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.

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.

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).

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)

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.

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.

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.