DLR Match Report for 17th March 2010

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Home Match v Newlands 17th March

Well not entirely surprising tonight we got chopped by the team that are going to finish 1st in Division 1 (sorry for the long report, but it is the last one of the season!).

At 7pm there were 5 teams all looking for a game and this was surprising as only 2 teams were playing at home. Eventually the Whitecraigs players realised that they were at the wrong David Lloyd and left (although not before I’d managed to get a preview sample bottle of ‘Big Peat’ Whisky from Fast Freddy Lang’s – which I must say is going down a treat at the moment!)

First up was Lyall (Paterson) against James Snell (PSA No.96) and this was an interesting match to watch. James is quite a conventional player and as his ranking would suggest he’s also very good at what he does. Lyall tried to play conventionally against him in the first, but this didn’t work as the Newlands man was just better at it than Lyall. So a slight change in plan was called for and Lyall was right in the 2nd game. He trailed for most of the game, but at 6-10 down he began playing some wonderful shots to haul himself back and at 9-10 he played his trademark back-hand cross-court drop into the nic to the delight of the crowd, who were hoping that he could convert this pressure into a game. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and James managed to hold it together to win 12-10. I think Lyall had given it his all in the 2nd as James dominated the 3rd game and won this match 3-0.

Next up was Kev (Moran) against Peter O’Hara. Now Kev had taken a game from Peter in the first half and (with some great form of late) was hoping to at least repeat this feat; Peter had other ideas however and was keen to win in 3 games. Kev battled hard in the first game, but at 5-5 Peter managed to keep his nose in front and won 11-8. The start of the second was very close, but at 3-3 Peter dominated the rest of the game and ran away with it 11-5. I went to mark another match at this point and missed the ensuing fireworks! From the other court I could only hear snippets of both Peter and Kev starting sentences with phrases like “Behave yourself Stuart……” and “How can that be a stroke…..” and as things got closer the voices were getting louder. The scores in the 3rd were 8-8, 9-9, 10-10 and 11-11 and it didn’t sound like an inch was being given. Peter pushed on in this game and eventually won the game 13-11 and the match 3-0.

Meanwhile Henry was playing Peter Malone at No.4. Once again Henry has stepped into the breach for the teams as Sean pulled out yesterday with a feeble parents evening excuse. It was only when someone mentioned that it was St Patrick’s Day that I suddenly understood!

Anyway Henry played at No.4 against Pete Malone, with a massive bandage around his leg, which was giving him more surgical support than the NHS! It was a tough 1st game and at 7-6 up Henry looked like he could take it, but Pete came back and closed the game out 11-8.

The 2nd was “a game of three thirds!”. Pete went 5-0 up, Henry came back to 4-5 and Pete then won 11-4. The serve only changed twice in the whole game!?!?! In the 3rd game it was much better squash and Henry battled well, but I always felt Pete had that little bit more and so it proved as he won the game 11-6 and the match 3-0.

Next up was John “Finders” Findlay against Stuart “the dog” Brunton. This game was like the light relief in between the main events, it was as if they’d just let the clown’s on! Well I say clowns, but I mean clown as John was obviously de-mob happy with it being the last game of the season. It was however all going well for him at the start of the game as he won the spin (!), but it quickly deteriorated after that. In fact when he was 10-0 down I was wondering if he thought I meant an individual point when I’d told him we still needed a team point! Anyway I called “10-0 Granny Ball” and we got a delighted John whooping and jumping about as he clinched the point. However the game was safe and Stu won 12-2 (but not before an ecstatically delighted John got another point).

I think John has worked out his very own let/stroke quota system and he seems to believe that 100% of decisions should be split evenly between ‘let’, ‘stroke’ and ‘no let’! And so was completely confused at how, no matter how many times he asked for a ‘stroke’ for a shot he was nowhere near, he was getting ‘no let’ 100% of the time. Still the crowd were enjoying the antics as John doubled his tally in the 2nd game (12-4) and he even had Stuart mucking about in the 3rd game and the master plan almost paid off at 8-8, however Stuart was not to be fooled and he closed the game out 11-8 and the match 3-0 (John retired to the dressing room to remove his make-up and red nose!).

Aptly enough there was an intermission at this point as we waited for Malky Watt and I was in the mood for candyfloss (!) but instead watched Wishaw’s Peter Shievas play on the next court (he’s still got that steely air about him and no nonsense style).

Anyway Malky bustled into the club and we went to knock up. After about 20 seconds Malky asked if I wanted to change sides and I thought this was my chance to nick the 1st game as he couldn’t possibly be ready to start a match so soon. So with a very short knock up on both sides I took a 4-0 lead in the 1st game and then a 10-4 lead before Malky had even woken up! And so I won the 1st game 11-4.

The 2nd was much more even at 3-3, but I got a good run of points at this time and was soon 8-4 up. “Right” I said to myself “whatever you do don’t let him back in” – at 8-8 however I realised this didn’t quite pan out as I’d have hoped! At this point Henry gave Malky a ‘no let’ decision and told him that he wouldn’t have got the ball (Malky looked disgusted at this!). Then at 10-9 game ball my strings went on the return of serve and I was wondering how I was going to stay in this rally. Clonking the ball was out of the question as the strings would have gone all over the place and so when Malky dropped the ball I got involved in a counter dropping exercise until a ‘let’ was asked for. Mission accomplished! And I headed straight for the door pointing at my strings to change the racket. After fishing in my bag and pulling out my ‘Mojo’ I was surprised to hear that Henry had given the game to me (much to Malky’s disgust) – and I thought “Wow that Mojo really works!”

I saw POH giving some advice to Malky in-between the games and I thought I hope he doesn’t tell him to play that bloody annoying backhand tennis volley. At 5-2 down I realised that was exactly what he’d told him. I did get back into the game at 8-9, but Malky won this game 11-8 and he also went straight through me in the 4th 11-2.

And so to the 5th! This was a tough game and I had Malky on the end of a couple of massive rallies which I didn’t mind losing as he’d done a lot of running to cling in. I tried to extend the next few rallies as well, but this didn’t work as well as I’d planned. Anyway the game ebbed and flowed until we got 10-10 and it was at this point that Malky pushed ahead and won the game 12-10 and the match 3-2

So 18 points for the Champions and only Henry and I managed to get a point each!! (and both were in my game!?!?!?!?!?!)

All the best

Jason