Grange 3rds @ Colinton 5's (Fri, 8th Feb)

A successful night for the extradinarily youthful Grange 3rds, emerging victorious by 17 points to 6.   Well….youthful on the whole….a couple of ageing Loobys and Duttons dragging the average out a bit…..

First up at no5 was the new Grange sensation, 14 year old Angus Mcpherson against Gordon Robertson.  Not only does Angus possess a whole bunch of squash skill (and youthful legs…always handy) but also has a mature squash head on his shoulders.  Gordon was playing good squash and there were plenty of lengthy rallies but was he was no match for Angus who restricted him to just a handful of points per game.  1-9, 2-9, 1-9 to Angus.

Colin Williamson played an excellent match at no 1 against the useful CCS stalwart John Brown.  Good squash all round but Colin's placement and particularly his crisp smacking of the ball proved too much for John and he ran out a 5-9, 1-9, 2-9 winner.

At No 3 Christy was slightly hampered by a leg injury in taking on Derrick Simpson.    Christy was hitting the ball well enough but Derrick was playing an excellent hard-hitting game that would have had Christy stretching at the best of times.  Still a competitive game but in the end a 9-4, 9-2, 9-3 loss for Christy was about as good a result as he could have hoped for.

At No4  Aoife Kerrin continued her good contributions to the mens' teams with a 1-3 win over Derek Wilson.  A comfortable 1-9 win in the first followed by a 9-0 reversal in the second momentarily gave the Grange crew a sinking feeling that it was all about to go west, but she came out in the third game and resumed control and ran out 4-9 and 2-9.

In the "exhibition" match at No2 the evening was completed with Mark Dutton facing Mike Halpin.  Textbook squash it might not have been but, hey, who needs textbooks.  Not to say it wasn't of a good standard but unorthodoxy ruled the day with plenty of tricksy shots from both sides and plenty of YouTube aerobatic moments.  All good fun and lots of humorous exchanges on court.  Mike took the first 9-7 and very nearly had the second with Mark just nicking it 8-10.  Mark on top in the third at 3-9 and the fourth was good and close but ultimately 6-9.

The evening rounded off nicely with a plateful of pie'n'beans from the fine kitchen that the CCS folk run.  Overall 4-1, 17-7 so good points staving off relegation (Report: Dutton)