Friday 18 December 2009

Artemis tournament

The entry form for the £10,000 2010 Artemis Open at Edin Sports Club on Wed Jul 28-Sun Jul 31 is available to download through the Grange Squash Club website so click here ;-). The event is open to all levels and graded events will be monrad which gaurantees a good number of games.

The Open usually attracts a high standard with Peter Barker ( world no.9 ) and Vicky Botwright winning last years event

So there is some great squash to watch as well!! Closing date is Jan 8.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Results of 3rd Winter Minileague

This was another busy league, though activity levels were a bit down on the previous league - quite a few injuries and a few people citing work pressures as a reason for not playing their games. Still 181 games were played - the second highest in recent times.

The results of the league are here ..... 2009 Winter League 3

Well done to leagues 6, 7, 11 and 12 for all playing maximum games. The most competitive of these was definitely League 11, where everyone won 2 or more games. Alastair Ross won with 30 points and Ross McLennan was unlucky to come last with a very creditable 20 points!

Unbeaten players winning 4 or more games were Richard Van Lienden, new member Gordon Sloan, Stewart Robertson and young Joe Holborn, obviously too good for league 18!

Now that we have had 3 leagues, those in the running for Minileaguer of the Year are starting to become clear. All the contenders have played 100% of their games (there are 32 of those!) so going on total points score the top 3 are:

Richard Nisbet ... 93 points
Alastair Ross .... 90 points
Ian Fraser ....... 90 points

There are another 7 players who have scored 80 points or more, so lots of close competition. To have a chance of winning the overall prize, you will have to keep playing all your games! I am also looking for other justifications to award prizes - perhaps most improved player, or a category for new members - you'll just have to wait and see!

For the 4th league, we again have 109 players and a total of 18 leagues.

For those interested, here is the full set of new leagues ..... 2009 Winter League 4

I look forward to another busy and competitive league - there is an extra week this time to give you a chance to work off that Christmas pudding!

Enjoy your games

Dougie Brown

One is an international recording artist , the other a squash sensation...

They share the same taste in dodgy shirts...

















... but are we talking about Mika or Ian Green ?

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Thirds @ Edin Sports Club 5's(Thurs, Nov 10,'09)

Seed 5 - Mark Dutton v Jimmy (James Gill)
Mark played in the most entertaining match and despite dropping a game (and bringing shame on the whole team - see other results below), came through 3-1 in the end. Against a hard hitting opponent, Mark was able to use his superior skill, the corkscrew serve working its magic. There was even a mid-rally dive for old times sake. The highlight though had to be the end of the second game for Mark to go 2-0 up. On one of the rare occasions Mark mis-hit the ball, he effectively pinned himself to the side wall in trying to avoid it coming back and hitting him. Had his opponent stepped across, a stroke to him would have surely been awarded, but all of this happened too quickly for him to react. Oh how Christy and I laughed.

Seed 4 - Christy Looby v Nicky (Nick Waterman)
Unfortunately I did not see any of this match (being played at the same time as mine), but it was over relatively quickly. Christy was hitting the ball very cleanly in the warm-up (a point made by ESC's no.1) against his (much) younger opponent and no doubt took advantage of the fact that boasts seemed to come off the front wall at quite acute angles…? (or did I imagine this?). Ed: Yes you imagined this ;-) However it was expensive night for Christy, first he broke the match ball, then he broke a string and finally he broke his spare racket at 7-8 down in the third. Which was motivation to win the third quickly, before he broke something on a borrowed racket in a fourth or fifth ;-)

Seed 3 - Dougie Brown v Callum MacKenzie
Dougie was a level above his opponent in this match, winning comfortably in three - 3-0. This was evidenced when I only caught half of the first game, told Dougie what he might think about doing differently and was kindly told to go away.

Seed 2 - Patrick Langley v Tony (Tony Newell)
After a nervous start, Patrick won two relatively close games before winning a quick third to take the match 3-0.

Seed 1 - Pete Cockburn v Tony Newell
This is as well as I have seen Pete play all season, looking comfortable at all times. His opponent had speed and fitness on his side, but to no avail - Pete coming through 3-0.

The food afterwards - pasta bolognaise and salad, was terrific as ever at the Sports Club, whilst talk centered around Tiger Woods and how we would have done things differently in his position (so to speak).

Another great win for the Grange thirds 5-0 in matches, 20-1 in points - one more win this season for an unbeaten first half! Man of the match?? - Mark Dutton for sheer entertainment value alone. Match report: Patrick

Thursday 10 December 2009

Fours home v Tyne 2's (Wed, Dec 9,'09)

Another good night's work from the revolving door Grange IV. Yet another changed team saw the IV's win at home to a competitive Tyne team 17-10.
Neil Love at #5 opened the night's matches with a relatively straightforward 3-0 defeat of South African Glenn. He was clearly in the mood to finish proceedings early to psyche himself up for his referee marker's test from Ron Pearman.
If ever their was a match not to mark it was Alan Stokes' #1 string game against Donald Smith. Needing only 6 right decisions out of 10 to satisfy the test he had reached the target within a game and half. Not only did Neil pass the test with flying colours (20 contentious calls) he also gave way to Raymond Jefferies who also passed in an often fractious match which Stokesey came through in 5.
On the other court Ian Forbes #2 had a competitive game against Raymond which whilst closely fought saw the Tyne man win in 4.
Pete Young played Chris at #3 and whilst they shared the opening games, Chris' cleaner hitting , particularly on the backhand saw him win through in 4.
This left Will Henderson at #4 to play Ian Dixon in the decider. Will was always on top and played good safe squash to win in 3.
The winning streak continues and hopefully we can see through to the end of the year in good form. A final league match on Friday 18th will inevitably be difficult to find 5 willing players but let' hope we can keep the run going.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Grange 3 @ Heriot Watt 2 Wednesday 02.12.09

With Grange suffering a few call offs this week and the students fielding a full team, this looked like it might be a tough one.

Neil Love stepped in at the last minute - it was a closely matched game, but not reflected in the final scoreline 0-3.
Ian Forbes and Richard Gordon played impressive squash on the glass court, both men forcing the other to retrieve from all corners. Ian remained ahead throughout, but a diagonal sprint and glancing collision spelled the end of fluid court coverage for Richard. Ian took it 3-1.
Alan Stokes played a David and Goliath match against Henry at 3. Another tight one, but Alan being David won 3-0.
Dougie was next in the fish tank and exhibited text book accuracy. Colin Gray fought hard, but had no answer in the end. Dougie winning 3-1.
Al's game was transformed by a new racquet (Titan GTi highly recommended) leading to a 3-0 win against Michael Ross to give an overall result of 4-1 and 17-5.

There was a good buzz with 2 student teams playing. We also had a special appearance from John Graham. Burgers in the union were just the ticket, but for the first time in 30 years, Stokesy passed on the hospitality and slipped away early. There are rumours of a woman - a possible explanation for the 2 losses before tonight...?

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Fours home v David Lloyd 2 (wed, Dec 2,'09)

An excellent night's competitive squash against David Lloyd 2's in Corstorphine.
Pete Young elevated to the lofty height of #1 seed struggled against the hard hitting and accurate Colin McCartney who with a house move pending and angry wife at home was in hurry to finish matters off. Pete gained the upperhand initially but Colin found his length to see him off in 3.

Meanwhile at #5 late stand in Bill had a nightmare start against Gillian Graham going 2 games down. He then managed to slow things down and get good length to put the David Lloyd #4 at the back of the court. A good tight third game went to Bill and then he eased home in 5.
Will Henderson came on at #2 feeling pretty ill and despite some excellent lobs and dropshots, lost the first game convincingly to Bob Clark. Will then changed tactics, playing harder and longer and triumphed in 4.

On the other court, Rocco played a marathon game against David Lloyd ladies player Elaine Inglis. A very see saw game resulted in the first four games shared before Rocco took hold of the fifth. He looked to winning this easily before Elaine got a second wind to take the game to 10. Rocco dug in and triumphed in the fisth 10-8.

Finally, new boy Richard played an excellent game against David Lloyd captain Andy Gabe. They played some amazing rallies and having such similar styles meant for a closely fought game with Richard winning in 4.

Overall, an excellent night for a scratch 4th team winning 17-11. Great resolve and effort particularly as we were 5-0 down before sniffing our first game. (Report P. Young)



Result 17-11 to Grange