Thursday 26 May 2011

Racketballers home v Waverley(Thur 26/6/11)

Jordan Fleming was fresh from taking out the club champion and the club champ r-up this week on the squash court(*). So true to form he sunk without trace against Colin Cruickshank, who is the de facto Waverley #1 racketballer.
Brian Sloan made his racketball team debut at 7pm versus Neil Kempsell. The first rally was a long one. The next rally was a loooooong one. The next rally was this lllLLLLoooOOOO....
..
..
OOOooonnnNNNgggGGGG. So were all the rallies.
They finished one hour 20 minutes later... Neil wanted to concede at 19-20 in the fifth but was told by Brian to stay on court until he was two clear.
Luckily the 3rd court came free. Dean saw off the Waverley #5 3-0.
Steve Eyles had a long 3-2 debut win over Bruce Ferguson... and took one for the team when Bruce hit him with the ball. Jordan played a second time at #7 and beat Peter Cochrane 3-0.
Guy Tulloch at #6 was 2-1 up on Dominic Risi when his opponent conceded with a ballooning elbow. Guy played best-of-3 with Peter Cochrane, an even match considering Peter has only ever played once before.
Christy finished at #1 against John Allan who should probably have been at 3 or four on the line-up was it not for the captain being late picking up Dean and his curry out on Gilmerton Rd and matches already having started out of order. If this was squash, we'd have to dock ourselves 18 points.

Our first win of our first campaign. All this training must be paying off.
Dean supplied a hot Hot HOOOOTTTTT veggie curry with naan and lashings of rice. Talk turned to roasting Donald Trump[1], [2], plus meeting Lucinda Ledgerwood off The Apprentice and the children's panel, eclectic topics as usual!

(*) The ladies club champ and the ladies R-up!
Here is The RacketBall Matrix, at least as far as our matches are concerned, as requested in the comments...

Monday 23 May 2011

Ex-liverpool player/manager in club champions final



One is a competitive, plain-speaking and hard-tackling player... and the other is Graeme Souness ;-)

Thursday 19 May 2011

Club champion is a demon in the kitchen....



Nicholas Watt is group executive chef of Roka and chief operating officer overseeing global expansion for the restaurant.

From sophisticated foodies and celebrities to those just looking to enjoy a good meal with friends, Watt consistently impresses.

A New Zealander by birth, Watt moved to London in 2004 to take the position of executive chef at the flagship Roka. In 2005, a year after opening, the restaurant was named Oriental Restaurant of the Year at the Tio Pepe Awards.


Allan Hamer
is three-time Grange Squash club champion. He purports to be working off the coast of Africa just now, but he has a secret second life, putting on a kiwi accent and cooking sushi.
"You must have spied a lookalike as I've been on a rig off the coast of Cameroon"
Aye, right. All the time you told Ali G you couldn't play for the first team 'cos you were toiling offshore, you were actually schmoozing with the foodies in Lahndan.
Interviewed in TheOnion.com, his wife Charlotte complained that "Allan doesn't spend much time in their kitchen" and that when she asked him about smelling of cooking oil, he'd said "No, that is crude". (Additional reportage: Bill Marshall)
(OK, it has been a slow week on the squash courts and racketball was postponed a week)

Friday 13 May 2011

Over 35 plate final home v Abercorn(Thurs, May 12)


Abercorn rocked up with their big guns and the plate they won against us last year.
This year, Ally Mackenzie was playing 3 places lower so we knew this was gonna be tough. Steve Eyles at #5 was freshly back from NZ and playing well to turn and turn Ally... still went to 5 and Steve edged it. Over on ct3, Andy Whitelaw faced Ian Ross with Andy cutting in some great drops and Ian doing some great hold boasts. Again went to 5, this time Ian had more in the tank.

Dougie Brown at #3 took on Gordon Steel who was having none of the quips about looking too young for O-35. Dougie's analysis was that he moved Gordon about well but the guy was so fast that every time it ended in the front court, Gordon won the point: 0-3.
Christy at #2 faced another leftie legend from the Emerald Isle, Brian Montgomery. This too went every-other-game with Monty running away with the fifth.
Stokesy played A B Russell, known to the cricketers as Sprout. Bruce just had too much class and Stokes by his own admission got pumped. 0-3. Overall 4-1 to Abercorn so they retained the plate and we got the Franco's cardboard pizza box. A good competitive tie with guys that enjoy their squash.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Racketballers at Hatton(Tue May 9)

The famous five made the trip out the A71 in Derek's plush pimp-mobile. Guy Tulloch was on at #5 against Fred, I didn't see it but Guy reckoned Fred was taking it easy and still closed out 3-0. Dean Wood at #4 was up against an eternal running machine Dave. Dave just kept dollying it back and running everything down and to Dean's credit, he stayed in all the long rallies and there were lots. They all ended either with Dave glueing the ball to the wall or Dean tinning it after 50 shots: 0-3.

Dean went on again at #6 and kept improving with some good drops and patience to beat Jim 3-0. Derek played #3 and was unlucky to lose a tight first game, lost heavily in the second and got close for the third again: 0-3.

Jordan Fleming at #2 was up against Malcolm Mitchell who just smacked it low and hard to take it 3-0. Christy Looby smacked it low 'n hard against Nick Tinning, so low that he was the one doing the tinning: 0-3.

Penne pasta 'n chicken served by Fred, followed by flapjacks and choccy-bars. The talk somehow turned to Derek dressed as a tranny, cruising in the pimp-mobile, not a pleasant image.

Classic comment from Guy on the drive home when discussing team performance (or lack of them) so far: "Always remember this is just a stupid game"

Thursday 5 May 2011

The Grange squash Stag down-under!

The captain-elect has been scouring the globe for talent for next season's assault on the Division 1 title. Journeymen as far away as Brisbane are being induced to join the quest....

One particular journeyman has given a committment, in exchange for a performance team shirt and a weekly pizza delivery.
Watsonians, ESC and the other pretender's to the title are already quaking in their squash shoes.

Racketballers home v Colinton (Tue, May 5)

When any Colinton team turn up with Adam Lord at #3, the portents do not look good. We even had a home support for this match, with Matt Pearson, Mike Dougall and Al Mackie staying on to see what this new-fangled game was like.
Derek Addison made his debut at #4 against Colinton captain Gorgeous George Purves. Derek used his formidable reach to stay in a lot of rallies he had no right to and the first game went 14-14 with Derek just losing by the odd point. George turned up the wick in the second with some sumptuous drop shot. In the third, Derek was 12-8 up and looking likely to get that one but a few soft point allowed George to catch up and George closed out 3-0 from there.
Guy Tulloch on his debut at #5 playing an experienced opponent. Guy was unlucky not to get a game out of this as he played well and pushed his man all the way in the 3 games. Meanwhile on the other court, Ali Ross was playing, respendant with baseball hat, against Bill. No ceiling shots mentioned this time, Ali captured the first game ever for the team, going down 1-3.
Dean played Dave Cook at #2 and by his own admission, all his shots looped up rather than flattening most of them. Dave flattened them for him, crosscourt, straight, it didn't matter, Dean was left floundering. 0-3.
Eagerly anticipated was the #3 battle, Jordan Fleming playing agains Adam Lord who had never struck a racketball before. The balcony gathered for this one, lots of entertainment with 2 extroverts in the same confined space. I can't say any more, apart from the score was 0-3. Cap'n George said afterwards that if he himself had played at #3 against Jordan instead, he'd probably have lost, which I take as a compliment to how well Jordan played against a very strong opponent.
Christy took on someone down on the team sheet as Richard McBride, but he was playing with his left hand, didn't argue and spoke with an Edinburgh accent.
It might as well have been Richard 'cos Roddy toyed with Christy and had him breathing out his a**e most of the time... the rest of the time Christy would tin it after 20 shots in order to get a break and breathe normally. 0-3.
Overall 1-18 which is an improvement over last time out. MoTM Ali Ross. Garlic bread followed, followed by pasta in asucculent sauce for vegetarian Dean and pasta 'n ham in a succulent sauce for the rest. Roddy had a fire to put out, which probably got him more out of breath than his match. In the bar, Ali Ross tapped Dean's and Christy's brains for manufacturing ideas for his new world-enslaving wonder game, wot doesn't involve rackets.