Broadberry Sports

Last match of the season and a big battle against Western to see who would finish 2nd in the league. It was an away match so James, Chris, Harry and I travelled together through the West End traffic jams, having a great laugh about all things squash (and James’s new hair style, with blond highlights). My car boot took another hammering, as none of them seem to be able to shut it without slamming the hinges of it! “Stop slamming the bloody boot!” is ignored most weeks!

‘Two James Singhs’ calculated that we would need at least 9 points to clinch the runners-up spot in West Division 1, so let’s get into ‘em!

First on was Flash Harry (Anderson) at No.3 against one of his boyhood coaches Martin Woods. Harry decided not to bother bringing a racket along tonight, so a game plan must have been out of the question! Flash gave away a few too many points with ‘tins’ at crucial times – as Martin used all his experience to sneak home and win the 1st game. However, after that Harry really tightened things up, but still kept his fast and attacking play to the fore. With some great length and excellent volleying, Flash made some great inroads into breaking down Martin’s defenses and after 3 tight games he took them all, to get the first 3 points on the board (and only 1 Mizuki in the whole match! Although about 20 in the warm-up!).

Chris (Murphy) took on Scott Hay on another court at No.2 next and was 1-0 up when I started watching. To be brutally honest Chris was never in any danger of dropping a game tonight and he glided about the court in his pink top looking like the Pink Panther stalking his prey. 3 more points to the total.

Uncle Mike (Martin) was on next and having won a challenge match against Ollie last night he was obviously on form. He played a very fast junior making his Div. 1 debut tonight (called Harrison) and he really created loads of problems for Uncle Mike by getting everything back. However, in-the-main Mike was too experienced for the young man and although I thought he could have hit a better length at times he brought the match home 3-1 (with a great comeback from 8-10 down in the 4th to win on a tie break). So Mike secured his 3 points and the match bonus point and so also the Team’s No.2 spot in Div. 1.

2 James Singhs was on at No.1 next v Robert Adams. James had been on jury-duty for the last 10 days so hasn’t been on court his usual 3 times a day! So there were plenty of errors from the man who wants to be know now as Singh-Shady, because of the new hairstyle! (but you can’t choose your own nickname, otherwise everyone would have to call be Jahangir Jase, so he’s got nae chance!!). Anyway, James stumbled over the line in the 1st game, having said that, he always looked like he was just about to win the game! I thought Robert played really well last night; James was just too quick at the crucial times and although I’ve seen him play better, he did what was required to bring the match home 3-0.

Kieran Pole arrived just in time to play against me at No.4, so we went on last. To say a lot of my shots came off last night would be an understatement and I was happy and relieved in equal measure. I’m not sure it was a great game to watch as the balcony emptied pretty quick with only the stalwarts left by the end! Kieran was dangerous at times, but just couldn’t string enough good play together last night and as so, as I said, my shots were going well. There were not a lot of long rallies, but then that usually suits me so I managed to stay in control and bring the match home 3-0.

So pizza and chips (and a team photo) with the Western lads and a great 18-2 win (undoubtedly helped by the Western lads missing a couple of players). Then a trip home to the Whitecraigs Back Bar for another team photo (with Ollie and Hamish) and a second celebration with the other teams (3rd team promotion!) and even Hamish got me a shot of some strange spirit to top off a great season of team squash and a wonderful team spirit.

I’d never played at Strathclyde Uni before, so was looking forward to seeing and playing on these new-ish courts. They were great to play on, with massively high ceilings for my lob-serves! (although they seem to have been put in a corridor without great viewing).

The Uni lads had a decimated team with at least 4 players missing, so it’s going to be a quick match report (spoiler alert) as we all won 3-0 by quarter to nine!

Uncle Mike (Martin) was on first against Tom Barker (Who?) and it was a pretty straight-forward 3-0 with not much to report apart from Mike trying to play five back wall boasts in a row at one point! It was good of Mike to make himself available for the team as he was off to Inverness that night! (now that’s club commitment!)

Flash Harry (Anderson) went on at No.2 next v Archie Ross and the first part of the first game was great to watch, as a much improved Archie went toe-to-toe against The Flashman. But he was doing a lot of running to keep up with Harry and this soon told, and Harry took charge from that point on and after some Mizuki madness, finished the tie off 3-0.

I played Cameron Moss next at No.3 and I noticed that he hit the ball like a bullet on his forehand in the knock-up, so guess where I didn’t put the ball at all! Cam started slowly and I won the 1st easily, but he was a completely different player in the 2nd game and the last two games were much more competitive, but I was always in charge and won 3-0.

Ollie (Millen) went on next at No.4 v Mikel Martinez and this match was much like the others with a 3-0 win for Ollie, but he did come off sweating so Mikel must have pushed him around a bit.

Last on at No.1 was ‘2 James Singhs’ v Andrew Turnbull. Andrew had come to a few of my David Lloyd West End training sessions way back in 2018, just before DL decided that they didn’t want squash members anymore and got rid of the courts. It was nice to see Andrew again, although I didn’t recognize him with a beard!! It was a tough one for Andrew tonight having to chase Mr. Fit about the court. James won 3-0 like the rest of us and as the clock struck 8.45pm we were on our way back to Whitecraigs with 18 points in the bag.

Why were we on our way home, I hear you ask? Well, there was no food or drink on offer from the Uni boys, which I found very disappointing (especially as they were more than happy to have a few pints at the away match). Also, players disappearing before the match had finished, for no good reason either (which was also disappointing) other than they couldn’t be bothered to stay and support – even though others had stayed for them. Even Uncle Mike stayed to the end, and he was off to Inverness after the match!

Still we went back to Whitecraigs and watched other team matches and ordered a pizza for ourselves and had a great night at the club! Followed by team videos on the WhatsApp group with the lads singing on the way home (Ollie was a drunk 50 Cent and James does a mean Brittany Spears – although he is that innocent!).