Broadberry Sports

So another tough one last night against a very solid SSRC side with Ali Prott at No.1 – and he was 3rd in the Scottish Nationals at the weekend, so that was going to be a tough one for ‘2 James Singhs’ tonight!

Mind you James and Chris (Murphy) also played in the Nationals at the weekend, so there would be some excellent squash on show!

First on at No.5 was Ollie (Millen) v Chris Holt. This was going to be a crucial one if we were going to stand a chance tonight. At 1-1 in games, I thought Ollie looked like he was the man setting the pace, but Chris can get a lot back and he did, so Ollie was finding it tough to break his game down. But he stuck at the task and the game-plan and managed to bring the match home 3-1. Great win from the man in the skintight shorts! (they’re XL!)

Next on was the game of the night as Chris (Murphy) took on Dan Wearing at No.2. Chris started well and looked in control after the first game, however, he opened the door early in the 2nd game and Dan stormed through it…………. with pace! There was a momentum shift right there and as the match went on Dan became more and more dominant. Right up until 10-4 match ball in the 5^th game. Well, at that point there was nothing else for it, but to try a few shots and that’s exactly what Chris did! To cut a long story short, a number of amazing shots later (and a couple of mistakes from Dan) it was 10-10 and we were all cheering Chris home! What a come back and no one can deny that Chris was MOTM tonight.

Harry (Anderson) took on Jessie Mills at No.3 next and I didn’t see the first game, but Jessie won it. When I started watching Harry looked in control, so something must have changed! This was a good match, but Harry always looked like he was going to win, and he did 3-1 – securing the ‘bonus match points’ at the same time. A good solid performance from Flash Harry, who is currently trying to get his Flash rackets back via an eBay bidding war (Flash Harry without his Flash rackets just doesn’t look right!).

James (two James Singhs) went on next with Ali Prott at No.1 and to say he was up against it would be an understatement. Having said that if you’re not 100% on it against James he can tear around the court and put anyone under severe pressure – and that’s what happened. James kept getting everything back and Ali made a few uncharacteristic errors, so all of the games were very tight, and James had the lead in at least 2 of them. Unfortunately for us, Ali was just about able to recover these situations, and ended up winning 3-0.

I was on last against Brian Robertson at No.4 and not much to report other than a 3-0 drubbing was handed out by Brian. Chris did his best to get me going and after the 1st game he said (I paraphrase), “Stop doing what you’re doing and try playing normal squash and you’ll give yourself half a chance!” – and he was right! The 2nd game was much better, I even get a game ball, but unfortunately couldn’t convert it, so 3-0 to Brian. (There was an ‘interesting’ decision that didn’t go my way at one point, but Brian put the next return-of-serve into the tin to even things up and it made no real difference to the game………. however, it did animate the match and I don’t think anyone watching was under any doubt of what I thought of the bamboozling decision!)

So into ‘The Back Bar’ for a very tasty casserole, even one particular athlete in the team (who thinks that pizza is a healthy option) agreed that, “the scran was actually delicious.” I even ended up playing a couple of games of pool against club leg-end Alex H and we are now 1-1 in the series up to 100!

Tough match last night against our neighbors, Giffnock, and we were a man down from the first half, so was this going to be a telling difference….…?

First on was Ollie (Millen) v Niall Morris at No.5 and we had a great chance of winning this one as Niall was heading off to see Ricky Gervais last night so if we could delay him long enough, he would have to concede! Unfortunately both players were ready and raring to go at 6.15pm, so advantage to the fast-running Giffnock man. To be fair, Ollie played well this week, but Niall was just too fit and despite a sniff in the 2nd game at 10-10 Niall always looked like he was going to win……. which he did……3-0.

Harry broke his ultra-shiny racket last week (he loves that racket!) so it was our new man ‘Not-so-Flash-Harry’ on next against Stu Pitt. This was a very interesting match as both players are very fast – Harry in attack and Stu in defense – so we were expecting a good game. And it was a great game for Giffnock, as Stu dominated the play and got all of Harry’s attacks back. Harry got closer in the 3rd and maybe this would have given him a flash of confidence, but it was not to be, and Stu won the tie 3-0.

Chris (Murphy) was on next against Owen Hadden, and it was clear from the start that both men were under the weather – Chris from a bug and Owen from a leg issue, so this probably evened things up a bit. Chris had won the fixture in the first half, so he was the favourite and he lived up to the billing. Chris is probably the last person you want to play if you’re not able to move quickly and change direction, and he was always in control of the tie. I went to warm up when Chris was 2-0 up and he soon brought home the match 3-0 (Owen took one for the team this week – and was later talking about a move down the team order, in the years to come, to not have to play the young guns anymore – I know how he feels!).

I was on next against Ben Mazzucco at no.4 and having lost 3-0 in our last encounter I wasn’t too hopeful. This match was also 3-0 to Ben and despite one of the biggest ‘fishes’ of the season that I’d witnessed, as Ben wrapped his racket round me (at least twice!) to convince the marker of a ‘stroke’ (and he needn’t have worried as it was definitely a stroke anyway), but as I turned my racket upside down and pretended to ‘reel in a fish’ I think we all saw the funny side!

Last up was James (Singh) with a bit of a gargantuan tussle on his hands against Jamie (Hendo) Henderson. Everyone else took a step back from marking this one, so I told the players that I’d do my best, but not to give me any grief! In the first half of the season Jamie had won the tie 3-1 and this match was even tighter tonight, with some real exhausting rallies. For me, this was the best I’ve seen James play and he didn’t let Jamie have any easy passage of play. Jamie was very tight at the back of the court, to take the first two games, but as he tired James got his chance and he sneaked the 3rd game 12-10 (which was probably when his heart-rate monitor exploded at 201 bpm!). Then it was 8-8 in the 4th game and looking like James may take this to a 5th. However Hendo managed to close out the match at that point 3-1, and I think he was delighted not to have to go into that 5^th game. Great match and I’d give both men MOTM (although Stu Pitt probably deserved it as well and I’ll take the other MOTM ‘Marker of the Match’ for doing 2 matches!).

So a tough loss to take at 4-15, but thoroughly deserved by a Giffnock side that will be tough to beat by any side. Then into the ‘front bar’ tonight for dinner (as the footie dominated the ‘back bar’) and mince & tatties was the order of the night (and veggie frittatas for James and me – I know…..fancy eh!). Our chef, Vicky, who is allergic to fish, had a close encounter with a trout earlier and I wondered if it had been Ben who was fishing again after our match!!