Firsts home v Watsonians 3 (Wed, Oct 13,'10)

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Will Kerr	1	3	27			Alastair Carruth	0	0	3
2	Clive Allison	1	3	27			Hector Milne	0	0	9
3	Ian Green	1	3	27			Mike Callaghan	0	0	5
4	Robin Steel	1	3	35			Gordon Fruish	0	2	32
5	Richard Van Lienden	1	3	27			Andrew Forrest	0	0	5
Total		5	15	143				0	2	54
Competition Points		18						2

Having opened last season in mostly (Ian Green excepted) forgettable fashion against the Titans of Watsonians 1, this year's opener against Watsonians 3 was a slightly more enticing prospect.

Despite being without our own pocket Titan Allan Hamer and having lost two players to relocation and one to hopefully-temporary 'team squash retirement' since last season, the first four ties were won by Grange in convincing style – none lasting beyond 25 minutes - with the quality of the squash leaving this author wondering what he was doing in the same team.

Will Kerr's match at 1 was the shortest of the lot at just 17 minutes, never really taking his foot off the pedal. At 3, Ian Green continued his rapid emergence from Summer hibernation, as it were, with some excellent squash, the accuracy of his drops, including several deft cross-court dead-weighters off a high backhand, was just too much for Mike Callaghan.

Clive Allison looked solid at 2 leaving Hector Milne no chance in the first two games. But then came something of a momentum swing at the start of the third. A couple of sapping, hard-fought, high-quality rallies won by Hector developed into a real challenge for game 3, with Hector showing some excellent touch and impressive ball-striking – but ultimately to no avail as Clive edged over the line 9-7.

Richard van Lienden was up against Andrew Forrest at 5 who showed frequent glimpses of class, but in the end did not have the consistency to pose a real threat. As he said himself 'I know the theory', but tonight at least reality was another matter. At 4, while the pizza cooled upstairs,

Robin Steel had a prolonged battle with Gordon Furnish, who showed commendable alacrity in reaching the 'T' – usually arriving there about half a second before delivering his serve. After starting slowly in the first, Gordon got better and better as the match wore on, and Robin was lucky to escape with a 3-2 victory.

Final result: 18-2 to Grange 1. Report: Robin Steel