Monday 24 December 2007

Seconds Home vs Tyne 14th Dec

Third time I've tried to add this blog....apologies if anybody was keenly awaiting...will check this time to see if it actually "sticks"...

A better result for the seconds this time after a long string of heavy defeats...better but still no coconut.

A brilliant start for us with a 3-0 win at #5 for super-sub Tim Hinnay. OK...it was against an opponent called Walk Over ....but a rare and valuable win nonetheless.

Things continued in that vein with Doug Browne recording a very comfortable 3-0 victory against Jerry Ireson at #4. Not a lot of sweat broken for Dougie who never really had to get out of second gear.

Pete Cockburn at #3 started out 0-7 down quick-smart against Stuart Faulkner in the first game and it was looking like a damn good thrashing was impending, but then normality returned and a tight struggle ensued with Pete just being edged out 2-3 in the end.

Alan Stokes at #2 played a good controlled game against Jon Booth but John had a bit too much in the end to leave Alan down at 1-3.

It was left up to Mark Dutton at #1 to play the big captain's innings and give the team their first win in many weeks. Errr..yeah....ok. Donald Smith was way to quick and agile all round and despite some resistance in the second game there was never much doubt as to the outcome. 0-3 (again...)

Final result...Tyne 2 beat Grange 2 by 12 pts to 9.

Monday 17 December 2007

Where do you rank in the club?

To see if you are in the top-30 in the club rankings, click this Link.

This ladder is updated from mini-league head-to-head results every month to aid team-selection, seeding and handicapping. So if you made the list, you are in a good position to take on the team players or get on a team.

If not, get some more wins and march up the mini-league table. If nothing else, it's a great line to impress someone, "I'm number five at my squash club" ;-).

Friday 14 December 2007

Third Mini League Highlights

Well done everyone for responding to my challenge to set a new record for games played - 88 games actually played, beating 77 in each of the first two leagues. We still have 16 players with a 100% record for games played and 39 who have played 75% or more of the possible games!

The results of the third league are here ..... Nov/Dec league

League 7 were the stars this month, playing all their games. Well done to Alastair Mackie, Fiona McLaren, Andrew Strickland, Struan Fairbairn and Sheila Rennie, with Fiona winning "Minileaguer of the month" for her maximum points. The other players to win all their games were Peter Menzies, Chris Murphy and yours truly! Leagues 2 and 3 were also very active, playing all but one of their games. Most leagues had a clear winner this month, but I have a feeling the next league is going to be very competitive!

Here it is ..... Dec/Jan league

Looking at all the results so far, Mike Moyes is in the lead in terms of total points scored, with 84, with Peter Menzies and Fiona McLaren joint second on 79. Peter Roberts is a close third on 77. Lets see who is best at handling the Christmas pudding!

Enjoy your games!

Dougie Brown

Monday 10 December 2007

Seconds away v Accies2 (Thursday, Dec 6, 07)

Thanks to Christie for posting my very rushed summary of last week's second team match.
Here follows a more coherent version for posterity.

#5- Pete Tweedie vs Dave McCall (0-3). The same story as the few previous weeks. A bad start. followed by a recovery that clearly showed he could have won the match but just too late to re-float the ship. A pulled leg muscle wasn't helping his cause either.
#4- Steve Davey vs Matt Ross (2-3). The super-sub very nearly did it for us (again). In the best match of the night he shared the honours at 2 games each and it was looking like the 5th would go his way when he was 2-0 up. However a brief purple patch from his opponent suddenly saw Steve at 2-8 down and despite halting the slide with a number of handouts the damage had already been done.
#3- Pete Cockburn vs Taryne Lowe (0-3). Pete once again played well but once again was up against a very good player (again) The 0-3 result was never really in doubt.
#2-Alan Stokes vs Ali Fleming (1-3) A very good match with honours even after the first two games and it could have gone either way. Ali picked up the pace in the third and fourth and edged away. It would have to be noted that the referee had a very strict (although at least consistent) interpretation of what constituted a let or stroke and Alan was several times on the end of calls that all folk on the balcony would have given the other way. Credit due to Alan for the restrained manner of his appeals and ultimate acceptance of the calls.
#1- Mark Dutton vs David Shaw (0-3). The repeated execution by David of overhead slams into the nick in the warmup should have been a warning....and it wuz. The 0-3 result was never really in doubt. Some decent play but up against a player of a better standard.

Overall...just 3 points to our name and deeper into oblivion we go.....

Next week is our big chance against Tyne. Gotta win that one...


Mark Dutton

Friday 7 December 2007

Seconds @ Accies2 (Thurs, Dec 6, 07)

#1- MD vs David Shaw (0-3) ....no chance, played quite well but just too good.
#2-AS vs Ali Fleming (1-3) ....very good match ...dodgy refereeing (no question) but AS kept cool very well.....a good test...
#3- PC vs Taryne Lowe (0-3) ...tried hard but too much class altogether.
#4- SD vs Matt Ross (2-3) .... played very well and should have had it. A fairly undeserved run of 8 points lost in a row (from 0-2) in the 5th saw it end.
#5- PT vs Dave McCall (0-3)....same story as previous weeks....bad start...but recovery too late to re-float the ship.

Some messing about by both sides meant a late-ish start and SD had to be away for half an hour at 7:30.
Mark

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Firsts home v Edinburgh Sports Club 4 (Tues 04.12.07)

A great result against the Sports Club that will put us in 2nd place at the end of the first half.

Gerald was lean, honed and hungry, and took Bruce Johnstone 3-0.
Christy won a clean 3-0 against Chris Milne.
Al slogged it out against the manic Shane Presley, 3-1.
Chris took a pummelling off Rod Binns early on, but dug in for 3-1.
Mike out-psyched Ricky Pratt with new headgear, 3-1.

Overall 5-0, 20-6 on points.

Franco took care of the food.

Man of the match: It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight. Risin' up to the challenge of our rival. Chris Mair.

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Firsts home v Heriot Watt 2's (Tue, Nov 27,07)

A rescheduled match brought forward and swapped to our venue. Mark Dutton was on against #5 Russel Hobson, Mark got dragged into his opponent's unconventional style, it went game-by game and Mark lost out in the fifth.


Gerald Suggett had a 20 minute battle with #4 Chris MacNamee for the first 3 points, after that the Riccarton man didn't get another as Suggers then double-grannied him pronto.

Ali G beat his namesake Richard G at #3 convincingly 3-0. Chris Mair at #2 had a tight match with Bertrand Lucotte who ran the miles but still got cleaned out; 3-0.
Mike Perring came up against Mark Rotton at his latest club, Mike was a bit shaky legs wise but still ground it out 3-2.


Overall 4-1, 19-7 on points. No team cook for the hastily rescheduled match, Franco's Pizzas came to the rescue. Man of the match anyone?

Friday 23 November 2007

Seconds home vs Waverley Thursday 22/11/07

This division is proving to be a very difficult one indeed with an
extraordinarily high standard of opposition week after week. The seconds
are all continuing to play very well and everyone is giving their utmost but
once again the quality of opposition was just too much.

The evening started out very well with Pete Young at No 5 putting it to
Waverley's hyperactive jumping jack, Andy Murray. Pete won the first,
narrowly lost the second and third and won the fourth all being high quality
games. Andy stepped up the pace and left Pete behind in the last but it
could so easily have been a win in four rather than a 2-3 loss.

On the other court at No 4 Pete Tweedie started out where he'd left off on
the previous two weeks against the very imposing figure of Mike Reid ... ie
only gathered a few points to his name. The real Pete finally returned in
the third and he got as far as having a couple of game points but eventually
lost out 0-3. Had he manged to nab that game he would have been a special
to carry on for a win, but t'wasn't to be.

Dougie Brown was up next at No 3 against Alan Ramsay. The first game was a
close loss and then it just slipped further away in each of the next two.
Dougie seemed to be lacking his usual sharpness and was being put under a
lot of pressure by some very consistent width and angle play by Alan and he
seemed to spend most of the games digging awkward balls out of both back
corners. A very good performance by Alan to dominate one of the Grange's
most consistent players.

At No 2, Pete Cockburn's game against Niven Simpson was a festival of smacking the bejapers out of the ball, Pete was soaking up everything the big kiwi threw at him, forcing some tin-bashing out of Niven. However Peter ended up retrieving from near the back door which was never going to allow him to let go his own shots and move the big man around and turn him No an easy ask, this one went 3-0 to Waverley.

It was always going to be tough at No 1 for Mark Dutton against Rob Speight
and so it proved. Only a handful of points gathered in the first two games
although not playing badly at all. Just too consistent and mistake free a
performance from Rob. The third game saw Mark move to a well deserved 5-0
lead and dominate proceedings which showed what could have been.....but Rob
changed the game and put the stop to that upstart behaviour and eventually
grafted his way back to a 6-9 win.

All in all, the seconds need a huge turnaround from here as we're already
staring into the abyss. We've all learnt that losing feeling and it is a
bit hard to get out of that once it gets a grip ...but we have to give it
our best shot.

With the 100th dinner party on in the members lounge, we cobbled together a makeshift table in the committee room, the Waverley boys were impressed with the setting, the unusual variety of pizza's and the online booking system.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Firsts v Watsonians 3 (Tues, Nov 20, '07)

Another tough one, and a good scoreline.

Christy took a straight win against Mike 3-0
Stokey played fabulous squash for 4 games against Gordon Fruish but "blew it" in the 5th.
Al won 3-1 against Jim Dougal - quite satisfying after Grange taking no games off Jim last season.
Chris and Ali played 5 long games of text book lengths, Chis eventually losing 2-3 (drop shot training on Sunday, Chris).
Mike P did the business at #1 winning 3-0 and securing the bonus points for Grange.

Match of the night was #3 Al for dispensing a difficult customer. (self awarded, trust you all agree)

Overall 3-2, 18-7 on points. An excellent result against a strong team, especially with Hamer away.

We were well fed and watered in the Watsonians' bar, and we did our best to make amends for misdemeanors on court. (reporter: Ali G)

Monday 19 November 2007

Results and highlights from second mini league

Another very active league finishing in November with some competitive matches - click here to see the results of all the leagues.... Nov 2007 league

Trying to measure activity levels is tricky when some leagues were hit with injury pullouts, business trips or a small number of players who just didn't play any games. Making allowances for this I reckon that 78% of possible games were played, up from 74% in league 1. We have 21 players with a 100% record so far and 41 who played at least 75% of their games. Well done!

Congratulations to League 3 who played all their games, and Leagues 8 and 11 were right behind with all but one played!

The closest was league 11 where David Gillespie pipped Craig Turnbull by a single point - a 3-2 game between the two was the decider. Julia Lutte got ahead of Douglas Paul in League 9 (26-24) despite losing their head to head 3-2. And in league 2, Mark Dutton was irrepressible after a 3-1 win over the Loobster gave him top spot.

Too many candidates for Minileaguer of the month to single someone out, but David Gillespie, Alastair Gordon, Peter Menzies and Fiona McLaren were all dominant with four straight wins!

If you'd like to look at the new leagues, click here.... Dec 2007 league

If anyone new would like to join next time round, please leave a note on the board or email me at grangesquash@yahoo.co.uk. Enjoy your games and good luck!

Saturday 17 November 2007

Firsts v Dalgety Bay 2 (Wed, Nov 14, '07)

This was a night of tough games.

Stokey's cunning won 3-1 against Colin Boswell's fitness.
Al won 3-1 against the skillful Andy Gray.
Mike won 3-1 against Gerry Gemmell and his array of volley drops.
And Chris perservered for a comeback against the big Gerry Burton, who barely stepped off the T for 4 games, but finally cracked in the fifth 3-2.
Allan H took a swift 3-0 win against Craig Pounder.

Match of the night was #2 Chris Mair for a huge effort and comeback against an unenviable opponent.

Overall 5-0, 20-7 on points. With Grange 1 currently in 2nd place and Dalgety Bay hovering 15 points behind, this puts some decent points between us.

We went on to the Hillend Tavern for healthy portions of meat and potato.

Friday 16 November 2007

Seconds home v Edin Uni Studs (Thurs, 15 Nov '07)

This was always going to be a tough assignment with the students having dropped only a point or two in their previous 5 outings. Peter Tweedie at #4 took on Rob, one of their 3 lefthanders(gaelic cioto'g). Peter had a slow start to lose the first, but the nightmare of last week's tin-fest haunted him. Every time he forced a weak shot from his opponent, he tensed up and dropped the ball a yard high for his opponent to slam away. Pushed him to set two in the third to no avail; 0-3.

Peter Cockburn got into a hitting match with their 2nd cioto'g at #3 but the student was the better hitter. Peter tried to mix a bit more variety into it but his B game didn't discomfit the guy enough ; 0-3.

Christy at #1 was in a game of 2 cioto'gs but his head was in petulant-land and he went out with a whimper against a guy that was playable. 0-3

Gerald faced a #2 in 4 games of great front court sabre rattling. Gerald won his fair share of those rallies, and topped them off with some trademark posturing, chest-puffing, eye-balling and general sledging. To his credit their guy picked up all the silky boasts and countered with silky drops to stuck with it through a few tight games. 1-3.

Peter Young came down to supervise the O'Brien Bucket and ended up playing at #5. Their #5 seemed stronger than their #4 but Peter put it up to the youngster and should have snuck one or two tight games. 0-3.

Overall 0-5, 1-18 on points.

Ok, just for you Richie Mac, the second team food was Franco's 12 inch pizzas, as usual 2 pepperoni, a mushroom, an onion and a surprise sweetcorn ' ham toppings. The students seemed shy about running up a large beer tab... but a few shouts of "Go on, Go on, ya will, ya will, ya will" had them running it up to £40 to live up to their reputation.

Thursday 8 November 2007

Firsts v Abercorn (Tue, Nov 4 '07)

Strange to see Abercorn first in Div 3, let alone propping up the bottom. Stokesy took out #5 Gary 3-0 and Christy beat #4 Bob Nicholson 3-0 in routine wins.

Ali G at #3 had a tremendously low error rate against Tom Neill in a match of punishing rallies; 3-0. Chris Mair beat #2 Alistair MacKenzie 3-1.

Match of the night was #1 Mike Perring v Brian Montgomery who plays some great angles and touch but was at the pin of his collar, it looked like it would be an early night with all the 3-0 but these guys started at 9pm and an hour later were still battling in the fifth; Mike was unlucky to lose out 2-3. Just as well we now have a bar extension until 11pm (if needed) on all home matches.


Overall 5-0, 19-4 on points. We still maintain second position in the league.

Ali G served up a sausage casserole which had the other 9 people asking for the recipe and seconds.

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Seconds vs Colinton / Musselburgh 6th November.

A good chance of improving on our recent run of bad results with Gerald at No 1. An improvement there was but still not enough to register our second win of the season.

Dougie Brown started the festivities off at No4 vs Hamish Williamson. Dougie's definitely back after his long injury layoff and looked very comfortable in polishing off the very capable Hamish in three. 3-0.

Pete Tweedie started off similarly comfortably with an easy fisrt game win against the deceptively laid-back style of John Stohlner. That was the end of the good news though as it just seemed to all go wrong for Petey. An infeasibly large number of rallies ended with Pete putting the ball square onto the red line of the tin....so many that Pete had to be restrained from demanding that the courts be measured against legal requirements. had the red line been three inches lower Pete would have easily completed a 3-0 thrashing.....but a 1-3 loss was the result.

Mark Dutton on next against the hard-hitting Derek Wilson at No3. Always going to be tougth and so it proved. Two fairly even games went the wrong way bu a few points mostly through a failure to find width being repeatedly punished by sharp volleys. Game three was exactly the reverse and an easy win. Game 4 began with some vigorous discussion between players and umpire re interpretation of the rules of fair view and freedom of passage to the ball..(well OK...just me) but to no avail and the early psychological damage was never recovered from....1-3.

Poor Pete Cockburn walked on the court at No 2 vs Richard Easton with a warning from the rest of the team that he'd "have his hands full". If only it were that successful. Not a pretty scorecard at all with the normally extremely skilled Richard being even more devastating than normal. I won;t embarrass Pete by revealing score details other then the overall 0-3. Pete's post-match query...."Did I just play the best player in the world?"

What can was say about the Gerald vs Colin Grant match at No 1? Anybody who's ever seen these two play before would pay money for the privilege and so it proved again. An incredible display of speed, skill, touch and ...oh...other stuff...can't think of good enough words. The final result was an 8-9 loss in the fifth game (after an earlier Grange match point). Not convinced of the wisdom of the "set one" call at match point, but other than that I don't think Gerald could have done much more. Superb stuff.

Overall result...a 7-15 loss.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Seconds vs Bank Of Scotland 1st November

The most notable event of the night was the total absence of a Bank of Scotland team at Marcos where all five Grange 2 folk had gathered at the intsruction ofChristy's email of the week before. A few phone calls later we decamped to Colinton where BoS now play (a team of gypsies if ever ythere was one ...second time they've changed homes). None of us had noticed the change of team home, Christy included.

That drama aside, we had another week of being just one notch out of touch with a superior side. Everybody playing very well as they have been doing every week and mixing it with very decent opponents but nobody coming up with the win.

Doug Brown started the night off and was doing little wrong other than choosing an opponent in Ian Finaly who was doing even less wrong. A scoreline of 1-9, 1-9 looked most un-Doug like but was a fair reflection at that stage. He very nearly nabbed the third but not quite and a 0-3 loss.

Pete Young's story was similar. He had the measure of John Burnett by the third game. Lots of points scored but sadly not enough in any single game. 0-3.

Pete Tweedie provided the backbone of the night for us against Aussie Mark Tucker. They shared games and then ended up with a very tight 5th game with Mark just edging. So close but no coconut. 2-3.

Pete Cockburn is looking more and more comfortable at no 1 every week and will surely begin to pick up wins soon. He was a match for Robin Nisbet but eventually experience told and a 1-3 scoreline resulted.

Mark Dutton was up against a very tough proposition at no 2 in Rob Norris. Like the others, good quality squash but slightly better quality opposition. A game point in the third showed what might have been but 0-3 a fair result. (Although the 0-8 ratio of turned down service cut queries posed to the referee wasn't quite such a reflection of the true position ...... mebbe).

All in all....we need to turn our quality squash into results starting this week.....in danger of losing touch very early in the season....

Mark D.

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Firsts home v Deerpark 2 (Tue, Oct 30, '07)

The West Lothian team turned up with just 4, not having the courtesy to phone us when they knew the day before that they would be short. As a result, one of our team had a wasted evening - their captain got a lesson on where to find the team contacts on the ESSA website for his pains.

Gerald at #3 gave Malcolm Lochrie plenty of Welsh-isms between points, was cruising 2-0 up and made a meal of the third but managed to win it 10/9. Alan Stokes played Sandra Wilkes at #4 and stayed in control on a hot court 3 to take it 3-0. Mike Perring for the second week running had no legs, still enough touch and power to take a routine win over Milan Govan at #1.

Ali G at #2 took a game to get in his stride (i.e. he lost the first) against John Miller, this was the most contested match of the night. Alastair was cracking the ball well and reaching everything in the long rallies and John was not going to an easy defeat but it was still 9-3,9-3,9-3 to Ali in the next 3 games.

Overall 5-0, 20-3 incl ref bonus points. Man of the match: Ali G came thru in a good fight.

Food report: Mike served up a very tasty Spag Bol with garlic bread which satisfied everyone.

Friday 26 October 2007

Bragging rights for the first mini-leagues of 2007

The mini-leagues are now available on-line. Click on the... Nov 2007 league

Click the previous... Oct 2007 league RESULTS so that you can see why you got promoted or demoted or eliminated (if you never saw the final totals on the noticeboard.)

Note that all phone/email info has been removed, for your protection. Please consult your Email/noticeboard for this info. Congrats to Dougie Brown for a great running start to his mini-league stewardship.

Peter Roberts is mini-leaguer of the month after dropping only 1 point out of a possible 32 in a very competitive league.

Nick Lyth was a worthy runner-up in the very competitive division of the month, Div 11, with Menzies, McLaren, Edward and Marshall also getting into double figures points totals and 100% matches played with a maximum total of 100 points!

In the premier leagues, Allan Hamer consolidated his position as Club #1,, with current club champion Mike Perring and Chris Mair tied for the second spot. Click here to see... where you are ranked in the club (from mini-league head-to-head results). Get on the club ladder by working your way up to the top 5 mini-league divisions. And perhaps get yourself called up for a team match.

Seconds home v Royal Bank (Thurs, Oct 26)

First up was super-sub Peter Menzies, fresh from a summer of improvement on the coaching course. His own verdict: "I was playing sh*te, mate" in which case we need to move him up the team order 'cos he won 9-5,9-4,9-2 and would have hockeyed the guy if he'd been playing well!

Tim Hannay came in as super-sub at #4 and went 6-9, 3-9 down but got to 8-4 game ball in the third, unluckily he could not convert the two service rallies he got and the merchant banker beat him 10-8 in that one too. Still, he can take consolation from his share of Menzies 3 points through him playing at #4.

Dougie at #3 was, by his own admission, slotting everything to granny the guy in the first, get to 7-7 and push thru for the win in both other games, like the thoroughbred racket man that he is.

Peter Cockburn took on Eric Donohoe at #1. Stokesy commented while spectating that was that Peter was playing well but Eric was playing uber-high standard. One rally apparently went on for about 30 shots with Peter dominant throughout and Eric running court lengths like the greyhound he is, Peter looking up at the balcony mid-rally "what do I have to do to put this guy away" written on his face as Eric runs down yet another distant shot, at the end of the rally Eric takes a swing and puts it away. The balcony draws its breath.

Mark Dutton at #2 played Stephen who was hitting a terrific clean ball. One little vignette: Stephen ends up stranded in the front corner, Mark on the T with an open court but can only volley back to Stephen's corner, he does but calls "Let please!" at the same time, then the ball rolls out of the nick! Cue the balcony holds it's breath. Again. Mark is there arguing why he should get a let, Stephen says "No, its either your winner or a stroke to you" and Dougie the ref has to persuade Mark to accept the winner when Mark thought he was struggling to get a let. The balcony lets out a collective sigh of relief. We need a camera on Mark at all times - these funny incidents always happen with him and there is a whole YouTube.com audience out there waiting for this stuff.

Man of the Match: Peter Menzies on his debut

Overall a 2-3 (6-12 points) loss, thanks to Cockburn and the super-subs for helping out in my hour of need.

Thursday 25 October 2007

Firsts @ David Lloyd (Wed Oct 23, '07)

To be struggling to get out just 2 teams this early in the season does not bode well for our chances of promotion or staying up for either team.

Peter Cockburn at #5, again showing the good clubman that he is, turning out on consecutive nights. I didn't see his match but his own synopsis was that he was too loose and gave away too many strokes to Paul Sherry, 0-3.

Stokesy at #4 beat Raymond Ross, coming from behind in 2 games as Raymond's deadly drops were cancelled out by giving away too many strokes. Alan went on to close it out 3-0. Christy at #3 ground out a 3-1 win against Alex Killick and Chris Mair also beat their #2 by the same score.

Mike Perring was the most lethargic I've ever seen him and Joseph Ghaemi took a good win. Considering he is rated 450 (out of 1000!) points lower, the teenager's ranking will get a nice boost from this anomaly.
Man of the Match: Raymond and Alan. Playing a match I thought would never happen, neither batted an eyelid when, out of the 20 permutations of opponents, the team order dictated they play each other and a competitive sporting match ensued.

We did well to scrape the bonus points out of this, overall it was 14-10 on the night incl qualified refs bonus.

The catering wing of David Lloyd needs a poker up the ass from Gordon Ramsay 'cos the baked potato filling dished up wouldn't have fed 10 gnats- if I was paying £70 a month as a DLL member plus a match fee, I'd be hacked off, no disrespect to the 5 players. We just had to drink more beer to make up for the lack of calories ;-)

Saturday 13 October 2007

Who's Who at Grange Squash #2- The competitions secretary in focus



It looks like our competition's secretary leads a busy double life ;-)

Friday 12 October 2007

Who's Who at Grange Squash #1 - Stokesy in focus....

Seconds @ Linlithgow 2 (Tue, Oct 2,'07)

Having survived the scary journey under the railway underpass and on through the dark wastelands to Linlithgow squash club, we were then mugged when we got there by a Lin2 team that was just way too good on the night.
  • Dougie Brown made a return at #5 after a long back-injury layoff and looked very good to share the first two games with Mark Pilcher. Drifted off the pace after that to lose 1-3.
  • Mark Dutton started slowly against Pete Cochrane to go 0-2 down, won the third very well but the week-long head cold finally caught up (as did Pete's quite decent volley-drop game)
  • Alan Stokes ran into fitness machine Joe Andrews at #2 and matched him (nearly) point for point to lose 9-10, 9-10 in the first two. The fitness levels fully kicked in during the third game and Rob ran away with it. 0-3
  • Pete Tweedie played the very capable Rob Purdie at #3 (knocked Christy off last year, I believe) {Ed note: Actually, Christy knocked off Peter C last year in Linlithgow , it was at The Grange (even worse) that Christy got knocked off by Rob P} and didn't see much joy in the first two games at all. In the third he finally realised that he was playing a left-hander and ceased putting every ball on Rob's powerful and tricksy fore-hand. Much improved as a result and Pete got as far as having two game points but finally lost that one. Would've been a tight match if the third game had actually been the first one....but damage already done. 0-3.
  • Same story for Pete Cockburn at #1. He matched Mark Osborne very well in general play but by the end of each rally it was Pete that had eventually been worn down into the loose shot. The third game was very competitive and likewise had it started that way then a close match would have ensued but damage done and 0-3 the result.

So.....a 2-18 loss. Not a good result on paper (can everybody recognise a euphemism when they see one), but in reality everybody showed themselves capable of matching their opponents for decent periods of their matches. All credit to Lin2 though...they never let us into it.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Grange I v Colinton 3 (Tues 09.10.07)

Gerald opened up with a 5 setter against Hector Milne, 2-3.
Christy made Stuart Keane look quite convential, 3-1.
Al plugged away with Garry Speirs, came close to levelling it from 1-2, but finished 1-3.
Chris, who will be remembered tonight for choosing "set 1", taking game ball, then serving down - played good squash, but ended 0-3.
Mike was up against tough refereeing: "No let, 10-8", harsh, but correct, Christy assures us. And also Jonathan Nimmo, who played a game of patience, accuracy and deadly boasts, with which he eventually beat us. 1-3.

Colinton have a strong side, coming down from division 2, so we got reasonable points. But we were close to more, with Gerald, Al and Mike in sight of a win.

Overall 1-4, 9-18 .

Thanks to Christy for a hearty chilli with home grown potatoes, and to Margaret for keeping the bar open!

Man of the match: Christy, our only winner, but mostly for the potatoes.

Saturday 6 October 2007

Seconds home to Hatton (Thurs, Oct 4, 07)

This was a long, hard fought match that took us right up to closing time. Alan Stokes was just too consistent for #3 Nick Tinning, winning 3-1. Mark Dutton played Tinning junior at #5 in a match that had everything, dying boasts from the teenager, drop shots interspersed with dives from Dutton, it went to 5 and Mark showed all his experience, slowing it down when needed to hang on for the win 3-2.

After that marathon, Tweedster served us up another against #4 Andy Love. Lobs versus drives, Tweedie edged out the Hatton man in the fifth; 3-2. Peter Cockburn took on #2 John Gordon and in the first game he conter dropped his way almost to a granny. However John turned on his drops and angles in the next 3 and Peter tried to change up his game but to no avail; 1-3.

Saving the best to last, Gerald Suggett strutted about court against Malcolm Mitchell at #1. Malcolm shaded the first with some telling drops but the rallies lengthened, Malcolm is fit but Gerald never let up and Malcom choose to turn off the chase when the shot count got to 20 in a few rallies and Gerald was home 3-1. Gerald never let up, this was punishing stuff and, fitter than a butcher's dog as he is, he gave no quarter.

Overall 4-1, a 16-9 point great start considering the first team won home and lost away against this team last year.

Man of the match: Team effort with everyone contributing, hard to seperate Dutton, Tweedie and Suggett who really proved their fitness.

Friday 5 October 2007

Grange I @ Mammas (Fri, 04.10.07)

Kevin kicked off the season with athleticism 3-1 against Lyndsay.
Al beat John 3-0.
Chris Mair dominated Stuart with fast pace in his debut performance 3-0.
Mike clinched 9-7 off Neil in the fifth, a long battle with both men running on empty.
Allan beat Scott with characteristic efficiency 3-0.
and Christy came to look after us all.

We took the 3 bonus points. But missed out on 2 points for not having a proper referee. We'll not let that happen again - let's all get trained up asap!

Overall 5-0, 18-5 good points and a good start against a weakened Mamma's missing Johnny Everett.

Mammas pizzas and hospitality were excellent as always in the Grassmarket.

Man of the match: Mike Perring, for being totally exhausted.

Any volunteers for chef on Tuesday?

Sunday 3 June 2007

Last summer's touring side got sent homewards to think again





Richard McIntosh guested last summer for a Grange Select VI versus Consett Club touring Edinburgh. Rich along with the tourists is pictured here watching from the pavilion as the Grange First XI beat Heriots on the cricket square. Rab McGill featured for Grange at squash for a change and Mike Perring, Christy, Stokesy & Gil Poore completed the lineup.

The Consett boys got beaten 5-1 with just one guy managing to win, and even that was a toughie with Gil Poore taking him to 4. Stokesy stayed on as they all watched England play a European qualifier when the cricket broke for tea.

Team look-a-likes



Does Todd Mitchell (real family name Pareskevopolous) give speeches while wearing tie-less suits or does Iranian President Ali Amadinejad cool down on the Grange Club squash balcony after a hard match ?

Wednesday 25 April 2007

O35 Team Plate final- home v David Lloyd

At #2, Christy took on Gary Livingston and came from behind to take the first two. The ball went cold at the second interval and Gary's timing went off so Christy got it 9-1; 3-0. Todd Mitchell went on at #4 with Raymond Ross, it went every-other-game to 2-2 but Raymond forgot his inhaler and ran out of puff; 3-2.

Mark Dutton went 1-2 down against Steve Hansen in the early tight games and just took it to 5 where Steve pulled an early lead and Mark almost brought it but not quite; 2-3.

Gerald got 4 points off Mark Rotton, that is not a reflection of his play which was excellent, but the David Lloyd man say getting everything back and hitting sublime shots himself; 0-3.

With the match poised 2-2, Alan Stokes went on with Alex Killick - it was going to be a back and forth match, except in the third game, there was a dispute with the referee, who retired and when it went to 2-2 and needed a fifth, Alan retired; 2-3.

Overall David Lloyd won 3-2 and retain the plate for the 3rd consecutive year, well done.

Just Alex and Mark stayed for food, photo below shows them with the loot...


A strange night's squash, typical end-of-season fare, some good chat in the bar about the line-ups for next year, the burnt pizza and stolen fruit contrasted somewhat.

Tuesday 17 April 2007

Cricket dates

The Saltires (Scotlands cricket team brand name) will play some english cricket counties on 4 Sundays coming up. Court 1 will be occupied by the teas tables, access/parking will be restricted during the day so bring your membership card. Other than that, you should be able to book/play as usual.
29 April, 20 May, 3 June, 10 June

Thursday 29 March 2007

Who put whom out, when and what score...

Club championships (Handicap, Plates, Ladies & Open) results can be seen on...
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p5t8gxjFz-SV6uAroQngGWQ

Monday 26 March 2007

Thirds @ Marcos 3 (Fri, Mar 23,'07)

In this season’s final outing the hosts (Marcos) needed 3 points to secure the league win. By contrast we had mid-table mediocrity whatever the outcome and so the result was perhaps never in doubt!
The closest match was the opener between John Graham and their No 4 Rocco. A ding-dong affair, JG took the 5th to finish on a high (3-2)
On his Grange team debut Chris Mair was clearly playing below his station as he polished his match off in record time He broke a few speed limits to get from Aberdeen and probably broke a few speed limits on court too when winning at #5 in record time(3-0)
Sadly the efforts at 4 and 5 could not be repeated up the pecking order as David Grieve lost out in 3, Peter Young and Peter Tweedie each in 4 to see the tie closed out (8-14)
Thanks to all for their efforts over the season, particularly Peter Young for all his culinary efforts at the home matches – I’m already looking forward to next season!

Seconds @ C-Rooks 2 (Fri, Mar 23,'07)

Having rung up Ron Pearman to find out how many points we needed to go up, it was a relief to find that Abercorn had set us a target of 9 instead of 15 because they'd got 6 points less than maximum against Waverley.

In a scene reminiscent of comic capers, Todd & Peter Cockburn warmed up against Colinton 3 - Todd actually got reffed for a few points against Stuart Keane by Mark. Christy had to drag them both down to the glassbacks, especially Peter who was all geared up for a good thrashing by Kim Byers.

Todd Mitchell was on at #4 against the C-rooks 2 sub Adam and quickly ticked off 3 points for the team. Peter Cockburn was given a good workout by young Sean Robinson who stroked some beautiful forehand nicks but Peter was too steady; 3-0.

Jonathan Frame stepped up to #2 and was up against one of these guys who never rallies but lobs, cuts and angles everything. Jonathan managed to retrieve the shots to take one game but Kevin closed out; 1-3. Mark Dutton played #3 Derek Wilson, a game with everything. Attempted assasination of the referee by an attempted backwall boast that missed, a five minute discussion of the subleties of "creating your own interference" and dives. 3 of the games went 8-8 and in the end Mark lost 2-3 which gave us the required 9 promotion points.

Christy went on with #1 Jack MacAlister and always had too much pace and movement so he tacked on another 6 points. Overall 3-2 (15-6) which means we would have got promoted even without the score with C-Rooks first team being reversed by the league secretary.

Man of the match: Mark Dutton and Jonathan Frame for getting enough points even in defeat to tough opponents to lock up promotion.

The grub was disappointing by Colinton standards but some quality banter from Derek W, Mark and Christy kept our minds off the stale sarnies.

Thursday 22 March 2007

Firsts home v Marcos 2 (Wed, Mar 22,'07)

We needed 4 points to guarantee promotion and with Messrs Hamer, Gordon and Brown unavailable, it was not going to be a cakewalk against Marcos, who needed 9 points to guarantee winning the division. Gerald was chef d'equipe for the night so he went on first at #2. He was really pumped up for it after his marathon five game win over Stokesy in the club championship. He outshot and out-stared Matthew Hunter 3-0, even applauding his own mis-hits.

Peter Cockburn subbed-up against #5 Mike Hay and lost out 0-3. Alan Stokes got to 1-1 against #3 David Thompson but had to concede with a groin injury. Christy went 2-0 up against #4 Nick Wood but flagged badly to lose 2-3. Mike Perring traded with Paul deMarco at the front too much and lost the first but from there ground out a 3-1 win. Job done.

Overall 2-3 (9-13).

Gerald didn't disappoint with suffolk-size portions of baked-potato and chilli filling.

Man of the match: Gerald Suggett got us the promotion points and Feed of the season.

Monday 19 March 2007

Thirds home v Dunbar 2 (Thurs, 15 Mar'07)

The Thirds put up a good effort to test Dunbar - a team pushing for promotion to Division 5.

As Peter Young was on cooking duty, he went on first at 1 and started well to take the first game 9:4. He was pushing on in the second, but Duncan, his opponent slowed things down on what were the warmest courts of the season so far. Pete ran out of steam to lose 3:1. Meanwhile on Court 1, Tim steamed into a 2-0 lead before being pegged back to 2-2. In a fifth game both players had match point before Tim prevailed to take the tie.

Stephen Davey stepped in at the last minute to pay at 2 but found the going tough against old timer Willie Paul who used all his years of experience to put Stephen on the back foot. Stephen had chances for a well deserved game in the third but Willie prevailed to win 3-0.

Rupert Brown was welcomed back into the Grange team to put in a good performance at 4 to win 3-1 against Alan Murphy and Chris put in a good effort at 3 but lost out to Dunbar's David Weissgerber 3-0.

All in all a 2-3 (7:15) loss against a good side which had strong players from 1-5

Wednesday 14 March 2007

Seconds home v Watsons 4 (Tue, Mar 14,'07)

While our firsts entertained the myreside 3's, we waited on the Myreside 4's to turn up 7:30-8ish.
Todd Mitchell needed to dash off to write his latest polemic on global warming - his match against #3 Martin Macari warmed up the court a lot with loads of 20 shot rallies. Todd won the first easy and just had the edge in the next two; 3-0.

Mark Dutton took up cudgels with his opponent from the first round, #2 Andrew Constable. This was a see-saw battle with Mark going 2-1 up in very tight games but Andrew came back strongly to take the last two; 2-3. Plenty of trademark blood on the dancefloor as Mark's dives were of the desperation rather than the winning variety.

Peter Cockburn was on at #4 against Roger Weir, won the first but his man put in some tremendous charges to take the next 3; 1-3.

Tweedster was always in control against Barry Turnbull, the soft measured home touch versus the smack-it-for-a-winner-or-tin approach of the Myreside man; 3-0.

Christy had never played Paul Macari at #1 before. Paul had a slow start to lose the first, it was tighter in the second but Christy was middling every ball and a plethora of fading boasts, slam-nicks, reverse angles and skid boasts saw him thru in 3.

Overall 3-2 (15-8) On target with the score, another 15 points at C-rooks2 on Fri next will see us promoted. Great team effort.

Man of the match: Todd Mitchell probably the steadiest player I have witnessed at Grange, in the world, ever, in his last team match.

Tuesday 13 March 2007

Grange I @ Watsonians III (Wed, 13.03.07)


Tonight we were gunning for 2nd place against Watsonians. We meet 1st place Marcos next week.

Stokesy stuck in for 5 against Andrew Forrest - a tough opponent at no.5 - 0-3.
Gerald got 1-3 off Gordon Fruish.
Al got nothing but frustration off Jim Dougal 0-3.
Mike met his first half opponent, Ed Murray, and played patient, solid squash for 2 very close games, then pulled away in the 3rd to win 3-0. A good performance after 3-2 at home.
Allan H went 0-8 down in the first, found his land legs to level 8-8, but then lost 8-9. 3 games of speed, retrieval and attrition followed, 9-3, 9-0, 9-0.

Man of the match: Mike Perring

Overall 2-3 (8-13 on points). There was some great squash tonight. Our only consolation on the result is that we beat them more heavily at home! Watsonians have pulled away from us now, and Marcos will be uncatchable. Our objective for next week against Marcos is to secure our 3rd place ahead of Colinton-Musselburgh for promotion (we will need 4 points if they got 18 this week), and to have a good night! There's an outside chance that Gerald will put on the food, and there's £10 credit in the kitty to spend away!

Wednesday 7 March 2007

Seconds home home v Linlithgow2 (Tue, Mar 6,'07)

Linlithgow have crept up on Bank of Scotland at the top of the table and our playing resources are getting frayed thru' injury just now so this was going to be tougher than when we ran them close in their gaff in December.

Peter Young stepped up from the thirds into the promotion cauldron with the seconds, against their athletic #5 Ross Halston. Peter played terrific stuff for the first two to push his man close and had nothing left for the third; 0-3.

Peter Tweedie also subbed up from the Thirds, went on against their youthful #4, he won the second 10-8 and traded two more games before shading the fifth. 3-2.

Peter Cockburn was 2 down against #3 Peter Cochrane and then turned on his best squash of the season (he won the third 9-0!) to level it but unfortunately lost the decider;2-3.

Mark Dutton faced #2 Ian Forshaw who has been playing all the tournaments lately and looked sharp. Mark pushed him in all 3 games but couldn't quite get control in any; 0-3.

Christy played their other youth, #1 Robert Purdie in quite a good match considering there were two left-handers jockeying for the same space. Robert got to some amazing retrievals and played terrific fading straight length from the front to go two up. Christy got off some good sharp shots of his own to go 8-2 up in the third but youth and fitness settled in and brought it back point by point to take it 10-8 in the end; 2-3.

Overall 1-4; 5-17

Man of the match: Tweedster, who has now won three five-setters back-to-back.

With Watsons 4 and C-Rooks 2 to play, we need to settle back to getting the bonus points and wrap up our promotion slot. (Loobster)

Tuesday 6 March 2007

Grange I @ Colinton Musselburgh (Wed, 06.03.07)

A vital match, with Colinton-Musselburgh just behind us in 4th place, we really wanted to put some points between us, to finish in the top 3.

Dougie's back is not doing too well, but his loyal support continues to spur us on.
Christy parachuted in at no. 5, won 3-0 against a bemused John Stohlner, then shot off to play for Grange 2, minutes later. Thanks Christy!!
Stokesy was playing extremely well but went 2-1 down against Norman, both men were exhausted, but Stokesy put in a massive effort and came out on top 3-2.
Gerald met his first half opponent, John Hamilton - the only player in the league that appears comfortable with Gerald's eccentric court presence - John was inpenetrable this time, 0-3.
Al went 0-2 down against Richard Easton, and looked like cracking him in the 3rd, but it ended 8-10, 0-3.
Mike and Colin Grant played a fabulous decider. With Mike 0-9 and 6-9 down, it looked like Grange 1 were going to leave defeated, but Mike fought on to take the next 3 games and the bonus points.

Overall 3-2 (12-8 on points).

Men of the match: Stokesy and Mike for hard fought comebacks - turning a 4-15 defeat into a 12-8 win.

After tonight we are 27 points clear of Colinton-Musselburgh, which gives us a very good chance of promotion, but beware - they have 8th and 9th place teams to play, and we have 1st and 3rd. We need 10 more points to secure it.

We now have a battle for 1st place in our final 2 matches against our rivals Marcos and Watsonians. Both teams have easier teams to play than we do. Taking the first half results for the remaining fixtures would give final standings: 1. Marcos 261, 2. Watsonians 252, 3. Grange 248, 4. Colinton-Musselburgh 223. Beating these guys is a tall order, but not impossible.

Saturday 3 March 2007

Seconds @ C-rooks (Fri, Mar 3,'07)

John Graham was delighted to have night of squash as Christine was away at the Masters in Aberdeen. At #5, it was a battle of the masters with John and Sandy trying to win each rally in less than 2 shots. Sandy had the edge and John had to take second best in four; 1-3.

Peter Tweedie also doubled up from the 3rd team this week at #4. He must have played some fighting battle because it went to 5 and our man shaded it; 3-2.

Peter Cockburn found himself at the lofty heights of #2- he lost the first to Derek Wilson and in the second he started to get on top but it went to 8-8 and 8-10. Derek was winning the backhand rallies and closed out the third; 0-3.

Jonathan Frame made his seconds debut at #3 with a slow start to go 1 down. He lifted the pace and a long second saw Bob puffing to take game ball and out on his feet. Jonathan took the third to love and cantered the last 2 games; 3-2.

The bonus points were up for grabs between the #1's- John Simpson took the first, Christy blasted the second but as the medical doctor slowed the pace, the electronic doctor was found out; 1-3.

Overall 2-3, 8-15 Not too bad points considering we got 11 at home against them with a full team. Man of the match: Tweedie/Frame - the reserves contributed the bulk of the points.

Thursday 1 March 2007

Thirds @ Musselburgh (Tue, Feb 27, 07)

In rather typical Musselburgh tradition, at the appointed hour only John Graham and one home player were in attendance. At 7.30, they had their number 5 and their number 4 had just turned up to go on against John G. Chris Molyneaux completed our full complement (having made the trip by bus) just after 7.30pm and took the court against their number 5, Tom (The rest of their guys drifted in right up until 8.40!)

It turned out to be a cracking match with every-one finding their opponent evenly matched and it built up to perhaps the most exciting conclusion we have had to date.

John G did it again - raced in to a 2-0 lead only to lose out in 5 (In absolute fairness John had pulled the first back from 0-8 to win and his opponent only started to suss John's game in the 3rd!) (2-3)
Chris stole the first game against Tom (10-8) but was then edged (almost literally by his opponent constantly calling for lets due to his inability to get around Chris!) in each of the next 3 to lose out (1-3)
Stephen Davey had the marathon match of the evening with stamina a key factor as he went 2-0 up; was pulled back to be levelled at 2-2 and then got the better of Alan (3-2) - to see us quickly turn to Pete Young at 2nd string who had gone from 0-1 to 1-1 to 1-2 to 2-2 to be out-run in the fifth almost to the second that Stephen finished on the other Court (2-3)- both Stephen and Pete putting in sterling performances - (Every tie going to 50 minutes +)
Pete T got on to Court against Grame at 9.35 pm and was outgunned in the first before almost clawing back the 2nd (7-9). He slowed it down and grabbed the 3rd and was 7-7 in the 4th at about 10.15pm) when the staff who were getting extremely grumpy at not having got us out of the Sports Centre by 10.00pm eventually called for the premises to be vacated immediately and the hosts honourably conceded (not having had their team in place at the start time) to give us a 3-2 win at number 1 and a loss but a good point haul! (12-16)

Tweedster

Wednesday 28 February 2007

Grange I v Hatton (Wed, 28.02.07)

We did well despite a creaking team.

Dougie has a slipped disc so is still confined to reffing and supporting from the balcony. The team solidarity must convert to a point or 2.
Christy won 3-0 and did delicious home made spuds and chilli too.
Stokesy had water on the knee, came up against the young David Tinning, and turned 1-2 down into a 3-2 win.
Gerald had a bad back, and did well to contain the older Nick Tinning 3-0, a good win.
Al was injury free, and won 3-0 against Alan Hove.
Mike had a cramping buttock, but still played reliable Perring Formula squash to crack the tough Malcolm Mitchell 3-0.

Overall 5-0 (18-2 on points).

Our results for this half have been good so far: 18, 10, 16, 18, 18, 18. But we now have our top 3 opponents left to play. Before tonight we were in joint 2nd, 8 points behind the leaders Marcos, and 10 points ahead of 4th place Colinton-Musselburgh. Next week we're away at Colinton-Musselburgh - a crunch match for us.

Man of the match: Stokesy, for going flat out for 5 against the man 4 decades younger.

Stokesy's confidence is riding high. So much so that he's taking bets on his forthcoming challenge match against Alan Hamer. Hamer's only handicap being a Grays Light Blue (wooden) racket. Stokes will be playing with his Dunlop (budget modern) racket. Date to be confirmed, but it should be a good night. Watch this space....

Friday 16 February 2007

Seconds @ Inveresk (Thu, Feb 16, 06)

The team travelled in style to Colinton, Mark ferrying the bobble-hat wonders Todd & Suggers in his new old Honda Civic. Todd Papadopoulis, the greek gunslinger, took court at 5th string tonight due to having a dodgy back. He didn't seem hampered in his movement, unlike George Purves who didn't seem to move as freely as usual. Pattern of the match- Todd would slide a good high backhand down the wall and get in quickly with the volley on George's high rail. Picked up everthing at the front. 3-0.

Peter Cockburn moved up to #4 and got Robin Carse out of his comfort zone with a high tempo of play to clean up 3-0.

Mark Dutton was 2-1 up on Norman at #3 when his elbow relapsed into the tennis disease. It was a well disputed match and Norman came through in the fifth; 2-3.

Christy faced fellow leftie Sam Fearnley at #2 to try to grab the bonus points. Sam went short too early too often in the first and Christy put it away to go one up. Sam then grannied Christy in the second with a taste of his own medicine, booming left-hand drives. They also swapped the next two games and Christy was on his third wind going into the fifth. It went to 8-8, set two and having survived a few match balls, Christy put in 2 brave (read "desperation") boasts to take it 10-9; 3-2.

Gerald Suggett faced John Brown who was muttering about Christy avoiding playing him. Gerald took the first, John threw in a few good reverse angles which stumped the welsh wizard, it was 1-1. From here, Gerald played quality width and length, picked up everything and threw it back with interest in the shape of killer boasts to close out 3-1. Some unreturnable lob serves too!

We enjoyed the bruschetta and pizza and some banter about Christy's lurid pink phone. Man of the match: Can't really pick out anyone, The Whole Team. Todd for putting his body on the line and still putting in a performance, Peter C improved on 3-1 at home with a 3-o win over the same man away, Mark dug out 2 points, which was as much as he could hope for (as he said himself, even without the onset of tennis elbow, Norman would have won), Christy for stumbling over the line in a match he had no right to win and Gerald for a #1 string style of play. Overall 4-1; 17-5. Click Here for latest standings

It was a shock to hear how Simon Schotken(Inveresk #3) is in recovery for a brain tumour and our best wishes are with him. Puts everything else into perspective.

Wednesday 14 February 2007

Grange I v Dalgety Bay 2 (Wed, 14.02.07)

In our valentines date with Dalgety Bay:

Stokesy showed us how he can still take on the younger player, and won 3-0 against Scott Boswell.
Gerald met Graham Small for the second time this season, 3-0.
Al faced text book squash from Sheena, but won 3-0.
Mike won 3-0.
Allan H v Colin Boswell was expected to be a long match of retrieval and fitness, but Allan didn't let it happen, and quickly closed 3-0 too.

Allan H served up spicy sausage caserole, and Alan S provided the romantic conversation.

Overall 5-0 (18-0 on points). Click here for latest standings

Monday 12 February 2007

Thirds @ Waverley 4 (Mon, 13-Feb-07)

Despite the tag of Waverley 4's, they are top of the division and gave us a sound thrashing in the first half of the season so it was with a degree of trepidation that the Grange Gang headed over on to the South Side of town on Monday ..................-
Chris Molyneaux couldn't have given us a better start taking all 3 off Brian at number 5 (10-8 9-2 9-2) (0-3) Well done Chris, well stuck in.
At 4 John G raced in to a 2-0 lead (9-1 9-7) and it was all looking good, then Keith woke up and sussed John's serves and boasts and eventually edged John (2-9 7-9 5-9) (2-3)
Chris Jeffrey had the edge on experience against Stephen Davey at 3 and only just edged a marathon tussle in the first game (8-10) and once again although our man clawed his way valiently back to take one game, Chris closed it out in 4 ((3-9 9-4 2-9) (1-3)
Pete Young had it all to do to keep the tie alive and for two and a half games it looked like he just might do it! (9-3 9-0 and 5-0 up in the 3rd and cruising, only to be put off by a dodgy call from your scribe who was marking his game and thereafter he conceded 18 points in a row!) losing the 3rd 5-9 and the 4th to love. It all headed for the showdown and Martin Robertson edged it in the fifth (9-6). (No disrespect Pete but I guess his Triathlon t-shirt should have been a clue to Martin probably attracting the tag of favourite to edge it by that stage!) (2-3)
With the tie and the bonus points already gone, Pete T could only try to salvage some points off Donald Shearer at 1 but sadly after a titanic first game (yet another defeat to 8-10 his goose was well and truly cooked on the hottest courts we have yet played on (excuses, excuses....) and the next 2 games passed us by in a bit of a blur! (0-3)

No disrespect; (8-15) so near and yet so far as both John and Pete were right in there with a realistic prospect of winning their ties and on another night who knows............. as has been said before, the bonus points make all the difference at the end of the season.
Enjoy the break from the matches next week before coming back to face the final run-in! Click here for latest standings
The Tweedster

Friday 9 February 2007

Thirds home v Dalgety Bay 3 (Thu, Feb 9,07)

We welcomed Tim Hannay into the 3's for his debut and were rewarded with a fiercesome tussle between Tim and Scott in the number 5 slot, neither of whom fancied calling any of the available let or stroke options and hence a good slug-out ensued! Our man came out victorious in straight sets - Well done Tim and welcome! (3-0)

John G hit a vein of form to close out Doug (who Robin will remember well from the first half as being the one who ended his season! ) in 3; the third going to 10 before John polished it off. (3-0)

Stephen Davey went on at number 3 hoping to claim the bonus points but Paul was a canny and tricky opponent and despite Stephen pulling the 2nd game back to level at 1-1, Paul had just enough experience and cunning to take the next 2 (3-9 4-9) (1-3)

Peter Young deserves a medal for marking a game, then preparing the food and finally stepping on to court against Sandy in the 2nd string match and dominating the match to eventually secure the bonus points (9-4, 9-6 & 9-6) (3-0)

With the pressure off Tweedster could relax in the 1st string game against Ken Maitland and managed to scoop up 3 without concession (9-4, 9-0 & 9-2) (3-0).
Overall a 41, 16 - 3 win to put some points on the board and that hopefully keeps us consolidated in mid-table mediocrity! Man of the match: Peter Young (almost as good as a medal)

Thursday 8 February 2007

Seconds home v Bank of Scotland (Tue, Feb 6,07)

Peter Cockburn hockeyed their number 5 in the first game but Rob Norris returned the favour in the next two. To hi credit, Peter reduced the errors in the fourth and it went point for point but Rob edged it in the end; 1-3. Todd Mitchell was too steady for #4 Phil Brown; 3-0.

Mark Dutton at #3 left out the dives but still found a way to be the subject of conversation at the bar. One game up, in the second game, he threw in his surprise corkscrew serve and his aussie lefthanded opponent Mark Tucker caught it clean on the volley and accidentally straight onto Dutton's knopper. Crack! Lucky he was looking away but he still went down. Yours truly had to give a stroke against Dutton and a conduct warning against his opponent, another first! The game lost some rhythm for a bit but Dutton recovered to take it. In the third, the Bank man pulled up thinking our Mark had hit him in the leg with the ball. In fact it was severe cramp and he was unable to move after that and our man won 3-0.

Stokesy manfully came in at #2 and went for five games with Robin Nisbet but unfortunately didn't bag the bonus points. Christy at #1 against Ralph Bain, unbeaten this season which is quite an accomplishment for a #1. It was looking good for Christy at 2-0 up but he lost the set-2 and struggled to get the odd point in the next two games; 2-3.

Overall 2-3, 11-12 on points. Man of the match: Todd Mitchell, the non-panda of the team, he never eats shoots and leaves with a win, no fuss & no drama.

Grange I @ Dean (Wed, 07.02.07)

With Dean 2nd from bottom in the league, and with our rivals for promotion taking 15, 16 and 17 points off them in the first half, the pressure was on Grange 1 to secure good points tonight.

Dougie was was confined to the balcony with a numb leg, but it was good to have a non-playing supporter! Let's hope the leg's OK for next week ...
Christy made a special appearance, and windmilled David Grant 3-0. The court was like a fridge.
Al had a sketchy first game, then settled in and won 3-0 against Ross Anderson.
When Allan beat Ian Walford, 3-0, murmurs of demonstration match were heard from Dean, although demonstration of what we weren't quite sure.
Meanwhile in some distant part of the Dean Club on a court like a chest freezer, Gerald was enagaged in a grudge match against his first half rival, Fraser Maxwell. News of the result came back 3-1.
Mike was in the deep freeze too, with Craig Wallace, and came out at 3-1.

Overall 5-0 (18-2 on points).

Man of the match: Gerald Suggett - for taking his revenge on away courts!

An excellent result - we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves about the 2 points. Next week it's Dalgety Bay at home, where we should aim for the same again.

Saturday 3 February 2007

Thirds @ Waverley 3 (Fri, Feb 2, 07)

Chris was on first against Neil and they both sought to knock the cover off the ball. Chris was playing well but giving away too many strokes by playing close to his body and not calling them when his opponent did the same. Lost 3 - 0.

Stephen again played well but lost out 3-0 to an older and wilier opponent.

Derek at no 5 spilit the first two games was up in the third and then ran out of puff to lose in four.

Pete played old timer Willie Wood and won the first reasonably comfortably. Willie then turned on the style with some lovely touch play to win in four.

Match of the night was Jonathon's first game for the Grange 3's. The match was played in great spirit with Jonathon tearing around the court picking up lost causes and surprising his opponent. The match went into the fifth and Jonathon played some great recovery shots to save match point. The Waverley man called 1 at 8-8 and probably regretted it as he lost the next point.

GRG3 lost WVY3 1-4 (5-17) Man of the Match: Jonathan Frame
(Author credit: Peter Young)

Seconds v Sports Club 5 (Thurs, Feb 1,'07)

Peter Cockburn had an appetite for the game missing the previous match- he dismantled #5 Keith Barrett in straight games. Todd Mitchell played his usual steady game and but still had work hard for his 3-0 win at #4.

At #3 Mark Dutton faced Moira Atkinson and served up the usual balcony-pleasing diet of dives but Moira had the edge; 0-3. Alan Stokes faced the other half of the Atkinson team and with the Belford court preventing the high lob needed for the tall opponent, Alan suffered a similar 0-3 result.

Christy faced a young, quick retrieving #1, Ross Carver. He manoeuvred himself into the winning position in most rallies to go two up but Ross did some breataking dive or splits gets to lengthen the rallies even further and take the third. Both men were out on their feet in the fourth but Christy wobbled less than Ross to take it and the bonus points.

A 3- 12-7 win to keep us in promotion position. Man of the match: modesty forbids ;-) he hee

The sports club served up a delighful pasta bake which spawned some great banter comparing Mark's dives with Ross's. Mark's dives won points for the amount of skin removed by the floorboards while Ross got points for artistic interpretation with his affectation of turning up his soles on landing

Wednesday 31 January 2007

Grange I v Tyne II (Wed, 31.01.07)

With Tyne placed 3rd from bottom, and a 15-6 win to Grange in the first half, expectations were high.

Al opened with a shakey start and frustrating 1-3 loss against Stuart Falconer.
but everyone else brought in the results:
Gerald put all memories of his loss in the first half to the female Tyne player Lisa out of his mind, until later in the bar, and beat Gerry Ireson 3-1.
Dougie beat the enormous Stephen Paul in a David and Goliath reenactment 3-0.
Mike beat John Booth 3-0, dropping only 4 points (good job too, I don't reckon Mike was fit for many more rallies).
and Allan "Richard and Judy" Hamer beat Shane Presley 3-0.

Franco didn't get a look in either, against Al's homemade lasagne. Any volunteers for our next home game - a valentine date with Dalgety Bay?

Dougie, Mike and Allan dropped a total of only 9, 4 and 6 points in their matches. Mike nearly clinches man of the match on this count, but this week it has to be:

Man of the match: Allan Hamer - in recognition of good effort through the season. And as this may be his last match for us, it was his last chance for this prestigious accolade.

Overall 4-1 (16-4 on points).


Next week we're away at Dean, who are 2nd from bottom. Our rivals for promotion took 15, 16 and 17 points off Dean in the first half, so we will want to do likewise - or better. Our first half result was 17-3 on home courts.

Thursday 25 January 2007

GRG2 v David Lloyd (Tue, Jan 23, '07)

Todd at #5 against his David Lloyd clone Callum Lyle was a long attrition between the two running machines and once Todd sussed that Callum's recent kneee op didn't allow him to retrieve the drop shot, Todd progressed to a 3-1 win.

Court 1 was out of action for 30 mins as Captain Dutton had to wipe away the rubber melted into the floor from someone prior to the team match firing a ball into the heater. The smell of bunring rubber was sickening. Finally Kevin Roberts got to play Elaine Inglis (pron. Ing-ils) - Kevin raced to a 2-0 lead but Elaine played some rolling nicks to win the third at set-2, normal service resumed as Kevin finished out 3-1.

Mark at #3 had a hard match as Julian Fennema picked up everything but Mark succeeded in sucking Julian into his slow paced rallies to win in 4 and bag the bonus points

Gerald was hiding at #2 having played a nine-game ladder match the previous night and Neil Abbey countered the loose boasts to beat our man in 4.

Christy piled on the pace early against their #1, Scotland star Neil Thompson (albeit at over-65 age group ;-) to go 2 up including one bagel (to borrow a phrase from the Australian Open tennis). The third saw Neil get a few game balls before Christy recovered to set-2 and get two match balls himself which duly converted

Overall GRG2 beat DLL2 4-1, 16-6 on points.

Man of the match goes to Mark Dutton for his floor rubber-scrubbing, knee-scrubbing dives and opponent-scrubbing play.

Pizzas were enjoyed in the committee room along with some surreal conversation topics and enjoyable banter- the Long Room was occupied by a Burns Supper.

Wednesday 24 January 2007

Grange I @ Waverley II (Wed, 24.01.07)

After an 18-6 result in the first half, we had hoped to do better tonight. But close matches at no. 2 and 3 just escaped us, and we missed out on the bonus points.

Gerald took out Allan Brain in a decicive 4th game clincher 3-1.
Stokesy lost to Colin Cruikshank 0-3.
Al lost from 4-4 in the fifth against Mike Read 2-3.
and Mike lost from 7-7 in the fifth against the awkward Donny Hay 2-3.
Allan salvalged 3 points and some dignity against big Niven in a display of retrieval and attrition, winning 3-1.

Man of the match: Gerald - for subbing in, playing a ladder challenge, Grange 2 game and Grange 1 game on consecutive nights (and winning).

Overall 2-3 (10-14 on points).

Thursday 18 January 2007

Grange II @ Abercorn (Wed, Jan 17, 07)

Having beaten this team at home in the first half, we knew it would be more difficult in their backyard.

Peter Cockburn was 0-2 down at #5 v Rick Foggo but brought it back to the fifth and won 3-2. Todd Mitchell won 3-0 at #4 v Keith Robertson and Kevin Roberts likewise cleaned out their #3 Robert Taylor.

With the bonus points in the bag, Mark Dutton couldn't cope with the boast and drop game of Ross Jeffrey. Gerald Suggett similarly got cleaned out by #1 Craig Sandiland.

Excellent result, man-of-the-match must go to Peter Cockburn.
Grange II bt Abercorn II 3-2 (12-8 on points)

Grange 3's @ Deerpark, Wed (Jan 18, 07)

After taking a maximum haul of points in the opening encounter of the season against DPK 3 the journey to Livingston was filled with optimism. We were perhaps missing one or two from the top of our pecking order, they fielded much the same team in the same order.

John Graham opened at 5 against Bill and all the games were close with John meeting an opponent whose style of play almost mirrored his own. Bill sahded the first 10-8 and sadly also closed out games 2 and 3 to 6 and 7 respectively. (0-3)

Our youth policy (Chris Molyneaux) had to cope with the psychological problem of a female opponent, Helen but quickly realised he would need to banish any churlish or charitable thoughts from his mind as Helen proceeded to clean him out, (0-3)

At 3 Stephen Davey tried his hardest to get us back into the match but Ken saw him off without dropping a game - the heaters at Livi are new and by their own admission were next to useless and global warming has certainly not yet reached the courts at Deer Park. It would be fair to say that home advantage assisted as we all struggled to adapt and find anything like a consistent or effective length. (0-3)

Pete Young played at the dizzy heights of no 2 against John and on another night it all would have been so different but Pete was hitting a man aho had found his touch and despite a brief rally to take the 3rd and secure our first point, John closed out the 4th. (1-3)

Peter T played Brian at No 1 and found the courts to his liking. After securing the first 2 games and racing to a 5-0 lead he took his mind off the business in hand and lost the 3rd before re- focusing to take the 4th (3-1).

We have to be a little disappointed with the scoreline given the turnaround from the first half of the season and unless we get back on track next week against Abercorn, dropped points against 2 of the teams lower down our division will basically kill off any silly aspirations of possible promotion.
Oh well at least we can then just focus properly on the social apect!
(The Tweedster) (Ed.- GRG3 lost DPK 3 1-4, 4-17 on points, man-of-the-match goes to Tweedster for wringing a win out of the cold dead hand of the Deerpark courts)

Wednesday 17 January 2007

Grange I v Edinburgh Uni Students II (Wed, 17.01.07)

A good start to the second half tonight. And a great improvement on our 6-18 first half result against the students.

Stokesy beat Ivar Kurtis 3-0.
Dougie beat Matt Boyce, who had to concede after 2 games with an injury, 3-0.
Al beat Dominic Prittie 3-1.
Mike beat Peter Brierey 3-0.
and Allan beat Stuart Tennant 3-0.

Man of the match has to go to Mike (I trust you are in agreement Christy) for his sizzling performance in the kitchen. It's bad news for Franco - Mike's chilli sets the standard for our home games from now on.

Overall 5-0 (18-1 on points).


At the end of the first half we were placed 3rd, but there are 7 out of the 10 teams in the race for promotion!

Watsonians 3......................................... 130
Marco's Leisure 2.................................... 118
Grange 1............................................. 115
CCSC-MUS............................................. 114
Edinburgh University Students 2............ 112
Waverley 2........................................... 108
Hatton............................................... 101
Tyne 2............................................... 65
Dean................................................. 62
Dalgety Bay 2........................................ 36

Tonight's result will be a big hit for the students, and max points for Grange.

Wednesday 10 January 2007

Old Boys vs. Dean

Mark Dutton took on Patrick Jones at #5 string. He kept the ball tight throughout and while it was a closely contested match, Mark kept control to win 9-4,9-4,9-3.

At #4, Stokesy was still thawing out on Court 2 in the first game and #4 Niki Griffiths played clean winners for a seven point start before Alan staged a comeback to take it 9-7. This took it's toll and Niki deservedly won the next game before Alan shaded a crucial set-2 third game 10-8 and went on to close out 9-3.

Christy at #3 was in command of Alan Barbour's game in the first two and withstood a comeback in the third after going into exhibition mode; 9-1 9-1 9-7.

Gerald Suggett shook off the rust against #2 Ross Anderson who almost capitalised in the first two. Gerald steadied the ship and got enough of a lead to play some audacious top-spin drops; 9-7 9-7 9-1. Needless to say, the running chat during the game also kept the balcony entertained.

Dougie also got off to a bad start against #1 Ian Walford, in the first game he had a long comeback from 2-7 down to take it on "set-2". The match went up and down the backhand with Dougie now getting the better of the exchanges to win 10-8 9-4 9-5.

Overall a 5-0 win, we progress to the Over-35 final where either David Lloyd or Hatton old boys await us. Dean's new all-glass function room was the splendid setting for the pizza feast.

Friday 5 January 2007

Mini-leagues now available online

An archive of past mini-leagues will be kept, you will be able to click here soon to check your results, figure out why you are languishing in the lower leagues or plot your way up to the Premiership.