Broadberry Sports

Just a quick report as it’s been so long since the last match (must do better….on and of the court!)

It’s always a tough match playing Western 1 away and when I arranged an early start it looked even more tough,as I was playing Liam Dickson at No.3! Either I’m getting older or all the No.3s in Div.1 are getting significantly better! Anyway needless to say the battle of the veggies was won by the younger man as Liam beat me 3-0 (the 3-0 score line flatters me a bit as it wasn’t even that close!!??! In fact at one point Doug’s advice was just try something outrageous as you’re getting chopped anyway! I did and that didn’t work either!).

Next on at No.5 was Joe (McDonald) against Mhairi Charlton and this was a real tough one for both players. Mhairi has really come on since I last saw her and she put Joe under a huge amount of pressure throughout the match. The only thing Joe could do was hang in and try to wear her down, but even that was a tough ask. Mhairi probably should have won this game 3-0 but Joe hung in really well to steal the third game (with some help from Mhairi hitting a game ball into the tin). However Mhairi closed the game out 3-1 even though she (and Jo) both looked very tired.

Third on was our new No.2 Jason (Lang) and he was up against it this week as he was playing Steven Halliday. I didn’t see the early exchanges as I nipped off for a shower, however I soon heard that Jason had won the first game which was great news. However by the time I got there he was 2-1 down and Steven was well in control. The final result was 3-1 to Steven but Jason must have played really well to get that first game and a team point (they’re all crucial for us!).

Next on were the No.4 pairing Doug Macmillan against Joe Ghaemi. This was a 3-2 thriller and when Doug was 2-0 down it looked like there was no chance. But he sneaked the 3rd game and Joe looked like he was tiring, and if he wasn’t tiring then he certainly was by the 5th and Doug was now in the driving seat. He brought home the match 3-2, once again good digging from Doug.

Last on were the No.1 pairing of Craig (Vallente-Wallace) v Peter Halliday. It didn’t surprise me that everyone disappeared from the balcony as they were knocking up so it was left to muggins here to take this one on. Peter started brilliantly and really had Craig under pressure from the word go, in fact he was 2-0 up before Craig knew what had hit him. Well I feared the worst, but that serves me right for not having enough faith! Craig battled back and really played well to dig in and win both the 4th & 5th games. Well I don’t know if the players were nervous, but I certainly was doing the marking! In fact towards the end of the match there was a point where both players disagreed with each other and both halves of the balcony would have given different decision (#nightmare) and as I couldn’t see, the only thing I could do was play a ‘yes let’. In the end I think Craig was just the fitter man in the last few points (although I’m sure Peter would dispute this, in fact he did!) but either way it was an amazing comeback from Craig and certainly the best I have seen him play for the team (MOTM).

So we retired to the bar for the traditional Western Chinese takeaway. Another good Wednesday night out and it’s always good chat after the meal (although I then had to drive 2 hours south to Blackpool! Now that’s commitment!)

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Well team squash is back for another season and I was getting the usual questions about how Doug can’t have been playing much if I was playing above him! Bloody cheek I say! I may not be in the best shape of my life (in fact it’s always amazed me how much ‘Exercise’ and ‘Extra Fries’ sound alike!) but the shots are getting better.

The teams looked great in the new ‘Kelvin Financial Planning’ bottle green t-shirts and many thanks to Michael Jackson for sponsoring the squads again this year (and I’m optimistic for all the teams this season as the depth at the club is growing).

We’ve strengthened our team squads this year and the 1st team now has the services of the DL Renfrew coach, Jason Lang. He’s making the trip North of the river to come and join the squad at No.2. Jason and I used to play together at Renfrew, when I coached there, and in retrospect what a team we were building with Kevin Moran, Dougie Kempsell, the two Jasons and Sean Norris (in fact Sean was the only weak link we had!!). I think that team playing now would have a good chance of winning the league, but we were all much younger then (except Sean and I who were much older!)

Anyway back to the match and it was just as well we had new Jase, as our opponents (Whitecraigs Rugby) had also strengthened at No.2 – and it was all down to the No.2s at the end of the night!

To see all DLWE Match Reports click here

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