Broadberry Sports

Giffnock were No.2 in the league and we were No.3 before last night, so could we upset the rankings?

We had numbers 1, 2, 3 & 4 ready and raring to go and the Giffnock No.5 was there! Anyway, eventually the No.2s were the first match up so Chris (Murphy) was first on against Owen Hadden. It looked on paper that Chris was going to win this easily, but after the 1st game Owen was motoring around and at 8-5 up I was thinking’ ‘it’s a bit dangerous to let Owen within 3 points of the finish line!’. The 2nd couldn’t have been closer at 10-10, but Chris dug deep to clinch this one. The 3rd was almost as close 11-9, but in the end Chris got through unscathed to win 3-0.

I was on next against Ben Mazzucco and I haven’t done too well against him in team matches recently, but I’m playing OK at the moment so there’s always a chance! The chance came when I won the 1st, however after this Ben got into 2nd gear (!) and although I got close, he was always just a little too fast and his reactions were a little too quick. So in the end I should be happy with a point ………but I’m not!

The No.1s went on next as ‘2 James Singhs’ faced up against another full-time pro-player in Martin Ross (James must be sick of the sight of them!). Martin was on good form and raced to a 2-0 lead, although the rallies were exhaustive and the retrieving was fantastic. James’ best spell of the match was in the 3rd game when he was 6-4 up and was really going forward on the volley well. However just at that moment disaster ensued as James slipped and was flat out on the canvas. It looked like a bad one, but a few minutes later the gladiator had regained his composure and was tentatively ready to go again. I got the towel out to wipe the floor, only to hear the Mrs say, “What’s going on here, he never does that at home!” (bloody cheek! I put some dishes near the dishwasher just the other day!). Anyway back to James and Martin – unfortunately for us Martin took no pity on James’ fall and managed to wrap up the tie 3-0.

We would need to win both of the last two ties to take the match! Queue the No.5 match as Angus (Forster) was ready to play Niall Morris (which was a repeat of the first half match and Angus’ first ever team match for The Craigs – great Bosman!). Well, if the 1st game was anything to go by (14-12 to Angus) this was going to be a cracker! I took to writing D.S. – which is Angus’ catchphrase and means DogSh*** – on the score sheet anytime Angus hit a horrendous ‘tin’ and I was delighted to tell him I’d written it 5 times in the 1st game! Made no difference as Niall was soon 5-0 up in the 2nd and another D.S. went on the score sheet as Niall took the 2nd game 11-4. So I told our ‘in-between the games mastermind’ to have a word and whatever Chris said worked a treat as Angus played much better after that and went on to win the tie 3-1.

So 2-2 in the match and last up was Harry (Flash Anderson) v Neil Bennet at No.3. Well what an atmosphere this created and what a match-up. Both players traded games (with Neil winning the 1st and Flash the 2nd etc) as the crowd’s cheering got louder and louder. So to the 5th! Well at 0-8 down Harry looked dead and buried, but in a Flash it was suddenly 6-8 and the crowd were hoping for a miracle! Unfortunately it wasn’t to be tonight, although it wasn’t through lack of effort as Flash was ex-flashed by the end of the match. A great match to watch and Neil was too good in the end with a 3-2 win.

MOTM for Angus and Neil I’d say and burgers in the Back Bar for dinner and a great atmosphere for the rest of the evening! It’s what Wednesdays are all about!