Firsts @ Waverley 1 (Wed, Feb 18,'09)

The firsts scored 7-18 against Waverley last night, points were Chris 1,Mike 3, Al 1. Chris Ferguson was spectacular! Allan hung in pretty well and put on a good show. (AG)

Seconds home v Abercorn I (wed, Feb 18,'09)

A good performance from all saw the seconds cruise to a much needed 18-5 victory against Abercorn. Will was on the rack against tough opposition from Bruce Russell. Bruce's deception had Will running like never before, and he easily took the first game, and then the second. Will dug deep in the third, to take it 9-7. The running had obviously taken its toll as Will finally succumbed in the fourth. 2-9, 5-9, 9-7, 2-9.
Mike put in a fine display against Ian Ross, and didn't give him a lookin. 9-2, 9-4, 9-3. Robert was on such good fighting form that his opponent was too scared to even show up. W/O

Alan was initially on the ropes against Steve Whitby, an unorthodox player who grabbed every chance to volley. Two games down, Alan stuck with it, competing fiercely to take the third and fourth. We were all set for a tense and nailbiting finish, but Steve caved in - Alan'scompetitive approach scored a decisive mental victory. 3-9, 5-9, 9-5,9-7, 9-0
Tony made a long-awaited return to the team after injury. There were glimpses of the old magic (beware mini-league 1) as he easily took thefirst two games from Bernard Starkey. A wobble in the third gave Bernard two game points at 9-9, but Tony kept with it to close out. 9-6, 9-2,10-9
Scores
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Will Kerr 1-3 Mike Hall 3-0 Rob Pfab w/o Alan Stokes 3-2 Tony Gribben 3-0 Overall 18-5 (report: RP)

Grange 3 vs Dunbar 2 Thursday 12th Feb 2008.

Just a short blog this week as the 20-0 scoreline says pretty much all that's needed. Everybody played very well on the night in the arctic conditions that prevail inside the St George's courts and comfortably accounted for their opposite numbers.

At no 5 our debutante Richard van Lienden had a slowish start against A. Murphy but was well on top by the end of the first game and gave away very few points in the second and third. 3-0.

At no 4 Mark Dutton likewise had a hard fought first game against N. Black but some good drops and length were sufficient to dominate the next two games. 3-0.

At no 3 Pete Cockburn was untroubled in dispatching R Baty 3-0.

At No 2 Christy Looby gave away only one point in the first two games against D. Wiessengerber and ran to 8-0 up in the third before his conscience got the better of him and he eased off the gas to save his opponents blushes. Nice guys very nearly finished last in the sense that Mr Wiessengerber chose that moment to reel off a series of excellent winners combined with some pretty ropey ones and suddenly Chrisy found himself 8-9 down. A couple of nervous handouts followed with Christy finally managing to save his own blushes. 3-0

Patrick Langley ran into the sternest opposition of the night at No 1 against the rapidly improving Graham Jones. He took a very tight first game 10-9 and followed that up by increasing dominance of the next two to run out 3-0.

A great result for us in our mission to claim second spot.

Seconds @ Edin Uni Studs II (Wed, Feb 11,'09)

Everyone was fighting hard for it. Best efforts by kerr hall and pfab – they all made a good dent into class players. Dougie played a gazelle – far too fast! Ali in his own words could have done better. 8 points is a decent haul against the table-topping students though.

Kerr 1-3
Hall 2-3
Pfab 2-3
Gordon 1-3
Brown 0-3

Overall 8-20, not a bad points haul

Firsts home v Watsons 3 (Wed, Feb 11,'09)

Braving snow and ice the match kicked off with a full compliment from both Grange and Watsons making it to the starters line at at 7 where upon Messers(sic) Stokes and Forest kicked off proceedings on court 2. Stokesy drove, ducked, dived his way to taking the first two in good style. There was a wobble in the third before Stokesy dug deep and took the 4th for a 3-1 win.
(Congrats Alan, with this appearance he reminded us it has been 27 years playing first team squash. We didn't bother disabusing him of this notion ;-)

Brian, fresh from some big wins on the mini league circuit, had the wind in his sails and made short work of Gordon Fruish coming out 3-0 on top. Chris managed to bend his knees just enough to win the 4th string encounter with Ed Murray 3-0 before Ian took to the court and gave a convincing performance to over come Ally Carruth 3-0.

The real action of the night came with Alan taking on Mike Sinclair with his "ping-pong dropshots". It was a hard hitting affair and Mike twice took the lead with some tight shots and knicked drops. Both players looked like they were getting near the wall but......... at 6-1 down in the 4th, Alan summoned up a last push, took the fourth and ran off with the 5th to complete a fantastic 3-2 comeback victory.
1. Allan Hamer bt Mike Sinclair 1-9 9-2 3-9 9-6 9-0
2. Ian Green bt Ally Carruth 9-0 9-2 9-7
3. Brian Buchanan bt Gordon Fruish 9-1 9-1 9-0
4. Chris Mair bt Ed Murray 9-0 9-7 9-0
5. Alan Stokes bt Andrew Forrest 9-2 9-7 5-9 9-4

So 20-5 the final result and the grangers rock on. Bring on Waverley (report: CM)
I would like to remind Richie Mac that the pizza servings were truly slab-sized as usual at Portgower, eliciting green-eyed comparisons with the Myreside servings from the Watsons contingent. OK, so I just made that part up (CL) ;-)

Oldies home v Tyne crinklies (Mon Feb 9,'09)

Ian Green beat Dave Jubb 3-0: 9-1 9-5 9-7
Brian Buchanan lost to Alan Russell 2-3: 9-5 6-9 9-0 1-9 9-0
Alasdair Gordon lost to Nigel Pearman 2-3: 6-9 9-6 9-7 3-9 7-9
Dougie Brown beat Graham Morrison 3-2: 9-5 9-1 9-10 7-9 9-6
Alan Stokes beat Stuart Falconer 3-0: 9-6 9-3 9-7

Thirds @ Inveresk (Thurs, Feb 5,'09)

For the top of the table clash, we turned out with our strongest possible team... but so did Inveresk. Christy at #4 was first on against Harold Nesse and just lost the set first game, down hill from there feeding Harold's reverse angles with cross-courts through the T; 0-3.

Dougie at #1 was up against it in Adam Lord, Adam was cleaning everything for the loss of just 3 points in the first two but Dougie contested the third to set-point but was unlucky not to sneak it; 0-3.

Michael Scott took John Brown to 5 at #2 but also fell to lack of length feeding his man's reverse angles; 2-3. Pete Cockburn at #5 v Willie Wood, Willie played some slide-rule drops and boasts to take a game but Peter had too much movement and closed out convincingly 3-1.

The finale was #3 Patrick v Samantha Fearnley, some terrific hitting from both players, Patrick got absolutely everything back including stuff he had no right to, a good comeback in the first game from him saw Sam having to throw in some errors which made the difference throughout; 3-0.

Overall, 10-15 so not too much damage done, Dunbar at home on Thurs with the crunch match being at Waverley4 on Mon, Feb 23.

Plenty of banter in the bar after, even with 2 Inveresk players having to leave they had the other squad players in support and second servings of chilli in tortilla wraps hit the spot.