Grange Team Calendar

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Grange 5 versus ESC5 – Thursday 11/10/2012; Venue – Edinburgh Sports Club

The fifths were playing at the Edinburgh Sports club this evening.

First up for the Grange a no 5 was Bill Marshall playing Pietro Gagliardini, who has graduated from the Juniors at the club and playing his second team game. Bill was run off his feet in the first set with some strong hitting from the youngster and lost the first set 9-5. Bill then mixed things up with some unorthodox shots which caught Pietro out and Bill took the second and third sets 9-7, 9-7, some pointers from his team mates saw Pietro return with more of the straight big hitting and Bill was unable to hold on and Pietro managed to win the fourth and fifth sets 9-4 & 9-3 for a 2-3 loss to the Grange.

I was up on the next court playing Colin Grier at No.4. Managed to win the first set before walking into Colin’s racket at the start of the second set, after a medical break to stop the bleeding the game resumed and Colin imposed himself on the remainder of the match winning the next 3 sets to take the match 3-1.

Next up was Rocco playing David Coutts at No.3, David had the upper hand in this match from the start and Rocco was unable to get established in the match, with both players throwing wistful glances at the gallery as they obviously disagreed with my umpiring decisions. Win for David 3-0.

Stephen Davey was playing Glyn Cave on the next court and some good retrieving and tight shots down the wall, saw Stephen recover from one set down to go on and win the match 3-1 and capture the fifth’s first rubber win of the season.

Brian Sloan was taking on Scott Beard was last on court at No.1 and was always behind in the match half a yard of the pace. Scott managed to cover and return everything Brian could throw and him and took the match 3-0.

Match result 18-8 to ESC5.

ESC5 then treated us to Lamb Curry & Rice, which was very tasty and talk turned to the current redevelopment plans for the Edinburgh Accies Raeburn place.

Match report – Neil Love

Teams:

Grange 4 vs Heriot Watt University 3

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Georgina Jamieson	0	2	33			Stewart Morrison	1	3	34
2	Anthony Fitzgerald	0	0	9			Stuart Williamson	1	3	27
3	Doug Sherriffs	0	0	8			Peter Western	1	3	27
4	Peter Young	0	0	8			Mark Everard	1	3	27
5	Andrew Beames	1	3	27			Andrew Fernie	0	0	0
Total		1	5	85				4	12	115
Competition Points		5						15

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

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

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