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.