David Lloyd Renfrew v Whitecraigs Rugby Club 20th January 2010
All DLR & DLWE match reports for the 20th January are available here
A good match this week against Whitecraigs Rugby Club and some valuable points on the board!
First up was John Findlay (at No.5) against Colin Hutton. I missed the 1st game, which John lost 11-4 and as no one else saw it either I’m not taking John’s word for it that he was robbed! The 2nd saw Colin take a 8-1 lead and there was no coming back from that, however in the 3rd John was 6-1 up and it looked like he would salvage a point, but at 9-6 to Finders, Colin went on a great run of points to take the match 11-9 (3-0).
I went on next at No.2 and I was a little bit jaded after a 2-day 700 mile business trip, but that’s not to take anything away from my opponent (Matt Anderson) who had learnt a new shot since our last encounter and was determined to play the trickle-boast at every opportunity! And it was working! I took the 1st game when I remembered (almost too late, at 8-4 down) that I should be playing more down the backhands side against a man with a booming forehand and won the game 11-8. Matt won the next two games easily and I think I was guilty of only playing down the backhand and also trying to win the points without putting the work in (4-11 6-11).
I managed to change that in the 4th (with some great advice from Sean in-between games………no really Sean!………..Seriously I’m not joking!!!) and made Matt do a lot of running early on and this paid dividends at the end of the game and I took it comfortably (11-6). I thought I’d do the same in the 5th, but the rallies were too short for my liking and Matt was right in it at 6-5 up. However I managed to get a run going at this point and this ultimately saw me through to win the final game 11-8 and the match 3-2 (our guys nominated MOTM to Matt though for a great performance).
Whilst I was slugging away Henry Reid was on against an old team mate (from The Bannantynes-Budgies) called Jim Cross (at No.4), so I didn’t see this one. I heard that although Big H won the tie 3-0 it was a tough scrap and the result came down to the 2nd game when the score was 9-9. Every point was a big point at this stage and although Jim had a game ball at 11-10, Henry eventually came out victorious 14-12. The 3rd game was much more comfortable for the West Squash President and he took this 11-7 (and the match 3-0 and MOTM and also came through the match injury free and not a feather out of place!).
Kev Moran was on next (at No.1) against Dougie Emery and I think Kev was pretty confident. Having said that, Dougie played really well and kept himself in contention with a game-ball in the 1st (Kev eventually winning 12-10) and 8-9 in the 2nd game. However there was no doubt about who was going to win at this stage and Kev was up to his usual antics of trying to sending Dougie the wrong way at least twice per shot!! Anyway Kev won the final two games 11-8 11-5 to win the match 3-0 (and this put the team in an unassailable lead).
Last on was Sean Norris (against Alan Brown at No.3) and I had the pleasure of marking this one and was looking forward to explaining myself to Sean whenever I dared to give a decision against him!
Sean’s won the 1st game quite easily and I thought this was going to be a comfortable win. Obviously so did Sean and he let Alan dominate the early part of the 2nd game and by the time Alan was 6-0 up he was going to be very tough to beat. This didn’t stop Sean from running around like a loony for the rest of the game, but he still lost it 11-5.
I was still waiting for load of abuse from Sean over any decision, but the only moan I got was between games and he was complaining about a shot that had almost skimmed his nose, so I felt justified in telling him not to be a Muppet and to get back on and run the leg of Alan. And to Sean’s credit that’s exactly what he did and ended up winning the last two games 11-5 11-6 (although when I called match to Sean and his opponent Alan stood with his hand out to congratulate Sean, he was off to the water cooler to work out his strategy for the friendly afterwards and forgot that he’s won the match! Good focus!).
So a good 15-6 win for the team and hopefully this will edge us ever closer to the top 5.
Cheers
Jason
