Friday 30 January 2009

Results of 2008 Winter League 4

Another very busy league with 15 leagues and 92 players involved. However, once again a number of injuries took players out and so total games played was steady at 161.

The results of the league are here ..... 2008 Winter League 4

Some very competitive leagues again. League 5 was particularly close with places 3, 4 and 5 all on 25 points. Don't ask me to explain how I sorted that one out! The top 3 in league 7 were only separated by a point. Christy Looby showed signs of a return to form, edging promotion back to league 2, while Michael Scott was very decisive in bouncing back from injury to take league 4 with 5 straight wins. Other players gaining promotion with an unbeaten record were Ian Forbes, Andrew Claymore, David Gillespie (again), Darren Hall(again) and Ian Roberts(again!). Frances Reid-Rowland also made a decisive move out of the bottom league with 4 wins out of 5.

In the points tally, Andrew Claymore has jumped into the lead with 126 points, ahead of Alastair Ross (118) and Will Henderson (117). There are 4 players who have managed a maximum 20 games so far, but many more have a 100% record, when injuries are taken into account. Overall we have 31 players who have played at least 4 games in each of the first four leagues - great commitment to keeping the leagues active - well done!

We have a net increase of two players this time, with 8 new members coming in and 6 dropping out through injury or other reasons.

For those interested, here is the full set of new leagues ..... 2008 Winter League 5

This league is a great chance to sharpen up your squash and your fitness ahead of the club tournament in March. Good luck and enjoy your games!

Dougie Brown

Firsts @ Linlithgow (Wed, Jan 28,'09)

Will Kerr had a convincing win at #5. His opponent lobbed him right into the back corner in one rally, Will rose majestically and middled it into a rolling nick in the front corner, the whole balcony went "wow!".

Mike Perring lost at #4, Chris lost 1-3 at #3 but Brian Buchanan won at #2. This left Ian Green to bring home the bacon at#1 and he did so in convincing style against Roy Miller.

Overall 15-9 keeps us in touch with the top of the table.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Seconds home v Heriot Watt Uni 2 (Wed, 28.01.09)

Tonight's games lifted the spirits a little after last week's hammering by Dalgety Bay. But our rivals ESC and Mammas won't drop any points against these guys, so we couldn't afford to either. Or as Stokesy observed "If we don't take 20 points here we deserve a good kicking..."

Centre stage with Vince Dobbin, Stokesy dominated and opened the score line with 9-0. It was something of a surprise then to run to five games, and by this point things may not have appeared in total control to the untrained eye. Point no. 20 was looking shakey for a moment, but Stokesy knew it was never in doubt and bagged it 3-2.

The rest of us all won 3-0. Dougie played Russell Hobson, who had a 2-3 marathon with Christy last half. Al played Bruce Davies. Robert played Christina Graham - some superb rallies here. And Mike played a solid game at no. 1 against Mark Rotton.

Thereafter we retired to the committe room with table service by Franco.

Overall 5-0 (20-4 on points).

Next week we have a bye, so will be down for training. More work on drop shots needed - 8.30 Tuesday.

Thursday 22 January 2009

Seconds away v Dalgety Bay 2 (Wed, Jan21 '09)

Many times we have played the overseas fixture at Dalgety Bay against the same old familiar faces, but tonight they produced two new players. Dougie and Mike drew the short straws and found themselves up against star opponents.

Dougie played the newcomer Neil Shepperd at no. 4, who had Hamer style and is clearly their no.2 for next week. Dougie pulled out all the stops, the squash was TV standard, but 0-3 to Grange.

Mike Hall played secret weapon Richard Northern at no.1. Richard was a class act, incredibly relaxed inspite of Mike's frenetic attacks. Great entertainment, but 0-3.

At 5 Pete Cockburn came close to beating Alan Jones, but Alan somehow disrupted Pete's flow to take it 3-2.

Robert took on his first half opponent, the formidable Gerry Burton. It's difficult to see how to beat this old timer. Nothing gets past him, and he can finish a rally from anywhere. 1-3.

Al met Craig Pounder for a Grange Open grudge match, took the first but no more, narrowly missing the 3rd and 4th. 1-3.

Overall we lost 0-5, 6-20 on points.

Then on to the cosy Hillend Tavern for sweet and sour chicken. Conversation ranged from Craig's choice of on-court nightwear to who stole Mike's dress socks.

Dalgety Bay are set to move up the league with their new players. A good win against Herriot Watt next week should rebuild our confidence. The following week is a bye - Pfab, Cockburn and I are nominated for dropshot practice. Our nearest rivals are ESC4 and Mammas who we play in the last 2 weeks.

Firsts home v Dunbar (Wed, Jan21 '09)

A very comfortable win for the mighty Grange against a very weak Dunbar team, so weak in fact they only turned up with four players! So Patrick Langley's first outing for the first team was a 9-0 9-0 9-0 thrashing of A.N Other.

The other games were in a similar vein:

Will Kerr beat Alan Murphy 9-0 9-1 9-0
Mike Perring beat Philip Revell 9-2 9-2 9-2
Brian Buchanan beat Evan Green 9-1 9-0 9-2
Ian Green beat David Legge 9-6 9-1 9-6

Overall 20 - 2

Felt a bit sorry for the guys from Dunbar as they are missing four first team regulars at the moment and had to call upon non team members who knew they were on a hiding to nothing. Still some good banter in the bar afterwards and they seemed to enjoy the pizza so not all was lost.

Man of the match goes to Patrick as everyone else dropped at least one point. (Report: M.P.)

Monday 19 January 2009

Thirds @ Edin Sports Club 5 (Thurs, Jan 15,'0)

Happy new year to all our supporters, lurkers and commenters.

The 10 of us players were the only people around the squash courts at ESC at peak-time Thurs night. Either everyone else at the club was still recovering two weeks after hogmanay... or squash is in an even worse state than I feared.
#5 Mark Dutton played Sean Morgan and, a few dives aside, was in his comfort zone; 3-1. Russell at #4 in his last team match before departing for Canada played some sublime stuff against Richard Kent to end on a winning note; 3-0.

Patrick Langley at #2 got everything back against his hard-hitting opponent Graham Hunter 3-0. Peter Cockburn at #3 was too lively early-on for ex-Granger Roy Harley but Roy rescued a tight third game before Peter re-asserted himself in the fourth; 3-1.

Christy from the Irish Republic faced Michal Jilek from the Czech Republic at #1. He was outclassed by in the first two by Michal but the third was closely fought, still lost 0-3.

Overall 4-1, 15-5 to consolidate our #2 position on the leaderboard.
As usual, the pasta bake at ESC was scrumptious and the conversation surreal, ranging from the latest blockbuster films to hillwalking to "Saving Gazza". (report C.L.)

Thursday 15 January 2009

First Half Team Results

Grange 1 stand only 3 points behind the leaders, Waverley 1. If we keep this going, Grange will feature in Division 1 for the first time since 1984/5.

Grange 2 are 3rd from bottom of division 3. This is relegation territory, but it's only 5 points to catch ESC4 and 16 points to Dalgety Bay 2. Watch this space for a second half recovery...

Grange 3 are in 2nd place behind Inveresk, but closely followed by ESC5 and Waverley 4. Tonight they beat ESC5 4-1, so have widened the gap.

Great results thus far. For the latest updates see the ESSA website: http://essasquash.co.uk/results.html

OPEN League : Division  2  : Results received by : 31/12/2008

MATCHES TIES POINTS
-------------- ------ -----------------------
TEAM P W L D W L F A Referee TOTAL
---- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- --- ------- -----
Waverley 1.. ............... 8 7 1 0 32 8 99 34 16 136
Grange 1.................... 8 7 1 0 29 11 98 50 14 133
Colinton Castle 2........... 8 6 2 0 24 16 84 62 16 118
Linlithgow 1................ 8 3 5 0 21 19 83 71 14 106
Tyne 1...................... 8 5 3 0 22 18 72 68 16 103
Edinburgh Sports Club 3..... 8 3 5 0 19 21 72 81 14 95
Watsonians 3................ 8 2 6 0 13 27 57 92 12 75
Watsonians 2................ 8 1 7 0 12 28 52 95 8 63
Dunbar 1.................... 8 2 6 0 8 32 38 102 8 52


OPEN League : Division 3 : Results received by : 08/01/2009

MATCHES TIES POINTS
-------------- ------ -----------------------
TEAM P W L D W L F A Referee TOTAL
---- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- --- ------- -----
Edinburgh Uni Students 2 8 8 0 0 37 3 113 29 16 153
Waverley 2.................. 8 6 2 0 28 12 97 57 10 125
David Lloyd Leith........... 8 4 4 0 22 18 91 67 16 119
Mamma's Pizzeria............ 8 5 3 0 24 16 83 62 16 114
Dalgety Bay 2............... 8 5 3 0 21 19 84 70 12 111
Edinburgh Sports Club 4..... 8 4 4 0 19 21 72 83 16 100
Grange 2.................... 8 3 5 0 19 21 70 81 16 95
Abercorn 1.................. 8 1 7 0 6 34 39 109 16 58
Heriot-Watt University 2.... 8 0 8 0 4 36 21 112 14 35

OPEN League : Division  5  : Results received by : 20/12/2008

MATCHES TIES POINTS
-------------- ------ ---------------
TEAM P W L D W L F A TOTAL
---- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- --- -----
Inveresk........................... 7 7 0 0 29 6 92 32 113
Grange 3........................... 7 5 2 0 25 10 83 41 98
Edinburgh Sports Club 5............ 7 5 2 0 22 13 79 49 94
Waverley 4......................... 6 4 2 0 21 9 68 45 80
Dalgety Bay 3...................... 7 1 6 0 9 26 46 82 49
Dunbar 2........................... 6 2 4 0 9 21 38 72 44
Waverley 3......................... 6 1 5 0 8 22 39 73 42
Tyne 2............................. 6 1 5 0 7 23 26 77 29

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Grange v Grange

Brian, Al, Richard and Mark - v - Will, Patrick, Jonathan and Pete Cockburn.

Great games and marathon efforts made by all. After the first 3 matches the team score was 7-6, setting up Brian "Don't take ME on in a dropshot competition" Buchanan and Will Kerr to thrash out the decider.

Will dominated the first 2 games with outstanding play 9-0, 9-1. Brian looked dead in the water against Will's constant pumelling, but found form and turned it into an epic five setter. The nail biting fifth went 9-7 to Brian. Top stuff and a full balcony suitably entertained!

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Seconds v David Lloyd Leith (Tues 13.01.09)

Richard Van Lienden made a debut appearance tonight at no. 5 against Dave McCaul. A very close first game, but the second and third dominated by Richard. 3-0, our only win.
Michael Scott took an impressive 2-0 lead on Matt Ross, but ended 2-3. A good result against Matt nonetheless.
Dougie got 2-3 against Taryne Lowe.
Al lost 0-3 to Alistair Flemming.
Will looked like he would take out Ken Maxwell, but was plagued by uncharacteristic errors and it wasn't to be. 0-3.

Overall 1-4. 9-17 on points. A strong side from David Lloyd, third in the league. An improvement on the first half result 6-20 against the same players, but we need to do more to stay up...