougie and had the same trouble with length on the bouncy courts as Peter. He salvaged one game with a flurry of lobs and drops. 1-3.
Todd played his usual retrieve, keep it wide and keep it long game but their #3 had other ideas with one game of 9 flawless winners off his racket. Still Todd hung on. He was controlling the Tee but needed to go short once he got control- Coach Dutton reminded him of this and Todd duly took the fifth.

Christy faced a reconstructed Peter Cochrane(knee cartilege) and tested out the surgeon's work with a fair bit of pace, switches, reverse angles and boasts to clean up 3-0.

Overall we lost 2-3 but good points (10-14) and just about choked on some nice Pizza as Nakamura slotted in the free that put Celtic through against Man U in europe.

Man of the Match: Mark Dutton (for effort & sheer entertainment, I know he lost but he also coached Todd to victory)

Grange III @ Heriot Watt University II (Wed 22/10/06)

The thirds travelled to Riccarton on Wednesday hoping to continue the points haul of last week and (so as to avoid spoiling a good story (as the chronological reality of the event is a little different from the following sequence !))----

John Graham kicked us off at No 5 against Chris and after swapping games in the first 2, closed chris out in games 4 and 5 to give us the ideal start (3-1).
Peter Young had a marathon tussle (not his first of the year) against Mark at 4; taking the first 2 tight games before losing games 3 & 4 to set up a nail-biter of a fifth which Pete secured (3-2) .
Tim had a similar scenario with Christine Graham, taking the first 2 (the first to love) before Christine sussed the Naulty serve and clawed back the next 2. The stage was set for a fitting finale but Tim had spent all his reserves and Christine dropped and boasted her way to the fifth. (2-3).
Sadly the no 2 and no1 (the Bernard and Derick double act) were too much for the Tweedster and Pete Cockburn to handle and both struggled generally on the points tally although they both put in performances which spared any blushes but no points and no prizes.(0-3 & 0-3).

A defeat to one of the other high flighers in the league is a bit of a disappointment (8 - 15) (Oh Tim --- if only you had got that 3rd or 5th game!) but no disrespect.

I do feel old enough on Court but it is really rubbed in out there though when you are leaving the Students Union at 11.00pm to head home to your bed and the students seemed to be just emerging to the Union for the start of their evening!
The Tweedster

Man of the Match: Peter Young (still unbeaten)

Ladies home v David LLoyd (Mon 20/11/06)

The Ladies played host to David Lloyd this week. Jo Petty played well at 5 but this wasn't reflected in the score. Her opponent was young and inexperienced but had some fine coached shots which she put to good use. Not your typical number 5 sort of player. 3: 0 to DL.

Jules played at 4 and came up against a similar player to herself but who couldn't run nearly as well as Jules. Jules held out to win in 3, much to the frustration of her opponent. 3: 0 to Grange.

Jo Loudon met her old PE teacher at 3, both of them were south paws, so they only confused each other. After getting over the embarrassment of having to play her former teacher, Jo quickly got down to business. No respecter of age, Jo won 3: 0. She had to be in work for 9pm.

Sheila played at 2 and either had a bad day at work or an energy surge shortly before her game. She won two games 10 - 9 and so had no intention of losing the match. 3: 1 to Grange.

Gil played at 1. Well, played the part of Sacrificial Lamb. She tried to award the game to her opponent Elaine Inglis before the end of the third game. That kind of sums up what she thought of her game. 3: 0 to DL.

Final score 3-2 (Points 14 : 7) to us. Supper was very pleasant - the fresh cream + strawberry meringues were fab. Next week we are home to Watsonians.
Karen