Broadberry Sports

Off to Hamilton last night and this was going to be a real tough one for the Whitecraigs young guns (and me – bringing the average age up to about 40!). So we all met at the club  – Ollie (the Captain), Chris, James and I – for the journey over, although really it was just for the banter in the car!

First on and still looking a bit green around the gills was Chris (Murphy) against Calum Philips. Calum was looking his usual sharp attacking self and immediately took a 1 game lead as Chris looked a bit heavy legged. I went on court at this point, so didn’t see too much more of this one although in-between games I did plot the match progress. At 1-1 I though Chris would pull through, then at 2-1 down I thought he’d run out of steam. But don’t underestimate Chris, he’s a fighter and at 2-2 he was hanging in. I saw a bit of the 5th game, but Calum was serving at 10-9, so I reluctantly went back on court, as it looked inevitable that Calum would win this one. This was tough to take, as I thought if we were going to win tonight it was going to be at No.1, 2 & 3.

In the meantime, I’d thrown away the 1st game (after being 10-7 up!) and scraped the 2nd, against Chris McCutcheon (Tigger to his mates). I’ve played Tigger a number of times, at both squash and racketball, over the years and he’s definitely ahead in the series, so this was always going to be a tough one. He dominated the 3rd game and volleyed really well to pin me back. Tigger played like ‘his top was made out of rubber, and his bottom was made out of springs!’ (or something like that!). The 4th game was closer, but Tigger was in charge now and won the tie 3-1.

Tough to take as I thought that was the team chance lost, however when I was chatting to Chris after, it turns out he’d won his match in the 5th, so we were back in it! (‘bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy. Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!’).

James (there’s only two James Singhs) was on next against Joe Broadley all the way up from Cumbria. This was another potential banana skin, so I got Chris to mark it….. just in case(!) but I needn’t have worried as James was in control of this one. He managed to work Joe in the early stages of each game and then reap the benefits in the latter parts of each game – but he also worked out exactly how to go about doing this and how to neutralise Joe’s play. Joe came back in the early stages of the 3rd, but James soon reacted and snuffed out the danger to win this match and add 3 points to the cause.

Flash Harry (Anderson) was up next against an ever-improving Chris McGeady. This was a great match to watch and exactly what West 1st Division squash should be about – two young players training hard, taking their squash seriously and then going toe to toe on a Wednesday night to slug it out. My money was on Harry, as he was hungry to impress his girlfriend who had come to watch him, and he was spanking the ball so hard he broke his racket in such a whirl of arms and legs, it was difficult to see how he’d done it. At 2-0 up Harry was ‘on-board the showboat’ and this is where Chris took his chance (winning 13-11) as he wrestled the match back to 2-1. Then at 8-8 in the 4th game, this could have been where the whole night was lost for us – but with a final push Flash Harry brought home the tie and took the 3 bonus match points as well.

Last up was Ollie (Captain Millen) against my old squash pal Colin Towers (with his vintage 1980s racket). I went upstairs for a bird’s eye view of this one and I knew that if Colin was as fit as he always is, this could be a tiring night for Ollie. And so it proved, as Colin won the 1st, before Ollie gave everything to clinch the 2^nd, with some great ‘holds’ all over the court. However, the fuel gauge was on empty after this and Colin was now in the ascendancy and took the match 3-1.

So a great 3-2 win for the team and 14 more points to our league total. M.O.T.M. for us tonight could have gone to any of the top 3, James for his brains, Chris for for his heart or Harry for being the Tin Man his courage! The leg-end that is Barry Sutherland (who now coaches and works at Hamilton) had organised Erdinger for my dinner, to go along with the great food for the team.

Another banterful trip back to Whitecraigs to watch the end of the 2nd team match and hoover up any extra food that was being offered! Burgers & veggie burgers went down a treat….. well they’re a growing team!