David Lloyd Renfrew v Strathgryffe 6th Jan 2010

1st Team Match Report for 6th January 2010  (click here to see this and other match reports)

Well only a few hours ago it looked like we weren’t going to get any points at all against top of the table Strathgryffe, so anything should have been a bonus.

First up was Henry against Garry McIlree. Garry is a fast, fit player who can get a lot back and he had plenty to get back in the first game as Henry had him running about the court like a whippet. Henry got a good lead and when you’re playing PAR to 11, a 4/5 point lead can often make the difference. And so it proved, because although Garry came back at Big H the initial flurry of points was enough for Henry to keep ahead and he took the first game 11-9. Garry started to get into the game more and Henry was all too well aware of this, which is why he pulled-up lame half way through the 2nd game. He obviously thought “I’ve got a game and that’s all there’s likely to be, so I’ll claim that I pulled a drum-stick.”

Meanwhile on court 2 Sean was playing his arch-nemesis, The Red Lawrie. These two have had some battles over the years, but usually they’re on the same team so the battles are in the bar afterwards and all verbal, so it was great to see the two of them slugging it out on court. As usual Sean looked incredulously at every decision that the ref made, so much so that he got far more calls going his way than he deserved. Ross was desperate to beat Sean 3-0 and further-more without looking like he was trying, but Sean was also desperate to get at least a game. Ross won the first two, but Sean got a 4-0 lead in the 3rd game and at this point Wullie McQ offered a bet that Sean would win the game. I was tempted, but then Sean went to 7-0 up and so I was glad I didn’t take it on. Ross came right back at him, but again the initial lead (and a double bounce that no-one saw!) was enough to help Sean win the game. Sean looked ecstatic; Ross looked gutted!! The 4th game was also very tight and it went to 10-10, Sean had a couple of game balls, but at 16-15 he finally ran out of luck and lost the match. Needless to say it didn’t end there and the verbal sparring carried on to the bar (MOTM to Sean for a great fighting performance).

Lyall went on next against Martin (“the honey-bee”) Woods and as he slammed an overhead cross-court in to the nic on the first point of the match, I thought this looks like it may be comfortable! But Martin made Lyall work hard for his victory. I have to say that Lyall never looked very worried that he couldn’t turn things round whenever he wanted, but he couldn’t take it too easy. And he didn’t – 3-0 win.

I was on next, against James Dare, and I knew that this was the tie that was going to decide the match. I went one game up and was feeling good (despite the fact that I though I was playing No.1 last night and so had a bottle of wine and a few beers…………….. well in my defence Tuesday is my day off and I thought it wouldn’t make any difference as I was going to get thrashed at No.1 anyway!). I was also well up in the next two games (game ball up), but lost them both, which was tough to take, but all credit to James for digging in. I managed to win the 4th through sheer will-power, but unfortunately the 5th was not so good as once again I took a lead, but managed to lose it and I lost 15-13 in the last (MOTM to James).

Kev went on last and there was not too much doubt about who was going to win this match. He played Chris (the pirate) Patrick and I think Chris was resigned to his fate from the off as he lost 3-0 a bit too easily. Mind you it’s tough when Kev is sending you the wrong way all the time. So on one hand it’s 10 points we didn’t expect to get, but also it’s 4 extra points lost and I need to get back into better form.