Ladies National League side at Bridge of Allan(Tue, Nov 18)

Not sure about the 12-11 game score in Georgia's game - have queried.

Grange Team Calendar

The Grange Teams' fixture lists have now been loaded into the Grange Calendar gmail account at:
squashcalendar1@gmail.com


Alternatively you can load the fixtures directly into your own calendar using this file.

National League women home v Bridge of Allan (Tue, Feb 18)

A strong BOA team with Katie Buchanan, Claire Gadsby & Sheena Logan.

You can see my debut video of the 1st string game #2 below or Clicky Linkee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCZLZsfEsEU

Ladies team history: 1973 to present, all divisions

Continuing the series on Ladies team squash in East of Scotland...

 Currently 14 teams active. 23 teams(grey) have gone dormant/inactive. And 6 teams have had their courts demolished (black), so definitely never coming back. As usual, click on the pic to zoom in and read the labels.
     It looks like only the really organised clubs have retained ladies squash, some of the other strong clubs from the mens point of view have not put extra effort into ladies squash and the ladies game has withered there.

Ladies league timeline - Green is good, grey is bad, black is fatal!

    Colinton Castle can claim that C.L.A.S.S.8.8 are their team. Heriot Watt University should be able to raise a ladies team with the playing base they have on campus, you would think?
 Of the pro-Ladies clubs, Abercorn, ESC, Edinburgh University, Grange, Watsonians & Waverley have never missed a season of ladies team squash since they started!
    Quite a few clubs have disbanded their ladies teams, only to later re-form for a Take That comeback tour, but my graph is difficult to represent that so I've just filled in the blank years or in the case of current teams, given them a duplicate row. Dalgety Bay and David Lloyd are among those of the  current crop that have done this.
     West Lothian is, I believe, a club that used to play out of Bathgate. Anybody know where the Loch Centre team played, 1985-88? Answer: Here, and apparently the 2 courts are still open for play in Tranent.

The rise & fall of ladies squash Part III

Continuing the series of articles on the history of East Squash... here is the number of ladies teams in the East Leagues 1973-2012/13, by division (click picture to enlarge):

There seems to have been a weird spell 1993-1996 when they decided to only have 5 teams in Div 1, while Divs 2 & 3 kept a healthy 8 or 9 teams each.

    This seems to be a similar situation to recent years, where the 2 divisions of 2000-2006 reverted to 3 smaller divisions in an attempt to keep the levels of skill in each division as close as possible.

   Of course we are no worse off now than we were in 1980, apart from the fact that the game was on the rise back then, whereas now it is on a plateau at best. I believe this plateau is false in the women's game as the current playing population mostly took the game in the late 80's and 90's. This generation will be leaving the game over the next decade unless we bring more young females into the game. We either have to do this through a) junior programmes or b) encouraging young professionals to take up the game.

     Grange has an active programme in both camps. 

a)We have a weekly morning with Flora Stephenson's school's golden time, some females in John Bain's junior sessions and active in East junior leagues and Claire Gray's East junior squad sessions.

b) We are lucky in our catchment and females and especially encourage females to try out Club Night and then guide them into friendly mini-leagues. From there, there is coaching and a path into the East leagues teams. After a lapse of 10 years, we brought back the 2nd ladies team and it has given those keen ladies a chance to hone their skills and make the progression that inter-club play brings.

   This is all well and good but we really need to other clubs to be doing similar proactive work to ensure they maintain and augment their current crop of female players. It is good to see ESC, Waverley, Abercorn and Watsonians retain two or more teams but you have to worry about the clubs who no longer have women's teams - once the thread is broken, it is difficult to weave it back together again.

    In the next instalment, I will analyse the ladies teams on a club-by-club basis to see if we can learn anything from history to avoid making the mistakes of the past.

The Rise and Fall of Squash Teams in East of Scotland - Part II

I roughly graphed this in Part 1

Below is the accurate plot for Ladies Squash in East from the beginning in 1973, through the boom years mid-1980's, a mini-boom in 2000 and the gradual decline since then:

From a peak of 27 ladies teams in 3 divisions, we now stand at 14 teams in 3 sparse divisions.
East and West of Scotland are the only two regions to keep their ladies leagues going. Grampian no longer has ladies leagues. Back in my old stomping ground in Cork, ladies play individual leagues.
   Below is a chart which shows Grange Ladies(the thick blue line) closing in on the #1 spot in Div 1 over the last few years. The list of clubs show that 10 no longer exist as ladies teams, out of the 23 that once played. Over and above the 2 Marco's clubs that have been demolished, we no longer have Colinton Castle, Dean, Deer Park, Dunfermline, Hatton, Heriot Watt, Kirkcaldy, Next Generation, Tyne and Stirling Uni fielding ladies teams.

Click on the pictures to enlarge!
The next instalment will chart the rise and fall of men's squash in East.

Ladies conclude their season with a win to take Runners-up spot

Well done to the ladies first team who pushed an unbeaten ESC hard for the win of East Division 1. Their only 2 losses were to the eventual winners.
   With true strength-in-depth and even with losing Lottie next season, we can look forward to  being at the sharp end of ladies Div. 1 next year. A replacement blonde has already been recruited to this end. Important for the line-up to keep the blonde/brunette ratio unchanged ;-)

Date:	11/3/2013
Teams:	Grange 1 vs Dalgety Bay

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Aoife Kerrin	0	2	34			Hayley Cooper	1	3	34
2	Donna Cruickshank	1	3	27			Verity Whiteside	0	0	7
3	Catherine John	1	3	27			Nicola Crosbie	0	0	17
4	Georgina Jamieson	1	3	27			Linda Murray	0	0	9
5	Karen Kennedy	0	0	15			Lynn Verdon	1	3	28
Total		3	11	130				2	6	95
Competition Points		14						6

Teams Ladder

Team	Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Bonus Points	Total
Edinburgh Sports Club 1	Comp Points	12	17		13	14	18	18	18	18		13	13	18	15	16	203
	Games	9	14		10	11	15	15	15	15		10	10	15	12		151
Grange 1	Comp Points	16	5	13	11		15	18	13	18	18	8		14	14	12	175
	Games	13	5	10	11		12	15	10	15	15	8		11	11		136
Waverley 1	Comp Points	18	7	15	9	6	5		7	10	14	18	7	7		22	145
	Games	15	7	12	9	6	5		7	10	11	15	7	7			111
Dalgety Bay	Comp Points	5		18	13	13	1	2	14		7	18	8	2	6	18	125
	Games	5		15	10	10	1	2	11		7	15	8	2	6		92
David Lloyd	Comp Points		5	7	12	7	13	7		0	2	2	14	13	15	18	115
	Games		5	7	9	7	10	7		0	2	2	11	10	12		82
C.L.A.S.S. 88	Comp Points	3	14	0		17	8	2	7	14	12		4	10	3	18	112
	Games	3	11	0		14	8	2	7	11	9		4	10	3		82
Watsonians 1	Comp Points	6	15	9	10	3		15	3	1	9	0	15		8	16	110
	Games	6	12	9	10	3		12	3	1	9	0	12		8		85

First Ladies V ESC 1

To set the scene: ESC have scored top marks in their previous 4 games, they have won all of their matches so far this season. We aren't far behind - we have only lost once, to them, before Xmas. So, it was the clash of the top two teams and nae low ceilings to get in the way this time. Fate (illness) and a jolly to South Africa ruined some perfect plans but there was still hope.

Donna was flattened by flu and Georgie was off on a work trip so both Karen and Anna were pulled up to the first team. Karen played at 5 and was slightly out-whacked by her opponent but there were some fine rallies so I don't feel so bad. Still lost 3:0 though. Anna played someone who had flown from London to Edinburgh today and her head was still recovering from the turbulence. Still, Anna polished her off in 3 games so excellent result.

Aoife played at 3, two up from usual, and had a great game against Moira. Thankfully youth triumphed in the end - 3:1 to us. Sadly youth triumphed for Lottie as well (I don't get to write that very often) as a 15 year old with no off switch bounced around the court. Jnr nearly came undone in the 3rd - Lottie had game point, but a badly timed out ball gave Jnr the chance to zoom back in and win 3:0.

So, 2 matches each as the firsts prepared to do battle. Catherine was out whacked in the first game but her fitness and determination meant she clawed her way back in the second game and was very unlucky to lose it 10:9. The 3rd game was a disaster - Kirsty had match point on 8:0! She then stepped off the gas and Catherine (now aka Lazarus) inched back to take the 3rd game 10:8. Kirsty was a bit bemused at this and spent the 4th game in a bit of a daze, Catherine winning that 9:0!

So, 2 matches each and now 2 games each in the final match. Any predictions for the final score?? Us neither. Which Kirsty would start the 5th game? Would Catherine falter at the final hurdle?

Catherine won the first 5 rallies, ESC were looking very worried. Lots of encouragement from the balcony, usually unheard of in the ladies leagues. But then, Catherine hit the tin on a winner and Kirsty started her comback. Shame we don't have a speedometer on court as there were some amazing smashes from here on in. Kirsty made a few more mistakes but sadly not two in a row and eventually won 9:5 to win the bonus points. It was a great sporting game to watch, one that many Jnrs could learn from.

Final scores on the night were 13:8 to ESC with both teams picking up the bonus ref points (at least I contributed something to the scoreline). It was an excellent evening of good squash from two very sporting teams. The baked potatoes were fab too.

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Catherine John	0	2	36			Kirsty Craig	1	3	36
2	Lottie Fulton	0	0	15			Carrie Hallam	1	3	28
3	Aoife Kerrin	1	3	35			Moira Atkinson	0	1	20
4	Anna Gaskell	1	3	27			Claire Thomson	0	0	15
5	Karen Kennedy	0	0	11			Julie Barr	1	3	27
Total		2	8	124				3	10	126
Competition Points		8						13

Ladies on the up for the last 2 weeks

The girls 1^st team do it again…..  a great win over Waverley (Mon, Dec 3)
 
Up first was the newly engaged Jules (congratulations!!) – her mind was still in Ethiopia until the 3^rd game but still a good effort!
 Lottie was on form with stylish squash and a great 3-0 result. Next up was Georgina with good tight hard hitting squash then Catherine who appears to be trying to make all her matches go to 5! 2-0 up when Donna went on court, we thought she would be long finished before Donna but…….  playing against her old Aberdeen rival she decided that she needed a little more exercise and despite having match point in the 3^rd opted for a 5-setter. Fortunately the end result was in Catherine’s favour.
Also, lucky for Donna her opponent was not playing as sharply as usual so a relatively straightforward match for her and perfect timing because Donna and Catherine finished at the same time.  Georgina obviously knew that there was something suspect about Catherine’s non-bakeable baking potatoes because she headed off before supper. Not only did our potatoes not cook in 2 hours, we forgot the butter so we had to have hard unbuttered tatties for tea – tasty  beans and cheese though!!!

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Donna Cruickshank	1	3	27			Heather Spens	0	0	18
2	Catherine John	1	3	42			Kirsty Douglas	0	2	30
3	Georgina Jamieson	1	3	27			Yvonne Ferguson	0	0	5
4	Lottie Fulton	1	3	27			Jo Watts	0	0	9
5	Julia Lutte	0	0	9			Sam Hart	1	3	28
Total		4	12	132				1	5	90
Competition Points		15						5

 

Ladies’ 1sts kept Dalgety at bay!!!! (Mon Dec 10)

Despite all of us getting lost on the way (it is the roundabout with the church on it!) Jules was mentally back in Scotland this week, Anna’s bad back & ankle held up and Georgina and Donna were both on form (Dalgety didn’t have a 5^th player) so we had our first full 18 points result for this season!!!  Finished off with lovely “cooked” baked potatoes (but no butter again!) & huge cookies. I haven’t checked with everyone but I assume the whole team found their way home!

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Donna Cruickshank	1	3	34			Hayley Cooper	0	1	13
2	Georgina Jamieson	1	3	27			Verity Whiteside	0	0	5
3	Julia Lutte	1	3	31			Linda Murray	0	1	25
4	Anna Gaskell	1	3	27			Hayley Verdon	0	0	6
5	Karen Kennedy	1	3	27			no player	0	0	0	Forfeit
Total		5	15	146				0	2	49
Competition Points		18						2

Grange 1st Ladies away to Edinburgh Sports Club - Mon 19th Nov

We had our four top guns available tonight, what could go wrong??  

Up first at 5 was moi who managed to lose 10:9 in both games 3 and 4.  The luck of the Irish was sadly absent tonight so a 3:1 win to ESC.  Lottie used the first game to warm up and then got down to some great squash, beating her opponent 3:1.  Georgie was on fine form too - shows what you can do when you play 7 days a week - and beat a very canny Moira 3:0.  Catherine had   an almighty battle at #2 against Julie B who dug in and refused to give up, winning the last two games 10:8 each.  Nae luck with tie-breakers tonight.  

So, everything hinged on Donna v Kirsty Craig.  This was a great game to watch, some fantastic smashes and boasts, along with some dodgy elephant impersonations from Donna.  This turned out to be a game of swings and roundabouts with each player taking turns to play some great squash. So, as predicted by Donna, it went to down to the final game.  This is when being in your 20s really helps....Kirsty remembered what to do and powered her way through the fifth game.  An ashen-faced Donna had very little left in the tank and far too quickly lost the final game. The annoying thing is that overall we won more games than Sports club but that shows what well matched games were played.  

Final match points were 13:11 to Sports Club.  Supper was fab - baked potatoes with about 10 fillings.  We are so looking forward to home advantage when they visit us after xmas. (Karen)

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Donna Cruickshank	0	2	26			Kirsty Craig	1	3	32
2	Catherine John	0	2	40			Juliet Shaw	1	3	34
3	Georgina Jamieson	1	3	27			Moira Atkinson	0	0	16
4	Lottie Fulton	1	3	33			Julie Barr	0	1	14
5	Karen Kennedy	0	1	31			Debbie Connell	1	3	35
Total		2	11	157				3	10	131
Competition Points		11						13

Georgie does The Grange proud

Congrats Georgina Jamieson of The Grange Squash, winning 3 of her 4 matches (all against men) in the B grade at Abercorn,
beaten only by eventual winner Artiz Azpetia, a two-fisted left-handed speedster (in case you thought Christy was the most unconventional opponent in the world).
    And that was after she played out a five-game mini-league on Sun morning against Gorzer, by way of warm-up.

Come back and stay for good this tiiime... dum dum duu duu duu duh duuu

A tribute to Izzy and Patrick from the teamsters...

News for interested members

And so it begins: click here for the latest on the squash development at The Grange Squash Club.

It pays to keep an eye on The Grange Squash Club on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter if you want to be first with the news. Below are listed Grange Squash's prescences in social media.

If you scroll down to the bottom, you will see recent twitter feeds, plus you can share us to your Facebook or Re-Tweet with the click of a button.

The Grange cricket and hockey clubs also have equivalent social media sites, just search for them on the relevant platform.

Follow @GrangeSquash

http://www.facebook.com/le.soigneur.3

             

http://GrangeSquash.blogspot.com

Squash Calendar for 2012-13

Click on the arrow to scroll the month or week, Click on the item to get more detail. (Sorry, if you are using MS Internet Exploder 8 or earlier, it won't work. MSIE 9, Chrome or Firefox are your friends)

Bookmark it - we will keep updating it with mini-league dates, competitions, etc.
This calendar also works on mobile devices so you can browse it anywhere.


Well chosen, Bill. (Loob)

Lady Ontario takes on Grange Ladies...

Today 3 of our top ladies hosted hosted Kathy Cowper on the squash courts. Kathy was here because her husband was running the Edinburgh half-marathon and Kathy was not going to miss out on her squash fix just to cheer him on.

Kathy is one of the top ladies master in North America as can be seen by the battle with her arch-nemesis on Youtube:

Donna, Lottie and Catherine all answered the call to host Kathy and it turned into quite a nice training prepararion for the Div.1 playoff. Picture is Kathy taking away a memento of her visit to Grange Squash, flanked by Catherine(l) and Lottie(r).

Spot the Granger

Current Grange Squasher who was capped for Scotland 1986- Name please?
(Click the pic to zoom in)

For a bonus point: Name the Colinton player

For 2 bonus points: Name the Watsonians player

For 3 bonus points: Name the player who was also a Grange coach

Prize of a Titan grip for the most points.
Credit to Andrew McSherry of David Lloyd Glasgow for diggin out the photo.

Ladies finish season on a high

Our top ladies stepped up another gear this league, cantering away from Watsonians by a margin of 25 points.
At the bottom of Div 1, it looks like history has repeated itself - CLASS topped the Xmas table and are getting relegated 3 months later. ESC topped the table last season and 3 months later were relegated. Grange need to be wary of getting relegated next season, if this pattern were to repeat a third time.
ESC will be coming straight back up in Oct, as I suspect will CLASS come December.

Grange 1													134
Watsonians 1													109
Waverley 1													90
Dalgety Bay													84

C.L.A.S.S. 88

78

This now creates the weird situation that CLASS (as winners of the first half) play-off against Grange for the East title and still get relegated. Seismic shifts in the balance of power of ladies squash in East.

Meanwhile Ladies 2 went out on a win, beating Abercorn 4-1 for their fourth win of this league.

	Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
	1	Karen Kennedy	1	3	33			Joyce Bisset	0	1	21
	2	Jo Petty	0	1	17			Christine Walker	1	3	30
	3	Dawn MacBrayne	1	3	27			Mary McColl	0	0	5
	4	Alex Stewart	1	3	40			Meryl Cooper	0	2	37
	5	Caroline Burns	1	3	27			Lindsay Edghill	0	0	2
	Total		4	13	144				1	6	95
	Competition Points		16						6

Ladies wrap it up at Waverley, L2's go down fighting

The first ladies of squash beat Waverley 3:2 earlier this evening. Too many 5 setter games in one week for Donna left her a tad wooden tonight but it was worth it to win the Grange Over 40s tournament - (she has only recently been eligible to compete). However there is another week of games to play in this league so we will quietly celebrate until the final ball has been whacked before we start shouting from the Grange's upper terraces WE'VE WON!!!!!!!!!!

Team	Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Bonus Points	Total
Grange 1	Comp Points	18	18		18	17	15	15	7	12		12	132
	Games	15	15		15	14	12	12	7	9			99
Watsonians 1	Comp Points	4	15	15		15	5	14		15		12	95
	Games	4	12	12		12	5	11		12			68
Waverley 1	Comp Points		7	13	6	4		9	13	10		12	74
	Games		7	10	6	4		9	10	10			56
Dalgety Bay	Comp Points	4		11	3	6	15		14	8		12	73
	Games	4		11	3	6	12		11	8			55
C.L.A.S.S. 88	Comp Points	15	1	3	14		9	8	7			14	71
	Games	12	1	3	11		9	8	7				51

Competition points system used: 1 points per game, 3 points for win

---

Division 1 Order Of Merit

Division OrderOfMerit	Player	Rating	Pos	Team Name
1	Kim Byers	237.24	1	C.L.A.S.S. 88
2	Catherine John	220.68	3	Grange 1
3	Samantha Fearnley	203.7	2	C.L.A.S.S. 88
4	Donna Cruickshank	180.91	1	Grange 1
5	Heather Spens	170.82	1	Waverley 1
6	Hayley Cooper	159.53	1	Dalgety Bay
9	Lottie Fulton	152.99	2	Grange 1
12	Jacque White	120.51	5	Grange 1
14	Georgina Jamieson	113.42	4	Grange 1
17	Julia Lutte	106.35	6	Grange 1
19	Anna Gaskell	104.12	7	Grange 1
27	Karen Kennedy	88.6	8	Grange 1

There is the small matter of a play-off between ourselves and CLASS.88, who won the Oct -Xmas league (beating Grange by 1 lousy point. Even if we had been level on points, we would have won on games difference), before we can claim the title of Supreme Champions of the 2011-12 season. Does this merit a picture on the staircase??

Our Ladies seconds got to a good start againstt Tyne - #5 Caroline was able to serve into the stratosphere at Accies courts and won for the loss of 1 rally. Ale Stewart was looking good at 2-0 but Tyne #4 Maureen Pearman has bee playing squash for nigh on 50 years and in turn put the ball high in the sky to expose Alex's backhand volley: 2-3. Jo Petty and Karen Kennedy at #3 and #1 were outclassed. Dawn MacBrayne played out of her skin to beat Maureen Pearman 3-1.

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Karen Kennedy	0	0	3			Katie Craig	1	3	27
2	Dawn MacBrayne	1	3	36			Julie Pearman	0	1	29
3	Jo Petty	0	0	10			Fiona MacKenzie	1	3	27
4	Alex Stewart	0	2	24			Maureen Pearman	1	3	36
5	Caroline Burns	1	3	27			Susan Pirie	0	0	1
Total		2	8	100				3	10	120
Competition Points		8						13

Ladies at Dalgety Bay (Mon, Mar 13)

The firsts travelled all the way to Dalgety Bay tonight. It only took 20 mins to drive there from Blackhall, faster than a trip to Abercorn but mentally, it was "over the bridge" and therefore maps were consulted. Due to an unfortunate combination of events - knee injuries, dodgy tums and sunbathing on a beach, only 4 of us made the trip North.

Scores on the night were:

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Donna Cruickshank	1	3	40			Hayley Cooper	0	2	31
2	Georgina Jamieson	1	3	27			Nicola Crosbie	0	0	12
3	Anna Gaskell	0	0	0			Verity Whiteside	1	3	27
4	Karen Kennedy	0	1	22			Linda Murray	1	3	37
5	no player	0	0	0	Forfeit		Lynn Verdon	1	3	27
Total		2	7	89				3	11	134
Competition Points		7						14

Sadly one of the 4 was carrying a dodgy back so Anna went down in 3. Georgina (not Scottish) loved playing in the sauna-esque conditions - helped to sweat out some of the wine consumed in Paris at the weekend, but the native Celts struggled in the heat: Donna looked grey walking off court (heat + 5 games + lots of running = Grey Donna). It was so hot that Karen was driving perfect lengths on her backhand! Sadly, lobbing it to the back wall wasn't so effective...

Supper was served in the fab new Swedish holiday home, with excellent views of the tennis courts. Baked potatoes with lots of protein fillings and some green decoration followed by mini doughnuts (yum) and Rolo biscuits (yum too).

Final scores were 16:9 to the others (inc ref points), and our first loss of the season. Fortunately we are now 40 points ahead of Watsonians, who had a bye tonight. They have two games left and we have one, so we can't be caught......thank you Kim and 2 more ref points.

Ponder moment: When was the last time Grange Ladies won the First Division??