An early kick off had been arranged and Michael Currie was going to be first on at No.5 against Bert Mitchell. Doug also arrived early and as his opposite number (Gordon Fawkes) was also there so we were two matches up and running. I marked Dougie and so (as normal) completely missed Michael’s game – however it didn’t surprise me to hear tales of between the legs shots and 2 stroke rallies. It did however surprise me to see the game over so early. Bert won 11-6 11-7 11-9 in double quick time and the chat after was that Michael just went for a bit too much, too quickly.

On court 3 Dougie was making heavy weather of his encounter against Gordon. Needless boasts at the wrong time combined with poor length meant that he was a bit all over the place – Gordon was hitting and moving well enough, although some poor dropping limited his effectiveness at the back of the court. Dougie took a scrappy 1st game 11-7 and then had to recover a game ball in the 2nd to win 12-10. He made Gordon work much harder in the 3rd and won more easily 11-9 (it would have been 11-8 but refused to take a stroke and Gordon tried to hit the tin to show good sport-ing-ness but instead slapped the ball into the nic!)

I went on next against Matt Mackie at No.3 and I was expecting a real tough one as we’d had a right ding-dong in the first half. I was up for it and ready to fly out of the traps like a greyhound! I have to say I was very pleased with my performance and I dominated the first two games 11-5 11-4. Unfortunately at 4-2 in the 3rd Matt pulled up lame (knee problems) and had to concede, but a good win for me non the less.

Kev took to the court against Colin Fawkes at No.1 and I missed most of this one as I was chatting to Bert, or should I say R.J.Mitchel, about his new novel (in all good book shops from the 28th – and some rubbish ones to) called “Parallel Lines” I think. When we joined the match it was already in the 3rd and Kev was 11-3 11-1 up and cruising. Dave (the marker) had written out 5 sets of the players names on the score sheet, which I thought was a bit optimistic as Kev romped home 11-3.

Sean was good enough to turn up at this point (!) to play Karen (Pink) Lawrie – Dougie seemed keen to mark this one can’t imagine why! The match itself was a bad day at the office for Karen who got chopped in quick time. Sean won 11-5 11-7 11-3 and was never in danger (the team were amazed however that Sean didn’t lose the first 2 games anyway!).

Sitting in the bar after Dave Mathie (the ref) had bought his black Labrador, Buffy, into the club and Matt asked him if having a guide dog present hampered his refereeing at all?!?!?!??! Quality, I just about got a stitch laughing at that one!

Last night saw us play our snowed off replay match with Strathclyde University at home; we went into the match requiring only 4 points to ensure a third place and hopefully automatic promotion back to 5th division but it was never going to be an easy match for us against the young fit students.

First on for us was our resident 3rd team physician, James, hoping to stabilise our condition and put the first suture in to close the 4 point gap we required for promotion. Despite a long day of travelling from Vienna, James shot into a 4-0 lead, constantly confusing the young lad with his disguise boasts and floating straight lobs. The youngster, Matt Baird, came back strong and, by running endlessly, forced James into a nip and tuck game all the way to the 13-13. James however forced the scalpel home and drew first blood 1-0. For the next game James decided to re-enact a song by a by a band of the same name and sat down to let Matt destroy him 15-4. Unbeknown to the rest of us, this was just a cunning plan by James to give him a little bed rest. Third game saw James race into a 7-1 lead, everyone thought James’s cunning plan had worked but no, what was this, young Matt hadn’t read the script and was staging a comeback to take it to 10-7. James dug in deep and closed the bleeding wound to win 15-13. The fourth went much the way of the third and despite a match point, James flat lined at 17-14 to make it 2-2 in games. Despite desperate attempts to revive James during the break, his 4 in the morning partying with the Vienna boys choir, on his trip, had left him with nothing in the tank and the lead balloon sank 15-4. 3-2 to Strathclyde, some great rallies but more importantly 2 points out of 4 required. The away MOTM for Matt for his shear determination and fitness.

On at the same time as James was Paul Rogan against Frazer Ley at 3. Unfortunately I didn’t see any of this match; despite James starting his game first, he finished well after Paul. Looking at the points, both players seemed to be playing hot and cold, like the flu, and with that ailment came the runs of points on both sides. Final score 3-2 to Paul; but more importantly this was 5-5 in matches and promotion secure. MOTM to Paul for securing his difficult win

After Pauls match, John McConnell took to the court at 5 against Lewis Cameron; despite winging about the ball being “too hot and bouncy”, which is what happens when you have a few rallies in a match John, the match was never really in doubt; although there was a 12-14 wobble in the 3rd, which John dug in to bring home 17-14. Loads of winging and arrogance from John but good play and a good score; which I am sure we will hear about for some time.

I was on at the same time as John, playing Callum Middleton at 4. This was a tough match with no shot ever being considered dead by either of us. This was made slightly more difficult by the fact that I was choking on my drops and my drives were not as tight as they could be. I won’t bore you with the details, other than it was 3-1 to me in the end; however on another night in another court, the score could easily have been reversed.

With my game, the match and promotion secure, it was now down to Andy to increase our point’s difference on the leader board.

Andy was playing at 1 against Finlay McGee.

The first game was a see saw of points with Andy forcing home a 15-12 well fought game. Unfortunately for Andy, Finlay was just using the first game as a stretching exercise for the rest of the match and he came back on a determined and very flexible young lad. Despite some very good squash by Andy, the youngster was just to fast, fit, flexible and in a previous life must have been a miner the way he kept digging the balls out the back corners for winning shots. Andy could find no way of finishing Finlay off, so it ended 3-1 to Finlay.

Despite the last game downer, this left DL 3 with a very respectable 15-9 win, with the bottom 3 brining home the bacon for a change.

Thanks to all the players who have supported the team for the year and bring on next year in the 5th division.

Cheers,
Brian

I was on first at No.3 against the weekends Scottish Masters over 50′s runner up Chris Holt. There was an ensemble of David Lloyd members who had come to see if I could do what I’m always telling them to do at training! I couldn’t! Chris dominated the first game from the get-go. Initially I couldn’t find a good length and equally Chris started well and then the rallies were long and hard, but I always seemed to be making the crucial mistake at the end. The plan in my head was to move the ball around and let Chris wear himself out. At 1-8 down this didn’t seem to be working; it was about then that I realised that Chris gets himself facing forward and crouching when retrieving the ball so this means he’s not as quick back to the ‘T’ as he could be. So the new plan formed in ma napper I had to take the ball early as well – and volley quickly. It was however too late for the 1st game and I just couldn’t wrestle back the deficit and Chris won 11-6.
I suppose I deserve the comments from the crowd (Craig) “You’ve gotta get back to the T” – “Get your racket up Jase” etc etc! The 2nd was going to be different! The start of the 2nd game was tight, but my quick volleys were beginning to pay off, when I got them going well and I raced to a 7-4 lead and took the game 11-6 (Craig again “Well that was better than the pesh in the 1st game”) .
The 3rd saw much of the same from me to take a 6-1 lead. Chris got the next point (no problem) and the next point as well (tighten up Jase) and the next (good shot Chris) the next and next……. at 8-10 down I was wondering what had happened, but fortunately I got a 4 point run to take the game (the ref was asked to make a few decisions at this point and I thought he – Dougie – was very fair apart from the call “That wasn’t a let Chris, but I’ll give it to you this time”???? Mind you Chris wasn’t happy about a few either, so swings and roundabouts).
In-between games Sean told me to “shut up” (fair enough – I’d told him the same many times) and so the 4th game started with good advice ringing in my ears – “don’t let this go to a 5th!”
At 5-0 up it didn’t look like it was going to, but at 9-9 it was anybody’s match – which is just as well coz it was mine and I won the game 11-9 and the match 3-1. A good tough match though.

Michael Currie and Sean Norris were on next and I marked Sean so I didn’t see Michael who was playing Dave Ward at No.5 (at least I think it was Dave as I never saw him again that evening). Kev said this was the best Michael has played for the team so far; even his ‘between-the-legs’ shots were bordering on good! He ran away with the first two games 11-3 11-5, but Dave then realised that he was playing with a broken racket! So Dave devised the cunning new tactic of “playing with non-bust equipment” and this worked brilliantly as he won the 3rd game 4-11. However Michael’s equally impressive match tactic of “taking a couple of days off the pop” kicked back in to trump Dave’s tactic and he ran away with the 4th game 11-2.

I was marking Sean on the other court and I could go in to a long explanation of the match, but I think it’s a much better summary to just say –
1) Sean lost the first two games – as usual (throwing away good opportunities whenever he could).
2) Sean then won the next two games – as usual (by becoming the human JCB and digging really well)
And so to the 5th. I was sure that Sean had his man in the last game as Brian (Robertson) looked very tired in the 3rd (when he didn’t serve from the left box once all game! What?) and exhausted in the 4th (when he only served there once!! – this must be a record!), but not at all! Brian got off to a great start and soon got his confidence back with some great length and lovely straight drops. Sean tried to extend the rallies, but just wasn’t able to do them as effectively as he needed to and in the end I think Sean tired himself out. Brian continued to move Sean around well and ran away with the 5th and the match 3-2 and MOTM (10-12 10-12 11-6 11-6 2-11).

Kev was already in full flow when I joined the game and he’d won the 1st game 11-8 against Steven Halliday. He was however 7-8 down in the 2nd and Steve is very dangerous in these situations. He played a couple of tricky angles and at 10-9 wasn’t about to let the chance of a game pass him by and he finished the game off 11-9. Kev’s racket was thrown to the floor then picked up again and then thrown to the floor again! Kev must have been thinking of going into fast food in the next game as he handed Steve the squash doughnut 11-0 and then finished things of clinically in the last with a 11-4 win and some great athletic displays (MOTM for me).

Last up was Dougie Kempsell at No.2 against Pete Halliday. Dougie couldn’t have played better in the 1st game. He completely dominated every aspect of each rally and by 8-2 he had Pete blowing out of his…………. blow hole to win 11-2!
Pete employed much better tactics in the 2nd and went for more shots to go 6-3 up. In contrast Dougie was stuck in cruise-control and it was only a disputed stroke that jolted him out of this frame of mind. He wasn’t happy with the decision, but I was as it made him re-focus and take the game 11-8. The 3rd was much better for Dougie as he won it 11-6 and was happy with this warm up the Scottish Nationals this weekend in Edinburgh.

So all in all a good 17-6 win and once again a very nice curry and chat about that old chestnut moving West Division 1 to a Tuesday! (Good to have that chat again after so many years!! Great idea – will never happen!)

On the other court, it wasn’t looking good for Billy against John Moor at 3. He had lost the first game 15-5 and then the second 15-9. We were hoping for a big turnaround but when John got to 13-5, defeat looked a formality. Billy got a few points back but then faced match point at 14-9. He saved it but would have to save 4 more to stay alive. Incredibly, he did and John chose to set to 3. He immediately regretted it as he won the next point. Billy took the next 2 to get to game ball but John saved it to get to match point for the 6th time. Billy’s fightback wasn’t to be in vain as he clinched the vital last point. That proved to be the turning point as Billy took confidence from this and won the next 2 games 15-11 15-8. No doubt who was going to be man of the match after that.

I was on next at 2 against Fraser Gemmell. I took the first 2 games comfortably but I found myself trailing all the way in the third until 12-12 when I put in that final spurt to win 15-13. That gave us a winning 12-2 lead.

There was still no sign of Colin but the news from our Airport correspondent, John was that the plane was 4 minutes ahead of schedule. So Stuart went on at 5 against his namesake Michael Ward confident that we were not going to forfeit the match. Stuart just had too much for Michael and ran out a 3-0 winner. By this time, Colin had arrived and was able to take his place at the pinnacle of the team order. He was playing Danny Norris. In the first game, Colin’s jet lag was evident as he struggled to impose himself. He had to go all the way before winning 17-15. Thereafter, he took control and saw out the next 2 games to give us an 18-2 victory.

An excellent 5-0 win for DLR.
Robert W

Checked the league position and not updated yet, the Rugby club have sneaked in the backdoor to take 3rd position due to a late score going in from last week, so we’re currently in 4th with 2 games against SSRC and one against Western 4 to go. Still think we can do it though, all down to the SSRC matches.

Brian

First on was Dougie Kempsell at No.2 against Paul Sweeney. This was a good match and although I thought Dougie didn’t play that well, it was maybe because Paul didn’t let him.
Paul was 10-5 up in the 1st, but Dougie made a good comeback to get it to 10-10 by shutting up shop and getting everything back. However it wasn’t to be as Paul found the right shots at the right time to close the game out 10-12. However Dougie took this momentum into the next game and at 6-2 up he was never going to be caught, winning the game 11-6. Paul played much better in the 4th, but he also used a lot of energy doing so – it was tight at 7-5, but Dougie was relentless with much improved length on his drives and he won the game 11-6 finishing Paul off with a few crucial drops. The last game was all about fitness and Paul was run out of his! So it was a much easier for Dougie as he won the game 11-1 and the match 3-1.
Michael Currie was on at the same time against David. I was marking at the time so didn’t see any of it. I think it’s safe to say that Michael played at least one shot through his legs and a few 100mph backhand-cross-court-nics in his 11-4 11-6 11-5 victory (if he didn’t I’d be amazed).
Sean was on next against John Bannister. Sean had won this tie in the 1st half by 3 game to 1 so could he do it again? Well the answer to that was ‘probably not’ as he lost the first two games 9-11 7-11. However John was red in the face by this time and Sean was getting into his usual rythm of losing the first two games. The 3rd was tough at the start with Sean really digging everything back and this set him up for an 11-4 win and when he repeated the 11-4 score-line in the 4th it was looking like Sean’s fitness was going to get him through. And so it proved with Sean winning the 5th game easily 11-2. In the bar after Sean decided that he was MOTM again this week (I said that if we balanced the rubbish in the first 2 games with the resilience in the last 3 then he may have just piped it. Mind you I was angling for MOTM myself!)
So I went on next and thoroughly deserved MOTM for my wonderful shot making and fantastic movement. Well Alan (Susskind) thought I played well as I won the match 11-4 11-5 11-7. To be honest I’ve always been able to read Alan’s game well and have usually had the better of our encounters – and if that weren’t enough I also clonked him on the nose with my racket in the 1st game just to make sure he had too much to think about rather than beating me (only kidding it was a total accident, which I had to insist wasn’t a stroke to both the marker and Alan – sorry Alan).
Last up was Kev against Mark Ford at No.1. Now this has been a spicy affair in the past few encounters and although Kev has won a few of them they are always very tight and usually 3-2s. I’d heard that Mark was playing quite well at the moment so was very interested to see how Kev would do against the old campaigner! When I came off court Mark had just won the 2nd game 11-7 and I feared that Kev was 0-2 down, but not a bit of it. He’d won the 1st game 11-9 (despite being 6-9 down). Just as with Sean and Dougie he’d already done a lot of the spade work as Mark was looking tired, so the 3rd was a comfortable 11-3 win to Kev and Mark was obviously saving himself. The whole game saw some terrific squash, Kev played a few shots I’d not seen from him before including a very nice disguised forehand drop; he also volleyed very well on the back-hand side. Mark was his normal self with his fantastic defensive game that is very hard to break down and his attacking angles. In the 4th Kev got off to a great 7-3 lead and Mark was physically struggling to keep pace with the young buck. At 10-5 however he did manage to wrestle 3 match-balls back to get to 8-10, but Kev was just too strong and it was only a matter of time before he finished Mark off and it ended 11-8.
So a good 18-4 win for the team and as we all discussed the future of the Old Firm as McCoist and Lennon squared up to each others hand-bags!