Broadberry Sports

Is it 2024 already? Well, a bit too much celebrating in the last 3 weeks probably means the squash has taken a dip and the belly has gone the other way?!?!

Off to Scoutstoun tonight to take on the Eagles and our team (determined to ruin my boot catch) all travelled together, which made for some good chat on the way over.

I was on first against Archie Niven and this wasn’t going to be easy! Sure enough I lost the 1st game, but it was closer than I though it may be and when I won the 2nd game I felt I had a good chance…….. right up to 6-10 match point down in the 4th! Still, I somehow managed an epic comeback to even things up. “So concentrate Jase and use all your experience and definitely don’t do that again!” Then, at 5-10 match ball down in the 5th (!) I was wondering if another epic come back was on the cards. Unfortunately it wasn’t and Archie won 11-8. Back to the drawing board!

On at the same time as me was 2-James Singh’s against Sandy Niven at No.1. James had won the first 2, then lost the 3rd and was 5-7 down in the 4th game – so this was definitely going to a 5th! Hold on James get some inspiration and puts in a few really hard rallies…. 6 hard rallies to be precise and he comes from nowhere in that game to win 11-7. (3-1 to James)

At No. 5 & 3 respectively, Angus (Forster) and Flash Harry (Anderson) were both on next and they lined up against Craig Rothnie and Finlay McGhee. I was marking Flash hoping for some fun & fireworks, but Flash was quite subdued by his standards tonight. The first Mizuki of the match didn’t even come until he was 6-3 up in the 2nd (!) game!!!! And, even worse, he tinned it – well this sent shock waves right into Flash’s core and he lost the 2nd 8-11! In the next two games Finlay played really well to stay in it and to draw out mistakes from Flash….. and so to the 5th. So, if Harry could concentrate for a whole game, then I thought he’d win – he did start concentrating! 6-1 up!! Bish-bosh! Then with another reactionary Mizuki’s (a winner this time) the concentration crashed again! Fortunately, for the Flashman, he had enough of a lead to hold on, and picked up 3 match points.

On at the same time Angus was 1-0 down against Craig Rothnie, but a few words of wisdom into Angus’s ears in-between the games (“Do you realise he’s left-handed?”) and he completely turned things round to take control of the next 3 games and win 3-1 ….. and secure the team match win to boot!

Last up was Chris (Murphy) v Murdo Mackenzie at No.2. Murdo is really coming on and he’s impressively strong and fast for someone so young. Chris however is tough to work out, if you’ve not played him before and Murdo found that out in the 1st game, but after that Murdo really got into his stride and made life very difficult for Murph. This was the big game for the match and Chris won it 11-8 – after this, Chris closed to door on the young man and used his experience to take the last game 11-5. However, I suspect with another year’s hard squash, Murdo will be a different proposition. (3-0 to Chris)

Difficult decision for MOTM but either Archie or Murdo for them and I’d say Chris for us.

An eclectic mix of pakoras, curry, pizza & chips and Fanta for dinner! We soon demolished this, so we took the trip home over the Clyde with a 17-7 win and the tunes ramped up to 11. Back to the south-side to ‘Whitecraigs Back-Bar’ to hear all about the clash between our 2nd and 3rd teams (this was where tonight’s real fireworks were apparently! Supplemental Match Report News – the 2nd team scraped it!)…… and Angus showed Chris how to play darts…..again!