O35 Team Plate final- home v David Lloyd

At #2, Christy took on Gary Livingston and came from behind to take the first two. The ball went cold at the second interval and Gary's timing went off so Christy got it 9-1; 3-0. Todd Mitchell went on at #4 with Raymond Ross, it went every-other-game to 2-2 but Raymond forgot his inhaler and ran out of puff; 3-2.

Mark Dutton went 1-2 down against Steve Hansen in the early tight games and just took it to 5 where Steve pulled an early lead and Mark almost brought it but not quite; 2-3.

Gerald got 4 points off Mark Rotton, that is not a reflection of his play which was excellent, but the David Lloyd man say getting everything back and hitting sublime shots himself; 0-3.

With the match poised 2-2, Alan Stokes went on with Alex Killick - it was going to be a back and forth match, except in the third game, there was a dispute with the referee, who retired and when it went to 2-2 and needed a fifth, Alan retired; 2-3.

Overall David Lloyd won 3-2 and retain the plate for the 3rd consecutive year, well done.

Just Alex and Mark stayed for food, photo below shows them with the loot...

A strange night's squash, typical end-of-season fare, some good chat in the bar about the line-ups for next year, the burnt pizza and stolen fruit contrasted somewhat.

Cricket dates

The Saltires (Scotlands cricket team brand name) will play some english cricket counties on 4 Sundays coming up. Court 1 will be occupied by the teas tables, access/parking will be restricted during the day so bring your membership card. Other than that, you should be able to book/play as usual.
29 April, 20 May, 3 June, 10 June

Who put whom out, when and what score...

Club championships (Handicap, Plates, Ladies & Open) results can be seen on...
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p5t8gxjFz-SV6uAroQngGWQ

Thirds @ Marcos 3 (Fri, Mar 23,'07)

In this season’s final outing the hosts (Marcos) needed 3 points to secure the league win. By contrast we had mid-table mediocrity whatever the outcome and so the result was perhaps never in doubt!
The closest match was the opener between John Graham and their No 4 Rocco. A ding-dong affair, JG took the 5th to finish on a high (3-2)
On his Grange team debut Chris Mair was clearly playing below his station as he polished his match off in record time He broke a few speed limits to get from Aberdeen and probably broke a few speed limits on court too when winning at #5 in record time(3-0)
Sadly the efforts at 4 and 5 could not be repeated up the pecking order as David Grieve lost out in 3, Peter Young and Peter Tweedie each in 4 to see the tie closed out (8-14)
Thanks to all for their efforts over the season, particularly Peter Young for all his culinary efforts at the home matches – I’m already looking forward to next season!

Seconds @ C-Rooks 2 (Fri, Mar 23,'07)

Having rung up Ron Pearman to find out how many points we needed to go up, it was a relief to find that Abercorn had set us a target of 9 instead of 15 because they'd got 6 points less than maximum against Waverley.

In a scene reminiscent of comic capers, Todd & Peter Cockburn warmed up against Colinton 3 - Todd actually got reffed for a few points against Stuart Keane by Mark. Christy had to drag them both down to the glassbacks, especially Peter who was all geared up for a good thrashing by Kim Byers.

Todd Mitchell was on at #4 against the C-rooks 2 sub Adam and quickly ticked off 3 points for the team. Peter Cockburn was given a good workout by young Sean Robinson who stroked some beautiful forehand nicks but Peter was too steady; 3-0.

Jonathan Frame stepped up to #2 and was up against one of these guys who never rallies but lobs, cuts and angles everything. Jonathan managed to retrieve the shots to take one game but Kevin closed out; 1-3. Mark Dutton played #3 Derek Wilson, a game with everything. Attempted assasination of the referee by an attempted backwall boast that missed, a five minute discussion of the subleties of "creating your own interference" and dives. 3 of the games went 8-8 and in the end Mark lost 2-3 which gave us the required 9 promotion points.

Christy went on with #1 Jack MacAlister and always had too much pace and movement so he tacked on another 6 points. Overall 3-2 (15-6) which means we would have got promoted even without the score with C-Rooks first team being reversed by the league secretary.

Man of the match: Mark Dutton and Jonathan Frame for getting enough points even in defeat to tough opponents to lock up promotion.

The grub was disappointing by Colinton standards but some quality banter from Derek W, Mark and Christy kept our minds off the stale sarnies.

Firsts home v Marcos 2 (Wed, Mar 22,'07)

We needed 4 points to guarantee promotion and with Messrs Hamer, Gordon and Brown unavailable, it was not going to be a cakewalk against Marcos, who needed 9 points to guarantee winning the division. Gerald was chef d'equipe for the night so he went on first at #2. He was really pumped up for it after his marathon five game win over Stokesy in the club championship. He outshot and out-stared Matthew Hunter 3-0, even applauding his own mis-hits.

Peter Cockburn subbed-up against #5 Mike Hay and lost out 0-3. Alan Stokes got to 1-1 against #3 David Thompson but had to concede with a groin injury. Christy went 2-0 up against #4 Nick Wood but flagged badly to lose 2-3. Mike Perring traded with Paul deMarco at the front too much and lost the first but from there ground out a 3-1 win. Job done.

Overall 2-3 (9-13).

Gerald didn't disappoint with suffolk-size portions of baked-potato and chilli filling.

Man of the match: Gerald Suggett got us the promotion points and Feed of the season.

Thirds home v Dunbar 2 (Thurs, 15 Mar'07)

The Thirds put up a good effort to test Dunbar - a team pushing for promotion to Division 5.

As Peter Young was on cooking duty, he went on first at 1 and started well to take the first game 9:4. He was pushing on in the second, but Duncan, his opponent slowed things down on what were the warmest courts of the season so far. Pete ran out of steam to lose 3:1. Meanwhile on Court 1, Tim steamed into a 2-0 lead before being pegged back to 2-2. In a fifth game both players had match point before Tim prevailed to take the tie.

Stephen Davey stepped in at the last minute to pay at 2 but found the going tough against old timer Willie Paul who used all his years of experience to put Stephen on the back foot. Stephen had chances for a well deserved game in the third but Willie prevailed to win 3-0.

Rupert Brown was welcomed back into the Grange team to put in a good performance at 4 to win 3-1 against Alan Murphy and Chris put in a good effort at 3 but lost out to Dunbar's David Weissgerber 3-0.

All in all a 2-3 (7:15) loss against a good side which had strong players from 1-5