Broadberry Sports

Well you could feel that this wasn’t your ordinary West League match last night, as there was a tension in the air. Some of the team, who got a ‘Bosman’ to Whitecraigs LT&SC this summer, were playing their first squash match against their previous club and were eager to impress. Even the Giffnock squash convenor wished me ‘bad luck’ on the way in! 😊

Harry (Anderson) was one of the Bosman Boys, and he went on first against Neil Bennet (from Townend/Dalgety Bay/Poland!) at No.3. I didn’t see any of this as I was on at the same time against Stu Pitt at No.4 but chatting to Harry after he said that he won the first two games and was exhausted. Neil stormed back in the 3rd, and it was then that Harry realised how much he would have to dig! And dig he did as he took the match 3-1. Neil wanted to storm outside to cool down, but he only stormed out for about 5 seconds, as it was stoatin’ it doon ootside!

I had a strange encounter against the gangly giant that is Stu Pitt. He seems to have an ‘on/off switch’ in his head that can flick one way or the other at any moment! Game 1 it was on, and he won reasonably comfortably. Game 2 & 3 it was off, and he lost them both – with his racket going for flying lessons, into the away supporters’ end – Bruce had to take evasive action! However, Owen (Hadden) was down, between every game, trying to re-wire Big Stu, and he must have found the short circuit, as the 4th game was a very easy 11-2 to Stu………. and he was 5-1 up in the 5th. Hold on, were the lights flickering as I came back to 5-7? Well yes, but not enough to turn off and Stu brought the tie home 3-2

Step forward if you want to referee the No.2 match between Chris (Murphy) v Owen Hadden? Everyone takes one step backwards leaving me looking like the volunteer! It was immediately obvious that both players had a (grudging) respect for each other’s contrasting squash styles and both were very keen to impose their style on the match. Tonight it was Chris who won the battle 3-0, but that was far from the whole story. There were very tough moments in all 3 games that could have turned the tide at any time. However, Chris had the right game plan to keep his nose in front at the crucial times, and secure 3 points for the team.

The No.5s went on next for the epic match of the night, as ‘Kiwi’ Cammy (Colquhoun) put his 100% win record up against Niall Morris. I didn’t see the 1st game, but the score (12-10 to Cammy) looked like it was a bruising start. However, when I did start watching in the 2nd, Niall was well in control. Cammy was trying to finish the points too quickly and was making lots of mistakes to lose the 2nd. But if the 1st game was tough, the 3rd was an epic ‘hit & run’ for Cammy! And when it got to 5-3, Niall looked like he’d run out of puff, as Cammy took the next 7 points – and went on to go 2-1 up. So the message was, “same again please!”, but things are rarely that simple with a Cammy match! Niall played much better and again, too many mistakes from our lad……… and so to the 5th! Well this time it was Niall’s turn to make a few mistakes to give Cammy a 5-1 lead and then it was just a matter of if Cammy could hold on. Niall slowed things down very effectively and 9-2 became 10-6, but a fortunate ‘dead nic’ gave Cammy the momentum he needed to push over the winning line 3-2 (and secure the extra 3 match winning points).

At the same time that this was all going on, James (Singh) went on against Jamie ‘Hendo’ Henderson at No.1. The 1st game saw Jamie trying to win every rally in about 2 shots and at 4-2 he looked like he could do it, but James played really well to take the game 11-6. So Hendo had to change his game a bit and that’s exactly what he did; he still took on some ridiculous shots (and got most of them) but he also used a fantastic ‘hold’ to keep James guessing. It was another tough 2nd game, and with a few more points going James’ way at 8-10,  he may have sneaked it, but Jamie won the 2nd 11-8. After that Hendo took control of the match and never let go. So a 3-1 win to Jamie.

A good hard 3-2 win for us and M.O.T.M. should probably go to Cammy for his 3-2 match winning performance (but it could equally have gone to either Flash Harry, Hendo, Chris or even Owen for re-wiring Stu just in time!). Then there was some lovely pizza & chips (and Erdinger) for dinner and good chat from all the Giffnock lads past and present. The team returned to the Whitecraigs Back Bar to join our other team members (Ollie & Hamish…….Dumb & Dumber!) and the match was dissected again by one and all! Gotta’ love a Wednesday squash night oot!