Wednesday 2 December 2015

4's at Kirkcaldy (Div 5) Tue, Dec 1

Jamie Helme was first up against #4 Alex Allan who was a #1 Div.1 player at Hewlett Packard back when I hardly knew how to hold a racket there in 1987. Jamie lost the 1st, really screwed the nut in the second to stay 2 points ahead and take it, but Alex made him feed the tin after that so a 1-3 loss to a wily experience campaigner.
    Iain Gallacher (ex David Lloyd #2) made his Grange debut, lost the first but started to really hurt the guy Robert by running everything down and dropping him from distance to level it. He took the 3rd and had Robert ranting, so he came back on court, lost the first 2 points and retired "injured". Testimony to the sickening Iain was giving him.
   Richard Nisbet  went on and played out of his skin for a 2-0 lead got pegged back and was out on his feet in the 4th, somehow got his fifth wind and clinched it. (A real marathon going by the extra points scores 12-15, 16-18, 15-11, 15-13, 14-16)
Jamie H, Richard N, John Kunze & Iain Gallacher at Kircaldy
   John Kunze won the tight first, got blasted out of it in the second, but then really made Andy move and kept him away from his power game to win it 3-1.
   Christy powered(drives) & nuanced(boasts) his way to a 2-0, had a brain fart in the 3rd and let it go, screwed the nut in the fourth and grew a lead, sat on it for a few nervy match balls but glued one backhand to the wall to take it because there was no way he was going back on for a fifth!
   Overall 16-8 against the table toppers in their own yard, true team performance, Plenty of home supporters in the balcony, very squash knowledgeable and respectful, great atmosphere.
   Steak pie & chips and some good chat about Kirkcaldy SC's plans for the future.
Quote of the night: "Is this your first team" from a home supporter AFTER the match!
John took a team photo as a memento so good for the blog. Have a good trip home John, leaving on a high note and haste ye back.

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Grange 4 vs. Watsonians 4

Grange 4 vs. Watsonians 4
Played at: Grange Sports Club
When: 24th Nov 2015 at 7:00pm
Tonight we entertained Watsonians 4 at the Grange, looking to bounce back from last week’s loss to Waverely 3 away.  
First up were Jamie Helme and John Kunze playing Barrie Turnbull and Sahib Maker at 4 & 5 respectively. Jamie got things off to a great start with some good tight squash, winning 3-0 and John was always in control winning 3-0 to put Grange 2 nil up after the first round of games.
Next up was Richard Nisbet and Christy Looby at number 3 & 2. Richard was playing Peter Thomson and after sharing the first two sets, Richard managed to assert himself on the game and went on to win 3-1. Christy was playing the 14 year old junior – David Taylor who had just turned up after a couple hours training at the National squash academy at Heriot Watt, the first 2 sets were shared with David running down everything that Christy could throw at him, it required Christy getting in touch with his inner self and he duly began to dominate the proceedings and in the end Christy had too much nuance and power in his game and prevailed with a 3-1 win.   
With an unassailable lead in the bag it was the turn of Dougie Brown to play David Hutton at number 1, an entertaining match ensued that kept the watching gallery enthralled and the marker busy, Dougie emerged the winner, taking the game 3-1 to complete a clean sweep for the 4ths.
The teams then retired to the bar to be treated to the usual offering of Pizza’s from Franco’s and a suitable choice of refreshments.  (Report: non-playing captain (Neil Love)

1 Dougie Brown
3 - 1
15-11, 7-15, 15-13, 15-13
 David Hutton
2 Christy Looby
3 - 1
15-6, 7-15, 15-8, 15-13
 David Taylor
3 Richard Nisbet
3 - 1
15-10, 8-15, 15-7, 15-7
 Peter Thomson
4 Jamie Helme
3 - 0
15-9, 15-13, 15-11
 Barrie Turnbull
5 John Kunze
3 - 0
15-4, 15-9, 15-8
 Sahib Maker



Games Won
15
3
Game Points Won
247
187
Penalty Points
0
0
Bonus Points
3.00
0
Total
18
3

Saturday 14 November 2015

3rds at ESC 7's (Div 4)

Finding myself with altitude sickness as I subbed up on the 3rds for the first time in a few years, I turned up with one court shoe left at home.
    So Sam Collin went on with 6ft6" Tom Utting and was good value for a 2-0 lead, taking everything early and getting Tom to leak errors under pressure. However the wheels came off slightly as Tom used his wingspan to close off the court while Sam had a slight lull. So on to the 5th and Sam got his second wind but Tom had the momentum to see it out.
   Andy Whitelaw went on with Graham Donaldson, I didn't see it but from the scores Andy seemed to just have enough control on it winning 3-0: 12, 11, 11. I'd got my 2nd shoe so I served off with Steven Sproule who has more experience in his pinkie toe than my 30 years in the game. It became a bit of a test of leftie-righty i.e. who could keep it on the other's backhand and then get the first attack in as neither of us are the best movers any more (I never was in the first place). I managed to lob and boast my way comfortably through the first 2 games. Steven then raised his game, had more success getting it on his forehand and we went point for point, in extra points I managed to get it. 3-0.
  So two matches to one, we needed Anto Fitz to clear up against Doug Brown. Did he hell! Straight to the fifth and Ant saw it out to grab the bonus points for us. Ian Ross went on against Scott Lothian at #1 and all 8 other players watching unshowered which show the team spirit is good in both camps.
Scott fizzed around court, hit the dots off the ball and reverse-angled Ian who just couldn't match the energy levels of his oppo on the night: 0-3.
   Overall 3-2 to us, 14-8 on points which puts us to second in the table. Over double-helpings of Lasagne, we debated the merits of a tram going down Leith Walk and whether ESSA should invest in a few clapped-out people carriers for the clubs so we could have a beer or two after squash. Report C.L.
Edinburgh Sports Club 7 (Violet) vs. Grange 3

Edinburgh Sports Club 7 (Violet)Grange 3
1 Scott Lothian
3 - 0
15-9, 15-6, 15-13
 Ian Ross
2 Tom Utting
3 - 2
16-14, 5-15, 10-15, 15-6, 16-14
 Sam Collin
3 Graham Donaldson
0 - 3
12-15, 11-15, 11-15
 Andrew Whitelaw
4 Doug Brown
2 - 3
10-15, 16-14, 12-15, 17-15, 12-15
 Anthony Fitzgerald
5 Steven Sproule
0 - 3
10-15, 3-15, 15-17
 Christy Looby
Games Won811
Game Points Won236258
Penalty Points00
Bonus Points03.00
Total814

When: 13th Nov 2015 at 7:00pm

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Stag 4's home v Abercorn (Div 5)

Tonight we took on Abercorn with Beppe Andaloro making his debut for the stags at #5 after making the final of the East of Scotland Open on Sunday in his debut tournament.
Turns out that Beppe had played at Abercorn for a bit and some of the Abercorn players knew him.
He faced seasoned campaigner Ketan Lad who must have been sick of the sight of Beppe running everything down. Great intensity from Beppe taking the first 15-10, in the second he had a few tins which made it tight at 15-12 and ran out 15-10 in the 3rd.
   Stephen Thomas had an edgy start to be 4-13 down, got it back to 13-13 courtesy of an out serve from Steven Robb, then spooned up an out serve himself to give game ball before closing it 16-14, from there he controlled the next two.
   Jamie Helme was never in doubt against Neelu Sarkar (which means I didn't see it). So we had the bonus in the bag.
    Christy was playing catch up against fellow-leftie Martin Browse in the first, got it to extra points and then closed out with some cheap errors.  That spurred him on to upping the pace and Martin didn't seem to like that or the reverse angles so the next three went to Grange steadily enough.
  Top strings Piers Wilkinson thought at 2-0 that we'd be waiting too long for the pizza so he offered
up two soft games to Jamie Irving to prolong the on-court action. In the fifth he put in a charge
from the get go and got off court 15-5. Still some great rallies between 2 high-octane competitors.
   Conversation in the bar was erudite, ranging from humans evolving to hairless chests (Piers admitted he is there already), to metabolising lactose after infancy to New Zealand rugby evolving to
a different planet with Sonny Bill Williams becoming an alien boxer/rugby-league/union/sevens player. Only 1 pepperoni, one veggie, 1 ham and sweetcorn & one chicken & ham. Between
5 of us, as Steven Robb has evolved a gluten allergy(see what I did there :) ) so guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow!

Grange 4 vs. Abercorn

Played at: Grange Sports Club
When: 3rd Nov 2015 at 7:00pm

Grange 4Abercorn
1 Piers Wilkinson
3 - 2
15-12, 15-11, 10-15, 12-15, 15-5
 Jamie Irving
2 Christy Looby
3 - 1
15-17, 15-5, 15-7, 15-7
 Martin Browse
3 Jamie Helme
3 - 0
15-10, 15-11, 15-9
 Neelu Sarkar
4 Stephen Thomas
3 - 0
16-14, 15-8, 15-10
 Steve Robb
5 Beppe Andaloro
3 - 0
15-10, 15-11, 15-10
 Ketan Lad
Games Won153
Game Points Won263187
Penalty Points00
Bonus Points30
Total183

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Grange 4 v HWU3 - 27.10.15

Grange 4 vs. Heriot Watt University 3
Played at: Grange Sports Club
When: 27th Oct 2015 at 7:00pm
Tonight we entertained HWU3 at the Grange, looking to bounce back from last week’s loss to HWU4 away.  
First up was Jamie Helme and John Kunze playing Catherine Walsh and Clive Shannon at 5 & 4 respectively. Jamie got things off to a great start with a well controlled 3-0 win – 15-13, 15-6, 15-7 and John recovered from the loss of the first set to win 3-1 – 9-15, 15-12, 15-10, 15-6 to put Grange 2 nil up after the first round of games.
Next up was Christy Looby at number 3 and Dougie Brown at number 1, which was a surprise to Dougie, but due to a couple of rearrangements found himself playing at the top of the order. Christy was playing James Wittrick and James started strongly before Christy managed to claw things back in the first game to take it 17-15, James regained his composure and gradually took control of the match and won the next 3 games to win the match 3-1 – 15-17, 15-9, 15-11, 15-8. On the other court Dougie was playing Rory Macdougal. Rory won the match 3-0 - 15-6, 15-13, 16-14 to level the tie 2-2 going into the decider.  
Richard Nisbet played James Robertson in the battle of the 2’s, with Richard apologising for his late arrival, which was due to a crisis at work. This was a good tussle between two players equally matched and the game ebbed and flowed into the fifth and deciding set. Richard edged in front, but couldn’t quite shake off James who came through to take the match 3-2 – 16-18, 15-13, 6-15, 15-10, 19-17 and secure the win for HWU 3 on the evening 3-2.

Sunday 17 May 2015

May Gameball

Sam Collin returns from Shetland to pick out Ian Muir's number for the May Gameball draw.

Saturday 16 May 2015

David Grieve - Grange Squash President

Hello everyone,


I would like to introduce myself to those of you who I don't already know personally. Many of you will have seen me floating around the club at various times however I now have the dubious honour of succeeding Bill Marshall as Grange Squash President. I would like to thank Bill on behalf of all members for the fantastic amount of work he has put in over the past few years. I have no doubt that we would not have had our fantastic new courts without Bill's efforts.  I will be leaning on him heavily during my first few months but thankfully both he, Ali Ross and Christy Looby before him have paved the way and completed most of the major tasks which were outstanding hopefully leaving me a soother passage.

I have been a member of the Grange Club for 36 years. Whilst I have mainly played squash and Racketball I also play a bit of tennis (badly) and have even made an appearance a few years ago for the Hockey section. I have played social cricket on a couple of occasions however whilst I appreciate that many members enjoy the game, really, life is just too short…….

I am very interested to know your views on any club related matters (good and bad). If you have any ideas, suggestions or complaints please e-mail me at grangesquashclub@gmail.com. I will do my best to keep the club running smoothly and will take on board any points raised. I will be at Club nights most Fridays so feel free to corner me there as well. I hope to see as many of you as possible on court and also at the numerous social functions which give all the Grange members the opportunity to get to know each other and make new acquaintances.

Regards,
David Grieve
Grange Squash President

BMI Cup - Today !!

The BMI cup handicapped tournament and dinner is today!
It starts a 5pm, it costs £5, you can stay for dinner, and you can bring your partner too.

What is the BMI cup?

Body
Mass
Index

So the older (+1 for me) and the fatter (+2 for me) and the less able you are at squash (+3 for me) the better the handicap you get.


Bill.
---
The Grange Squash Club

April Gameball

Chris Newman draws Mike Hall's number for the April Gameball


Sunday 12 April 2015

Eurovision Night - Saturday 23rd May

Entertainment - Friday 24th April

Quiz!

Hosted by Harvey our professional quiz master.

This is the final quiz until the Autumn so not to be missed.
Bring a team or just turn up and join one on the night.
£4 includes a bowl of something tasty :-)

Thursday 19 March 2015

Grange 1s - Division 2 CHAMPIONS


I am extremely proud to announce that the men’s 1st team have been crowned as the new champs of East Division 2.  Having been relegated last season from Division 1 the team bounced back in stunning style to claim the title for the first time in their history which is an excellent achievement considering the standard of this league.  Myself (Pete Cockburn), Matt Bain, Allan Hamer and Will Kerr (old boys from the previous regime) were joined by the consistently up and coming junior, Angus Macpherson along with new additions Tiezheng Yuan (TZ) and Duncan Ross.

We started the season with some strong wins over Dunbar, HWU2s and ESC4s and after a while it became clear that Linlithgow 1s and Colinton Castle 2s would be challenging us again for promotion.  Matt Bain, playing at number 1, led the line in great fashion and should be commended for only conceding the one match which is an awesome effort considering his position in the team.  Really showing his talent and the work he has put in.  Angus came through season showing signs of his true potential as he swept aside some big names giving it little thought while TZ fought hard in all his matches making the victory fist pump his own!  Things were not always plain sailing as we lost to both our main rivals in the first half of the season however we were still very much in contention at the Xmas break although ESC4s were now definitely emerging as fresh challengers.  We however had not yet released our secret weapon in the form of Duncan Ross who was in his first season at the club.  Dunc started his season strongly in the 2s and moved up to the 1s shortly after Xmas where he began showing his true potential by really destroying some of his unfortunate opponents in some impressive displays.  Those distant days as a top international junior beginning to shine through!  In the second half we all played well putting in gutsy performances to ensure we kept up the pressure and in the end we won all our games clinching us the title.  Not by much as we only finished 6 points ahead of our nearest rivals showing just how close it actually was.  A great team effort from everyone involved however the real challenge now starts as we try for the 3rd or 4th time of asking to make an impact on Division 1 which is quite literally a different league altogether!  Still in the cup and National league so not done yet although a bit of a rest might be in order.
It should also be noted that guest appearances were also made by 2s captain Gordy Sloan, Allan Wallace, Duncan Walker and Alan Stokes (on yerself Stokesy!).  A big thank you to them as well!

Hopefully see you all at the dinner

Pete

Monday 16 March 2015

2015 Finals Night

Pictures from the 2015 Finals Night are available here.
The evening included a dip into the gameball bucket that gave Neil Love the win.
There is also a write-up of the evening on our facebook page.

Thursday 5 March 2015

Winter Minileague #5, 2014

Here are the results of Winter minileague #5.
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.

Winter Minileague #4, 2014

Here are the results from Winter minileague #4
Click in the frame and scroll down for your league or click here for a full screen view.


Thursday 12 February 2015

Grange 4 versus Dunbar 2 –Tuesday 10/02/2015; Venue – Grange club

Tonight we were playing Dunbar 2, looking to get back to winning ways, after a couple of defeats. The team line up was much changed again due to Injuries and the availability of players.
First up was Mike Douglas and Tom McEwan, playing at number 5 & 4 respectively. Mike came through his game with a comfortable win, which goes some way to erase the memory of playing the junior at Watsonsians last week. Tom was playing Willie Paul and Willie triumphed in 5, finishing the game the stronger of the 2 players.
Next up was Pete Young and myself playing 3 & 2 respectively, Pete was playing “Stormin Norman” and despite losing the first set, Pete came through to win the match 3-1. Meanwhile I was playing Martin Campbell at number 2 and was well out of my comfort zone at such an elevated position within the team. The game started with a quick first set to Martin, before I managed to get in the game with Martin tiring due to a tight chest and eventually went on to take the match 3-1.
With the match in the bag, it was the turn of the number 1s to take to the court. Jamie Helme was playing James Cunningham. Some big hitting and good retrieving by James put pressure on Jamie’s game, who in turn was finding the tin at crucial moments. James eventually went on to win the game 3-1.
Match results including ref points was 17-8 to the Grange. We then retired to the bar for the usual delights of Franco’s Pizzas and soft drinks and check the status of our football fantasy teams with the latest round premiership matches being played.
  

Pos
Player
Rubbers
Games
Points

        
Player
Rubbers
Games
Points

1
0
1
29
1
3
34
2
1
3
29
0
1
25
3
1
3
32
0
1
27
4
0
2
26
1
3
40
5
1
3
27
0
0
8
Total
3
12
143
2
8
134
Competition Points
15
8