Fitness & Long racket rallies: squash/badminton or tennis ?

Possibly controversial...

The Australian Open semi between our Muzza and the Joke-ovic was good, it even included 2 40+ shot rallies.

I submit this squash video of World #1 Nick Matthew v Daryl Selby in the Swedish Open to show that 44-shots was just half the length of the rally. 75+ shots. 1:50 mins. And they just played on, no taking a rest for a minute, then bouncing the ball 20 times before serving again. Serve again in 10 secs.

Here is the Australian Open tennis video (skip to 4:40-5:45to avoid the fluff)

Does anyone from Dyvours think that a male world tennis pro could stand toe-to-toe with with a squash pro, based on this evidence?

And that is without allowing the 50-60 seconds Nole/Rafa take between points compared to 5 sec max between points in squash or badminton. Never mind fiddling with the net cord rule on serve, enforce the 20 sec rule, tennis. If is 60 secs at the changeover, not between points.

What chance has Murray got when Djokovic and Nadal view every rally as a 60 sec break for towelling, crack-picking and ball bouncing.

For the record, here is the badminton one which is even better than the squash one and really shows up tennis...

Caption Competition 2012

Captions please.... just fill in a comment and just put your name in the Name/URL field.

Free squash bauble for the best one!

Pic is of Grange #1 & Pro Coach Kevin Moran (in grey top) v Gareth Naidoo at the Artemis Edinburgh Open

Ali Ross in Barbarians/HWU Doppelgänger Mishap

Apologies for the tardiness of this report for last week's Barbarians match - I've only just recovered enough to be able to write it. Last week's team was Richard Nisbet, Mike (me), Pete Young, Matt Pearson and Sicknote Grieve.

We arrived at Heriot-Watt on a wet and windy evening to be told that they had forgotten to book courts. But not to worry, they'd called Ali Ross who was trying to get some bloke called Pete Cockburn - all was in hand. Thinking it was a shame for Ali to get drawn into this - given how much else he does for the club - I texted Ali to say not to worry and that I would deal with it. But Ali (sounding a little confused) checked that the Accies courts were free and sent me the number to say we'd head there to play. The HWU guys then set about working out who could head into town to play and who still had homework to do. Things got a bit more confusing when they said they'd spoken to Ali Ross who was trying to sort transport. Above and beyond the call of duty I would say. I was just about to call Ali to apologise for all the hassle when a fair faced youth introduced himself as Ali Ross - playing number one for HWU. What're the chances of that?

As one of their team hadn't done his homework yet, Dave Grieve stayed to play his game at HWU and the rest of us headed into town.

By the time we arrived Dave had texted to say he'd won 3-0. And it wasn't long before Matt has shown great steel and determination to grind out a 3-0 victory; 2-0 to the Barbarians.

Peter was next on court and took the first as I went on court. When I came off having lost 3-0 in reasonably tight games against a player just too good, Pete was just 2-1 up. His opponent was beginning to get his range and it was soon 2-2. But in one of the grittiest performances of the season, Pete prevailed and we had won the match - fantastic result.

Lastly was Richard against Ali's doppelgänger. This was a bit crazy as Richard went down in 3. That's points. The young Ali was simply too fast and we wondered what the h*** he was doing in Division 5. Poor Richard didn't even get the chance to get warm.

Still, a great victory 14-8 against one of the Division's top sides.

Looking forward to next week already.

Mike

p.s. If it makes Richard feel any better, he might like to know that their Ali Ross won the previous week playing number 5 in Division 1 - and hasn't lost a match since last March !!!

p.p.s We had to buy our own tea - typical students.

Mike

Threes home v Dunbar (Thurs, Jan 26)

Happy campers arrived at Dunbar which was mercifully clear of snow. Christy played David Legge first so he could be home early for brownie points and compete at the Artemis at the weekend.
Strange game with Christy stiff as a board to lose the first, then Dave slowed up to lose the second then Christy went AWOL to lose the next two.
Richard Nisbet looked like he was in for a long tough match as the first game took 10 minutes,
but by then had got the upperhand and closed out the next 2 games.
Andy Whitelaw was hitting some great boast against Allan Ramsay but lost out in 4. Gavin was hitting and moving well against Alasdair but his nemesis shot (the one into the tin) came to haunt him as he lost in 4.
Dougie played Graeme Jones who was also Artemis-bound. Dougie played some great shots but any
thing slow or short and Graeme cut it off. After taking a close first game, Graeme closed it out 3-0.
Overall 5-20. Baked tatties with 4 toppings curry, cheese, tuna or egg-mayo to choose from.
Most of the chat was about the pros playing in the Artemis and anecdotes of players losing it on court.

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Christy Looby	0	1	10			David Legge	1	3	29
2	Dougie Brown	0	0	6			Graeme Jones	1	3	27
3	Andrew Whitelaw	0	1	25			Allan Ramsay	1	3	32
4	Gavin Fulton	0	1	23			Alistair Nichol	1	3	30
5	Richard Nisbet	0	0	16			James Cunningham	1	3	28
Total		0	3	80				5	15	146
Competition Points		3						18

GRG1 V Dalgety Bay 2 (17 Jan 2012)

Slightly better result from last week. New number one doing the biz!!

Two's at Edin Uni Studs 1 (Wed, jan 25)

Reporter 1:

· Golden goblet of fire goes to Mike as man of the match for boasts tighter than two coats of paint

· Alan Stokes ‘same old performance’

· Tired motions from the captain "not-so-braveheart" Wallace trailing in the wake of better shots and stamina from the opposing no. 3 – never in the hunt

· Ominous omen for Sloan Ranger and Wallace for this weekend’s Artemis – fatted calves have been bought for sacrificing to the squash gods

Reporter 2:

· History repeating – Edinburgh Uni 1’s pumped us last week so last night wasn’t totally unexpected!

· Mike’s game was good at #5 and he showed resilience at the front of court with tricky drops. His opponent (surely half his age?!) had no reply.

· Mark, you must get something for your three spectacular dives towards the front wall!

· Sloppy (but not Giuseppe) - I think the lame pizzas should also get a mention!

Reporter 3: Did the technical coaching tip below work?

Mark/Mike – get listening to Eye of the Tiger now so that you’re adequately pumped up.

	Home Team: Grange 2					Away Team: Edinburgh University 2
Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points		Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Gordon Sloan	0	0	9		Mahmoud Moaz	1	3	27
2	Alan Stokes	0	2	36		Dominic Gaffney	1	3	35
3	Allan Wallace	0	0	10		Elliot Bourge	1	3	27
4	Mark Dutton	0	1	13		Richard McClay	1	3	35
5	Mike Gore	1	3	35		Moishe Steinbok	0	1	28
Total		1	6	103			4	13	152

GRG1 Vs Dalgety Bay 1 (25 Jan 2011)

Well what can I say. With results like these it is with good reason the 1s keep their results to themselves!!

Ian Forbes played Mike Sutherland at 5 and had the most success of the night almost taking it to 5! None the less putting a point on the board for the boys with enough for us!

Next door at 4 I got wiped by Ian Paltiel. 2 less points than last week. Didn't get a bloody serve until the second game!

RVL was up against Richard "the machine" Northin at 2. A rematch from the first half where RVL picked up a game in close fought encounter. The machine had been tuned up and was ready for Rich. Rich fought well but the Bay man was on clinical form. 3-0.

Allan Hamer back with us for the second time this season was hopeful of claiming a game this time against Alan Tasker. Zero points in the first not looking so hot! Al nabbed a point in the second which i missed. By the time a re-joined in the third Tasker was in mischievous mood and was playing some crazy shots. Craig Pounder marking -"Howay man ya cannae day that !" But he did! 3-0!

Will K rocked up to tackle John Meadley - Hooray!

Will again showing more signs of his old self but was never going to be enough against a player of John's quality, 3-0

Our combined points tally was probably not even enough to win a match but we enjoyed ourselves none the less, sort of. Good banter back at the Hillend Tav! Night not a total bust!

Pete

Archive: mini-league 4, season 2011-12(final standings)

Here is a record of Winter League 4 showing the final standings, if you want to track your progress. Click here for all previous mini-leagues
"I'm pleased to say the last league was even more active than the previous with 192 games played, despite it being the holiday period. Let's see if we can keep this up for the rest of the season as it does help people to find the right level and get better games. " D.Brown (Grange League Sec.)

Click in the frame and scroll down to see your particular league. Or use this link for a fullscreen view.

Grange 2nd Ladies at ESC2(Mon, Jan 23)

Captain Caroline was 2-0 up and serving well despite the low ceiling but ran out of legs in the fifth.

Alex Stewart battled 1 game in 4 out of her opponent as did Dawn. Jennie lost in 3.

At #1, Karen Kennedy took out her frustration at being relegated to the seconds with a 3-1 win over Anna Cumming.

Overall 1-4, 9-18 on points.

Supper was fab baked tatties with a selection of 10 toppings. Not necessarily all at once, Mackers!

Ladies home v C.L.A.S.S... (Mon, Jan 23)

The Colinton colleens turned up at "Fortress (in terms of ladies squash these days, that is) Grange", both teams having won their first match in the 2012 season last week. So someone was going to lose their unbeaten status, who would it be?

Jacque White beat Kirstin Everett for the loss of just 7 points total and Georgina Jamieson maintained her winning stats with a 3-1 over Kirsty MacLachlan.

Lottie Fulton at #3 secured the bonus points with a 3-game win over Lynn Grant. Catherine John conceded just 11 points to Joan Shanks at #2 so CLASS were looking to Kim Byers to salvage some pride- unfortunately for her and Donna, it was not to be - a cracking match was in prospect only for Kim to pull her thigh after just 6 points and concede.

Overall 5-0, 20-3 for the Grange girls who remain unbeaten and yet to drop a point. Hopefully this goes toward preventing a repeat of the 1-point league loss of 2011.

Now the food bit, in italics so that Richie Mac can skip straight to it: Unlike the men last week, the ladies enjoyed an unspoilt tea and possibly savoured a crushing win over their Old Firm rivals by pushing the total bar tab over £6, an astronomical sum for ladies leagues! A selection of choccy cakes finished things off nicely. ;-)

Teams:Grange 1 vs C.L.A.S.S. 88

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Donna Cruickshank	1	3	27			Kim Byers	0	0	0	Forfeit
2	Catherine John	1	3	27			Joan Shanks	0	0	11
3	Lottie Fulton	1	3	27			Lynn Grant	0	0	11
4	Georgina Jamieson	1	3	33			Kirsty Maclachlan	0	1	11
5	Jacque White	1	3	27			Kirstin Everett	0	0	7
Total		5	15	141				0	1	40
Competition Points		18						1

Grange 3 home v Dalgety Bay 3 (Thu 19th Jan)

An inauspicious start to the second half of the season for the thirds despite the on-paper strength of the selected team.

Christy Looby at No5 had a slightly shaky start against Colin Boswell to lose the first before a good second game saw him level the scores. Unfortunately he increasingly fell away in the next two as Colin took very firm control and never really gave Christy a look in after that. A 1-3 loss for Christy.

Alan Stokes at No1 was up against the young David Beaumont. David took the first off Alan very comfortably but then Alan dug in and took the next two with increasing dominance. Alan tried to mess with David's mind as befits a wily old stager against a young pup…but David was made of sterner stuff than that and ran out with the last two to leave Alan with a 2-3 loss.

At No2 Mike Gore took on the hard-hitting Scott Boswell. Mike played well in patches, particularly in the third game which he could well have stolen but in the end was well beaten 0-3.

At no 4 Stuart Moffat was given a hard time by the deceptively agile and very wily Gerry Burton in the first two games. In the third game Stuart's identical twin brother came out on court (the one that can really play..) and only conceded a single point in the next two games. An absorbing struggle in the last saw Stuart grab it 9-7 and thus the match 3-2.

The evening ended (rather quickly) with Mark Dutton up against the useful Craig Pounder at No3. The first game went Craig's way after some early resistance from Mark and the second was reasonably close but the third was over in the blinking of an eye with Craig hitting a purple patch and Mark being ..well...distinctly non-purple.

A 7-19 loss overall. Pizzas slightly disappointing….not up to the usual Franco's standard. (Mark reports)

Teams:Grange 3 vs Dalgety Bay 3

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Alan Stokes	0	2	26			David Beaumont	1	3	33
2	Mike Gore	0	0	10			Scott Boswell	1	3	27
3	Mark Dutton	0	0	8			Craig Pounder	1	3	27
4	Stuart Moffat	1	3	36			Gerry Burton	0	2	26
5	Christy Looby	0	1	18			Colin Boswell	1	3	33
Total		1	6	98				4	14	146
Competition Points		6						17

GRG2 Vs Edinburgh Uni 1 (18 Jan 2012)

The 2s were back on the road this week up against the Edinburgh Uni 1st team who are currently flying very high in Div 2 in comparison to our lowly standing at second bottom. None of us were expecting any sort of upset tonight, having said that we were up for it as we definitely has our strongest team of the season so far.

Gordy Sloan was on first at number 5 against Alex Iveson. Both players were evenly matched and played very similar games. The first 2 games were shared and looked like it could go either way however Alex showed real determination and went up a few gears to make sure he kept Gordy at bay. 3-1 to uni.

Robin Steel was on at 4 versus Zahan. When I arrived both were having a wee knock up. When Robin found out that this guy was going to be his opponent he was less than impressed! From what I hear Robin stuck in and worked hard. Unfortunately not enough against an opponent of this level.

Ian Forbes at three was in a similar boat to Robin playing against Tom Metcalf. Another very handy individual meaning the result was only going to go one way.

At 1 and 2 was myself and the returning Duncan Walker. Dunc gave a good account of himself at 1 against Nick Roberts getting to 8-8 at one point so I was told.
Myself at 2 against nasty Nigel narrowly avoided the triple bagel. Nuff said!!

All in all a solid beating was taken, but we took it well! We hit vodka revolution afterwards where Gordy and I attempted to re-live our youth! God knows what would have happened if we didn’t “have the car”, “have to get up in the morning” or had been 10 years younger!! Great food (best of the season). Plenty of room for my burger after my 2 bagels – Yum!

Pete

Grange 4 home v ESC4 – Tuesday 17/01/2012

The second half of squash fixtures rumbled back into town and the fourth team entertained the league leaders at the Academy. The opening fixture at the sports club saw the fourths pick up 3 points and we were looking for an improvement in our home fixture.

First up were Brian Sloan and Dougie Brown playing at 4 and 1 respectively.
Brian was playing Scott Beard with myself marking, the opening set was typical with both players trying gauge their opponents strengths and weakness. Brian took the first set 9-5 with some good hitting and Scott’s reluctance to ask for anything. The next 2 sets followed a similar pattern to the first with each player bagging a set a piece with Scott taking the 2nd 6-9 and Brian taking the third 10-8. A change in marker and a bit of fatigue creeping in saw Brian lose the next 2 sets 2-9, 3-9 for a 3-2 loss for the Grange.

Meanwhile Dougie was taking on Mark on the court next door. The first set was cat and mouse with both players settling into their rhythm with Mark eventually winning 5-9. The next 2 sets followed a similar pattern with lots of early change of serves, Dougie getting his nose in front only for Mark to impose himself on the match taking them, 4-9, 5-9 for a 3-0 loss for the Grange.

Next up was myself and Jonathon Major playing at 5 and 3 respectively.
I was playing Tony (apologies for not writing down Tony surname) and a seesaw first set saw me prevail 9-5. The next set saw Tony race to 0-8 before I woke from my slumber and managed to get on the board before losing it 2-9. The third set saw Tony getting to 2-8 before I somehow managed to claw my way back into the set taking it 10-8. I was again generous in the fourth allowing Tony to race into 1-8 lead before any sort of resistance was mounted, a number of change of serves followed with Tony closing out the set 2-9. The fifth set was much more competitive with me getting the first points on the board for a change, and a tight struggle ensued with the score 6-7 to Tony, unfortunately I was unable to impose myself on the game and Tony eventually took the last set 7-9 for a 3-2 loss for the Grange.

Meanwhile Jonathon was playing Sean on the next court and two players very similar in build, style, technique and temperament started the match. It became apparent the Sean was just a better version of Jonathon and took the 3 sets 2-9, 5-9, 3-9 for a 3-0 loss for the Grange.
Last but not least was Will playing Mark Adderly at number 2 and a close 1st set was edged by Mark 10-8. The remaining sets saw Mark taking control with some strong controlled hitting and despite some strong running from Will, he was unable to turn things around losing them 3-9, 4-9, 3-0 loss for the Grange.

Match results including ref points was 20-6 to ESC4 and overall a disappointing result for the 4th’s against a very strong side, but on a plus point we did manage to get 1 more point than our last outing against them.

It was then back to the clubhouse for the traditional Beer and Pizza feast, where the dreaded Ham and Pineapple variety managed to sneak through the quality control,

It may just be me but cooked pineapple is just evil.

Talked turned to Captain’s responsibilities and just as Brian was looking a bit perplexed it turned out to be if you were in charge of a big liner that had just sunk in the Mediterranean and not the squash teams. Very newsworthy. Report N. Love

Teams:Grange 4 vs Edinburgh Sports Club 4

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Dougie Brown	0	0	14			Mark Hallam	1	3	27
2	Will Henderson	0	0	15			Mark Adderley	1	3	28
3	Jonathan Major	0	0	10			Sean Morgan	1	3	27
4	Brian Sloan	0	2	28			Scott Beard	1	3	31
5	Neil Love	0	2	30			Tony Newell	1	3	40
Total		0	4	97				5	15	153
Competition Points		4						18

Ladies debut a new player at Myreside (Mon, Jan 16, '12)

Welcome aboard the good ship Grange to Georgina Jamieson whose vital stats can be clicked here. Although she was 1 game down against #4 Margaret Clarke before remembering how she played squash and closing out 3-1.

Tonight the Captain left the crew to the ship, but unlike a certain Italian cruiser, it was not sinking at the time. In fact, the Captain and the

Kiwi have been thrown off the ship due to the wealth of female talent at Grange Squash. That despite taking the team to within a point of the title in the first half.

Donna at #1 had Rachel Collins crushing the ball to little effect.

Catherine John beat Alexis at #2 and Jules won 3-2 against #5 Christine Cochrane.

Match of the night was Lottie who beat ex-Grange Club Champ Christine Graham 3-1 in a very entertaining match where rallies ebbed and flowed. Including one great save from oor Lottie 0-7 down and avoided what would have been a tense 5th game.

Overall 20-6 and the Grange Dreadnought makes a good start to 2012.
Supper was a fab vegetarian lasagne, unbelievably some ladies had seconds depriving Richie Mac who was lurking in the background on the pretence of "training". Desert consisted of home-made cake.

The greater spotted world ranked player seen at Grange

For thirty five years, Grange has not seen a world-ranked player, then in 2012 two come along at once.

Gorzer, Loobzer and The Claymore turned up for team training and were treated to some scintilating viewing as Alan Clyne and Kev Moran had the same idea.

17 inch tins are now being considered for Court 4 & 5 to cope with the influx of world-ranked pro's to the club.

Well qualified addition to Grange's coaching panel...

The Grange Squash Club is pleased to announce Kevin Moran is available to team players and other members as a professional performance coach.

Kevin is ranked #1 in Scotland on The Matrix, and currently #191 in the world rankings. He will also be the highest-qualified pro coach in Scotland as he is completing UKCC Level 3 with Sarah Fitzgerald's former coach Roger Flynn & he is currently certified to UKCC Level 2.

Kevin promises to be a great addition to the coaching and playing panel at Grange, which already consists of full-time coach Mike Hall and and part-tim coaches John Bain, Alan Stokes, Fiona McLaren and Christy Looby.