Grange V Waverley Xmas Racketball Challenge (Fri, Dec 28)

First up tonight was Alan Stokes making his racketball team debut at number 4 against veteran campaigner Brian. Having never played before, Alan was taking time to adjust but only narrowly lost out to 70 year old Brian (Not really but it makes a good story, sorry Brian) Obviously the team had to ensure that Stoksey didn’t have anything to boast about in his first game so well done to umpire Mike Wagner for some creative scoring in the third which saw Brian play a remarkable rally which was deemed worth 3 points to see Alan lose out in the third 16-17.

I was up next at 1 against Colin Cruickshank and in a hard fought match where I narrowly won the first two sets, Colin managed to pull one back to make it 2-1. The strenuous efforts Colin had to make to match my remarkable court coverage took its toll and unfortunately Colin had to retire half way through the third as he was seeing stars at the end of every epic rally.

Mike Douglas was on at 2 against Domenic Risi  at was most unsporting in his efforts to continually sneeze all over his opponent. Domenic was obviously severely distracted by the bacterial onslaught and went down 3-0 albeit every game went down to the wire.

Derek Addison played number 5 against Donald Shearer and whilst I didn’t see much of this game it appears Derek was unable to use his stealth like movement to any advantage and lost out 0-3.

Mike Wagner took on George at number 6 in a match which saw him break his racketball duck in impressive fashion with a 3-0 victory.

Last on was John Matthew playing Waverley’s John Allan at number 3. John appeared to be enjoying his elevated position in the team order and despite numerous attempts to break the tin at the bottom of the court he was holding his own against a tricky opponent. At 2-1 up John should have closed out the 4^th but managed to lose a 9-1 lead and concede the game and see things level at 2-2. At 9-1 up again in the 5^th no one in the balcony was placing bets on a Grange win however despite being pegged back to 14-14, John did manage to hold out for a 17-15 win which also meant an overall victory for the Grange.

As always, the score was really immaterial and a good night was had by all. Most of the players retired to San Marco for a festive pizza and tipple (See photo of the athletes post match meal below). Hopefully we might manage another match before the summer if court times


L-R: John Allan(WVY), Brian '70' Scott(WVY), David Grieve, John Matthew, Domenic Risi(WVY)
, Mike Douglas, Mike Wagner & George ? at San Marco for post-match Pizza

John Matthew against Waverley's John Allan

 

Naomi suggests caption: "A good advertisement for hair restorer"