Wednesday 27 October 2010

Grange 4 home v Colinton Castle 3 - Tuesday 26th October 2010

Or..."Unaccustomed as we are to public beatings…."

The 4ths long winning streak from last season finally came to an end against strong CCS3 side last night at the Academy.

Alan Stokes went on first at no1 knowing that Eric Donohoe was likely to be a handful, and so he was. The first game was over pretty quick smart with Alan managing only a handful of handouts. The second was a lot more competitive but Alan was still generally just off Eric's game and despite managing to draw level at seven a-piece at one point Eric stepped up a gear and closed that one out. The third (and unfortunately final) game was Alan's best and a high quality one all round. Alan came out of the blocks to a quick 5-1 lead followed by a long period of tough squash with Alan applying all of the tricks of the trade to see him with a game point at 8-6. Right at the death Eric turned on a spurt of good form and raced off the four points in a row he needed to close out the match. A 0-3 loss for Alan.

Mark Dutton was on at no2 against a very useful James Burnet. He came out of the blocks in good form to race to a 4-0 lead before James hit back with a similar good streak to square at 4-4. That was the last point James was to see though with another tight period from Mark picking that game up. James more than returned the favour in the second with some excellent tight boasting allowing Mark only a meagre few handouts for his troubles. The next two games were very competitive with both players dominating for periods of the games. Both games got to 6-6 but James always looked the more likely to go on with it and he took both. A 1-3 loss for Mark.

At no4 Mike Gore had a good struggle with John Hamilton. John's excellent touch was giving Mike troubles at some points in the match but Mike was equally putting John in trouble with good width and length. The early games went 4-9, and 10-8, 9-10 but unfortuantely Mike injured a shoulder muscle while serving near the end of the third. He persevered but the difference showed as he was no longer able to move John around the court as he had and the 2-9 final game score was virtually inevitable. It would only be fair to point out that John was having some troubles with a back injury during the game too. The battle of the crocks ended in a 1-3 loss for Mike.

At no 5 Andy Whitelaw had an even contest against Mark Williamson. The first two games were shared 7-9 and 10-9 but after that it got away from Andy a little bit and by his own post-match assessment he felt he was just a little to slow round the court to cope with Mark's pace and he ended up on the wrong end of 3-9 and 2-9 games. A 1-3 loss for Andy.

The final match was the best of the evening with Grange's Mr 100% (Gordon Sloan) taking on the very capable Colin Grant at no3. A tight first game went to Colin 7-9 but after that the pattern of the match was an increasing dominance by Gordon saw him begin to push Colin around the court more and more to a point where the majority of the rallies had Colin forced into a series of stretched retrievals that gave him little chance to mount attacks of his own. Gordon took the second 9-3 and then the third was a closer 9-7 as Colin increased his efforts to get back into the game. The final game from Gordon was probably the best that this particular reporter had seen him play for the teams. A faultless display of crisp tight hitting and court position that Colin simply couldn't compete with on the day to close the match out at 3-1 (and maintain his 100% record for the Grange in all competitions…).

Overall an 8-18 loss for the 4ths against a good CCS3 side. (report: M Dutton)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Alan applying all of the tricks of the trade", this sounds ominous...

Christy said...

Apparently so. I believe the (home) referee had to be strong and did a good job, plus Eric blocked out the nonsense too.

Anonymous said...

Well Eric was in good refereeing hands. Will the captain be putting forward our man for an honorary level 3 qualification?