Second team at Dalgety Bay 4's(Mon, Oct 1)

The first match in the 2012/13 season saw the second team hop over the bridge to the Kingdom of Fife for a warm welcome (the heaters were on a few days in advance but I'm not complaining) at Dalgety Bay.

First up, Mark (Jose Maria) Dutton. Dressed in Seve Ballesteros blue, Jose had a tough start losing 6-9 in the first only to bring it back level in the second winning 10-9. A number of trademark dives (even twice in the same rally) indicates the dedication the captain has for the team this season. Sadly, he lost the third and fourth match. At the same time, Stokesy (Poults) had an equally tough opponent who wore the red of USA. Poulter struggled in the heat losing 3-0.

At number 3, the veteran, and recently retired Dougie (Paul Lawrie) Brown used all of his experience to thwart a 3rd win of the night for the Fifers. Great victory for The Grange, Lawrie won 9-4, 9-5, 10-9 and set the wheels in motion for a comeback of European proportions.

Duncan Walker (Justin Rose) could sense the change and duly out-gunned his opponent with relative ease winning 3-1. Those long pre-season games are doing him the world of good and setting him in good stead for his Himalayan adventure in the coming weeks.

Poised at 2 games each, The Sloan Ranger (aka GMac) huffed and puffed his way into the match. With warm courts, a young opponent, and full gallery, the squash was exquisite and rubbish – sometimes in the same rally. The wee man in the end couldn't find 5th gear and succumbed to the sustained pressure in the 4th game losing 3-1, resulting in an overall loss for the team. The tears on Monday night weren't of joy.

Pub grub followed at the Hillend as usual - very nice it was too. Not a great result to start the season but we're off and running and things can only get better... Special mention again to Duncan Walker who continues his training in the remote regions of Nepal! - good luck Dunc.
(Report: The Sloan Ranger.)

Pos	Player	Rubbers	Games	Points			Player	Rubbers	Games	Points
1	Gordon Sloan	0	1	29			Stephen Literacki	1	3	34
2	Duncan Walker	1	3	28			Colin Boswell	0	1	10
3	Dougie Brown	1	3	28			Willie Schultz	0	0	18
4	Alan Stokes	0	0	5			David Edwards	1	3	27
5	Mark Dutton	0	1	20			Grant Sinclair	1	3	36
Total		2	8	110				3	10	125
Competition Points		8						13

Racketball club championships (Sat, Sep 22)

Group 1	CL	AB	JF	NL	Total
Christy Looby	X	2	2	2	6
Andrew Beames	0	X	1	2	3
Jordan Fleming	1	2	X	2	5
Nick Lyth	1	0	0	X	1

Group 2	MG	DG	MD	GC	Total
Mike Gore	X	2	1	2	5
David Grieve	1	X	0	2	3
Mike Douglas	2	2	X	2	6
Gordon Cowie	0	0	0	X	0

All matches best of 3 PAR-11, blue ball.

Semis: Gorzer beat Christy 2-0

           Douglas bt Jordan 2-1

Final: to be played. Thanks to David Grieve for organising.
A few of us went across to San Marco afterwards for some pizza or tagliatelle and vino.

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.

Your roll-call of Grange Squash Champions unveiled

Stags Sevens sink the good ship Lloyds: salvage required

Cruising through Edinburgh, the good ship Lloyds SRC was sunk early on by salvos from ex-Lloyds player Tom McEwan, Christy, Duncan Walker and Allan Wallace. Amid some marathon and very hotly-contested matches which all went the way of the hosts, Simon Engelen got swung his turrets and got a consolation score.

Bob asked me not to post the game scores so here they are:
7. Tom "Export" McEwan bt Gohir Rashid 9/2 9/4 8/9 9/7
6. Christy "Windmill" Looby bt James Owen 9/6 8/9 9/7 1/9 9/5
5. Allan "Braveheart" Wallace bt Bob Sherlock 9/5 9/2 9/7
4. Duncan "Terminator"  Walker bt Jehangir Kedan 9/4 9/2 9/3
3. Pete "Captain" Cockburn bt Matt "The Show" Cosby 0/9 5/9 9/2 9/4 9/7
2 Gordon "The Ranger" Sloan bt Darren "Phil" Vickery 0/9 9/6 3/9 9/3 9/3
1. Will "The Kurgan" Kerr lost Simon "Captain" Engelen 6/9 1/9 1/9

Kevin Moran, portrait of an artist as a young man...

His latest work of art, from a beach somewhere called Coffs in Australia...

Jump circuit has given him unfeasibly large thighs... Picasso used to draw his subjects in a similar style.

Racketball - The Saturday morning gang (Sat, Sep 1)

Bac: Ali Ross, David Grieve, Andrew Beames, Mike Wagner
Front: John Matthew, Christy Looby, Nick Lyth