Monday 19 December 2011

The second ladies on the rise...

Congrats to GRG2 Ladies, who not only improved their position over the previous leagues, they also beat two experienced teams in Tyne & Watsonians2 and topped the meals table afterwards.

Division 3 Results



Teams Ladder
TeamRound 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Bonus
Points
Total
Waverley 2 Comp Points 15151518 1612151314133
Games 12121215 1391210
95
Tyne Comp Points814315 14915 716101
Games811312 11912 7
73
Watsonians 2 Comp Points12 133128 81610082
Games9 10398 81310
70
Grange 2 Comp Points738 1314 914665
Games738 1311 911
53
Abercorn 2 Comp Points155 6815463 062
Games125 6812463
56

The captain's Xmas grog

9 teamsters competed for the grog this year. Rocco & Robin Pollok played as ex-Grog-winners & we welcomed back Duncan Walker.
In the A round robin of 4 players, Dougie Brown won while Mike Douglas came second. Mark Dutton similarly beat all in the B round robin of 5 players while Nick Wood ran up.
In the semi, Mike struck good form to end Mark's run and Nick was too strong for Dougie.
Nick won the final with Mike unable to keep the winners flowing.
Thanks to Peter Cockburn for sourcing a nice bottle of Bowmore for the prize.

Monday 12 December 2011

Grange ladies last match - the title at stake

Well Grange bt Waverley 4-1, 19-6. Click here for team list. So who does go down, and who wins overall, depends on CLASS v ESC happening simultaneously at Colinton Palace.
CLASS now need 17 or more to win, and ESC need 9 to stay up and send Waverley down.

CLASS bt ESC 17-6 :!:

CLASS win overall after a few years of Sports Club dominance, Sports Club now face 3 months in Div 2, if they had consistently had a qualified referee, they'd have stayed up!
Congrats to Kim Byers and her team and well played all 5 teams for such a tight sporting league.

Teams Ladder
TeamRound 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Bonus
Points
Total
C.L.A.S.S. 88 Comp Points12 159512 12161516112
Games9 12959 91312
78
Grange 1 Comp Points88913 81418 1716111
Games88910 81115 14
83
Watsonians 1 Comp Points916 1015111223 1694
Games913 101211923
69
Waverley 1 Comp Points 5151215 89541689
Games 512912 8954
64
Edinburgh Sports Club 1 Comp Points13125 4148 167887
Games1095 4118 137
67
Hard luck, the Grange girls and well fought. You might have lost out by 1 point this time, but this is a team on the up and your day will come.

2012 holds the promise of another tight league with Dalgety Bay coming up and Grange possibly introducing another signing to beat the transfer window.


Sunday 11 December 2011

Grange Ladies set for a breakout season finale THIS Mon

Ladies play Waverley at home on Mon Dec 12, in a dramatic finale to East Div 1 Oct-Dec 2011.
At the same time, at Colinton, C.L.A.S.S.1.9.8.8.l.o.t.s.o.f.f.u.l.l.s.t.o.p.s entertain Edin Sports Club. Whichever of the 2 home teams has a decisive win, will win the title. Conversely, whichever of the away teams has a decisive loss, will be relegated. Or the underdogs could both triumph overwhelmingly, to walk away with the prize.

Good luck, Go Grange girls! Some good squash to watch at Grange tomorrow night.

TeamRound 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Bonus
Points
Total
C.L.A.S.S. 88 Comp Points12 159512 1216 1293
Games9 12959 913 66
Grange 1 Comp Points88913 81418 1492
Games88910 81115 69
Watsonians 1 Comp Points916 1015111223 1492
Games913 101211923 69
Waverley 1 Comp Points 5151215 895 1281
Games 512912 895 60
Edinburgh Sports Club 1 Comp Points13125 4148 16 476
Games1095 4118 13 60

Friday 9 December 2011

Grange 5 vs Waverley 3


Last night was the eagerly awaited chance to beat the table-topping Waverley 3. Or not.
Played on the night of the storms, I was a little concerned to arrive at Accies to find the car park closed and most of the lights out. We parked on the main road and then risked life and limb to walk like a drunkard to the sports centre to find everyone else there waiting. Unfortunately, I'd left my bag in the car so had to make the trip twice more. Even St George's courts would have felt warm after that.

This week, our arctic adventurers were Mike (me), Neil Love, Dave Gibson, John Matthews and Bill Marshall.

First up were John and Bill. John, in only his second match, started well and seemed to have the measure of his opponent moving to 6-4 before an almighty crash with a wall left him impersonating Sylvester with little Tweety Pie's circling his head. This clearly impacted his game and it's probably best to pick this game up 19 points later with John 6-9, 0-9, 0-5. As the pain subsided he had a mini-rally to 4-6 before losing 4-9. Stiff shoulder, pained looks, but you should see the wall!

On the other court Bill was clearly intimidated by his opponents shots during the warm up. But as they started the match it felt pretty even. But while his opponent took a point here and there, Bill struggled to score on his serve and lost 1-9. The next two followed a similar pattern with Bill having plenty of serve opportunities, but not getting that run of points and went down 4-9, 4-9. Best of the action was a handful of precision drives straight to his opponents racket, who had given up on the back wall, when a drop would have been a winner. Key stat? 34 serves and only 9 points, it was a lot closer than the score suggests. 0-2.

Dave Gibson was next in his third ever match having won the first two comfortably. But his opponent was just too quick and crisp and the game was over in a trice 3-9, 0-9, 1-9.
Neil was meanwhile puting up a stronger show after losing the first 1-9. But his opponent was again too strong and that was over 4-9, 5-9.

So, 0-4 down and it was just after 8.30pm. We weren't sure if Franco's served pizza this early, so Neil went to check.

Last up me. Captain and facing a whitewash - no pressure then.

My opponent looked perky, not as in Pinky, but as in eager, quick, fast, lithe - you get the picture. The first game was cat and mouse and after 15 serves the score was 2-2. But some uncharacteristically tight play saw me pull into a lead and close it out 9-6. Phew, the quintuple bagel was off. The second was a similar game and was won 9-7. Now by this stage, my opponent hadn't broken sweat, which I wasn't sure was a good thing. The next game over quickly 1-9. Unfortunately, the next two were identical with close play to 4-4 before superior fitness and talent brought up 4-9, 4-9.

So, all in all just 4 points from the evening. But at least I managed to postpone the pizza call to a respectable time of the evening.

Worth closing with a comment about the great spirit the game was played in. Good game and good banter. Thanks guys, and good luck with promotion.

Mike
-

Thursday 8 December 2011

GRG1 Vs Waverly 1 (05 Dec 2011)

Was a chilly winters night when we rocked up to Waverly. Cold outside, nice and toasty inside in the new(ish) looking Waverly. The new courts were looking fantastic! Hopefully I'll be saying the same about the new grange ones sometime soon??

The heaters were blowing hard when Me and Nick Wood went on. I played David Munro who I have played before. Giving away a few years I had to resort to old man tactics to try and slow things down given the temp on court. Especially after I got blasted of the court in the first. Was kinda of working in the second as I went 7-3 up, after about 4 hours of rallies! Didn't make the most of it though. Pumped 3-0 in the end!

Nick next door up against Greg Nicholson, a man that seems to be expert in nearly every sport he plays! The heat seemed to be effecting Nick as well as long long rallies took their toll. Another long game but the same result 3-0 to Greg.

RVL finally popped his head over gallery towards the end of my match. At 1 he went straight on which was probably a mistake. By the time I got upstairs he was already 1-0 down against Scott Tulloch. Rich was playing pretty loose allowing Scott to power ahead. 9-2 to Scott in the second, not looking good! the start of the third saw Scott shift into overdrive which was a bit terrifying for me so I went to mark next door!. Surpirsed to hear Rich bagged that one! Unfortunately the come back wasn't on though. 3-1 to Scott

Big Robin Steel went on at 5 against Waverly's Andy Murray. Not a good season so far for Robin but I always new he had it in him. Tight drops massive drives, andy had nothing. the big man was back! 3-0 Boom!

Points on the board now so not a total disaster. Michael Grinton at 3 went up against Niven Simpson. Match of the night. Michael played superbly to clinch it 3-1. The match was swinging both ways. Either could have taken it but it was Michael who came through to make sure we got some more points on the board. Awesome!

Pizza and beer afterwards. Good laugh with the boys. will be looking forward to the return match. Time for a rest!

Hopefully we can field something slightly stronger next year. Been tough 1st half for the boys but big smiles all round means onwards and upwards for GRG1!

Pete

Grange 2 v David Lloyd Newhaven, Wed 7th Dec

It was never going to be an easy outing against a very good DLN1 side with every one of our players well below his opponent in Matrix rankings (as unreliable a guide as that can be…)

The Grange team started out very promisingly with Mark Dutton taking the 5th string match against Frenchman Gregory Leplatre 3-1. Gregory took the first game but then Mark wisely decided to go the "unorthodox" route with plenty of corkscrew serves and dives. That seemed to unnerve Gregory just enough to give Mark the edge…particularly the two point-winning dives in the last two rallies of the match.

Mike Gore likewise gave the Grange some hope when he was 2 games to 1 up against the useful Taryne Lowe . Taryne pegged him back though in the last two and Mike went down 2-3.

The remaining three matches were all very tough encounters indeed and I don't think any of the Grange players would mind if I just summarised by saying that while they all played very decent squash they were simply outclassed by better players on the night (results below). Each Grange player had periods where they matched their opponents but were never in with a realistic chance of taking a match given the way their respective opponents were playing.

A 7-18 loss for the troops….

PosPlayerRubbersGamesPoints PlayerRubbersGamesPoints
1Alan Stokes005Ali Fleming1327
2Allan Wallace009Ken Maxwell1327
3Gordon Sloan005Charles Robertson1327
4Mike Gore0228Taryne Lowe1336
5Mark Dutton1333Gregory Leplatre0121
Total1580413138
Competition Points5

Grange 2 v David Lloyd Newhaven 1 - 7th December 2011.

It was never going to be an easy outing against a very good DLN1 side with every one of our players well below his opponent in Matrix rankings (as unreliable a guide as that can be…).
The Grange team started out very promisingly with Mark Dutton taking the 5th string match against Frenchman Gregory Leplatre 3-1. Gregory took the first game but then Mark wisely decided to go the "unorthodox" route with plenty of corkscrew serves and dives. That seemed to unnerve Gregory just enough to give Mark the edge…particularly the two point-winning dives in the last two rallies of the match.

Mike Gore likewise gave the Grange some hope when he was 2 games to 1 up against the useful Taryne Lowe . Taryne pegged him back though in the last two and Mike went down 2-3.
The remaining three matches were all very tough encounters indeed and I don't think any of the Grange players would mind if I just summarised by saying that while they all played very decent squash they were simply outclassed by better players on the night (results below). Each Grange player had periods where they matched their opponents but were never in with a realistic chance of taking a match given the way their respective opponents were playing.
A 7-18 loss for the troops….

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Three's at Dean, Wed Dec 7

Across the cobbles at our neighbours. Richard Nisbet faced Ian Black at #5 for a 3-0 win. Christy got wiped out by Drew Mackenzie at #1. Even stevens so far. Or Shakin stevens if you were on court 2 ;-)
Dougie was getting beat to the punch by Matthew Hunter and 1 down, thought he scraped a game for the team, shading the third 10-9. Matthew comfortably took the next one, then inexplicably eased off on the pressure and Dougie saw out a surprise but welcome win.
Moff at 4 shaded the first 10-8 with David Thompson but a hard-hit turning ball by David saw Stu go into overdrive to win the other 2 comfortably.
Will Henderson at 3 against James Birkhead, giraffe-like in his reach. Easy peasy Will, throw up your best lobs and lobs serves, sure that will feed the beast. No chance, Will even threw in 5 clean serve aces to come back from 2-7 in 1 game, won 3-0.
Overall 4-1 17-7 to keep us in contention for escaping relegation in the second half. If we pull that off, we'll be the Lazarus team of the East. Just need to complete personal terms with the big name signing before the transfer window.
Francos pizza and ginger beer in the sun lounge, just like a good night at Grange. I managed to stayt sober, by leaving before swigging the ginger beer.(Report Loob)

Grange 4 v Dalgety Bay 4, More ladies please…….

Not a lot to be said about this extremely poor performance by the 4's. The whole evening was a bit of a shambles with very poor performances seeing all the guy's lose 3-0 and needlessly throw away points.

Thankfully Donna was on hand to spare the team blushes with an excellent battling performance to win 3-2 at number 5 against an opponent who couldn't come to terms with her variations in play finding good length amongst some fantastic boasts. I think rest of the ladies team would have put up a much better performance had they turned out instead of the male contingent tonight.

It is a pity the Christmas break didn't arrive a week earlier however a few weeks off will give us all a chance to recharge the batteries. (Report: David Grieve)


Pos

Player

Rubbers

Games

Points

Player

Rubbers

Games

Points

1

David Grieve

0

0

14

Colin Boswell

1

3

27

2

Tom McEwan

0

0

4

Stephen Literacki

1

3

27

3

Dean Wood

0

0

8

Willie Shultz

1

3

27

4

Mike Slack

0

0

9

Stuart Greg

1

3

28

5

Donna Cruikshank

1

3

40

Scott Drummond

0

2

35

Total

1

3

75

4

14

144

Competition Points

3

17