David Lloyd Renfrew Matches 10th March 2010

To see all the match reports for DLR chick here

Well as expected a tricky tie for us tonight without Lyall Patterson (who is playing doubles for Scotland in India as a warm up event for the Commonwealth Games! Where’s the commitment to the team Lyall!!!?!?!?!).

Western suggested an early start and so most of the troops arrived for 6.15pm to get the match off to a flyer. When I arrived at 7pm two games were over and Kev (Moran) was 1-0 up against (soon to be) Scotland’s newest O35’s Internationalist Mr Iain “the legend” Logan (although I have another nickname for him!). Anyway Kev was playing a very different game this week as Logie was making life tough for him to be too flamboyant. So we saw a much more workman like performance from Kev and he even shut up shop a couple of times when required and made Logie play the ball down first (which is no mean feat!). Kev took the 2nd game in just such a manner and looked in control, he also only had a tiny sweat patch which was about the size of a squash ball above the logo of his t-shirt and Richard King thought this wasn’t sweat, but Kev drooling at all the tasty shots that Logie was offering!

The 3rd game was again tight and the pace was fast and furious and did I see Logie moving the ball around a bit – surely not! Kev was ahead for most of the game, but right at the end Logie came back at him and at 9-9 RK called out “Big Point Logie” and he was right. Unfortunately for Logie, Kev once again shut up shop and in a long rally it was once again Logie who made the error and one point later it was all over 3-0 to Kev.

Henry (Reid) came out of semi-retirement as the team really needed him this week and like a true team player he was there for us. His leg was well strapped up (from shorts to sock with what looked like one leg of a wet-suit according to Dave Kelly!). He was up against an in-form Karl Stygal who hadn’t been told it was a Wednesday match and so was hitting nics for fun. Karl ran away with the 1st game and Henry reckoned that this was the time to dispense with the flippers and snorkel. The 2nd was much closer, but still Karl was in control and he won the game. Off came the oxygen tanks and mask and Big H was ready to make a major push in the 3rd, but unfortunately it was to no avail and an in-form Karl won 3-0 and Henry limped to the bar to have a chat with Stella.

I was on last against Colin Stirrat and looking forward to as tough a game as we had in the first half. Dave Mathy was marking and (in a new personal record) it only took me three hits of the ball to query the first refereeing decision! But this wasn’t typical of the match as it was a very good natured game and Colin was such a gent he didn’t even get too upset when I unleashed the “Broadberry Block” in one of the games!

Colin dominated the 1st game and really made me feel average (not hard I hear you all cry! Well that’s a bit rude!!) he made me turn again and again and drove hard to the back and was quick at the front. 1-0 to Colin. He was also well up in the 2nd, but I began watching much better and when I came back to 8-8 I knew that this was my chance. Fortunately I was able to take the chance and I levelled the match 1 game each.

I continued this on in the 3rd and managed to play tactically much better, by keeping the pressure on to clinch this one and go 2-1 up. I must have gone to sleep in the next as I was 5-0 down before I even knew what was happening. Colin got back to dominating the points and I stopped watching him as well. Colin romped home easily and so to the 5th!!

Sean was giving me his view from the balcony in-between all the games, but he came up with a real golden nugget in-between the 4th and 5th. “When you lob him he’s not returning very well”. I don’t usually need a second opportunity to play a lob so this sounded very interesting news. I had a shaky start to the 5th losing the first two points on the serve! Doah! But then I managed to reel it back to keep the pressure on. Whenever I was in trouble I sent up a lob and sure enough they generally put me in a good position to attack. At around 5-5 I thought the next few points were going to be crucial and fortunately I managed to win them. Once I got to 9-6 I knew I was going to be tough to beat and so I pushed again to win the last few points and managed to get a very hard fought 3-2 victory against a very tough opponent.

So what happened before you got there I hear you ask? Well John (Findlay) played Dave Kelly and all Dave could tell me about the match was that John was jumping up and down at various points shouting at himself, the marker and Dave. This sounded like our John, but other than that all I heard was that Dave won the match 3-0.

Sean played Richard King at No.3 and although he lost 3-0 seems to have been in the 2nd and 3rd games losing them 11-7 11-7. Richard was amused by a ball that went 5 feet out, but wasn’t called by the ref. I immediately assumed that Sean was the ref, but apparently not!! And Sean got a few rough decisions of his own according to Rich. However King Richard was triumphant tonight and Sean would have had to play out of his skin to make a dent in this match.

So overall a 15-6 win to Western 1 and we were in the bar for 9pm for a very nice Chinese meal and a well earned pint. Then when finished we watched the last tie of the Western 4 v Newlands 4 match which was a wee cracker 17-15 in the 5th at No.1

And so we head to the final match of the season next week.

Cheers

Jason