Broadberry Sports

Well there were no fireworks tonight and the result was just as you thought it might be against a Giffnock team on top of the West Squash Division 1 table, but none the less it was a great night out.

First on at No.1s was Chris (Murphy) v James Singh. This was a bit of a rammy and the first blow was traded by James with a racket in Chris’s face and this was closely followed by lots of bumping and barging. Chris returned the favour, with ball driven into James’s leg (a tad unnecessary) in the 3rd game. Overall, I’d say Chris managed to shake things up well, because I expected to see an exhibition of straight drives, volleys and control from James, but this was not to be. Despite this James won 3-0, but Chris has to be commended for forcing his game plan on the match and making the 1st and 3rd games really tight.

Next on I marked Hamish (Buchannan) v Ben Mazzucco. Ollie (Millen) had missed this court as he was faffing about looking for the less essential parts of any players equipment like ………. a racket, kit, and shoes! However, he managed to find his racket (in the bar obviously) and discovered his unwashed kit from last week – or by the stench, maybe the week before that! (both teams thought Ollie had left a ripe stilton in one of the pockets and were less than impressed by the lack of Febreze!)

Back on court with Hamish and Ben, it was great to see my old team-mate (Ben Mazz) tonight and his undeniable attacking style helped him throughout the match. Giffnock’s Stuart Pitt said to me “Did you teach him to play a boast every other shot when you were both at David Lloyd’s?” and he had a point (as I remembered sessions Ben and I had on the backhand boast). Ben won the match, by attacking with the boast (among many great shots) so it was a lesson well remembered! 3-1 to Ben.  

By the time I made it onto the next court to see Ollie’s game, he was 2-0 down against Niall Morris at No.5. However, when I watched the 3rd game, Ollie was really getting involved in every rally. I thought maybe Niall was trying to get away from Ollie’s fermenting kit, but actually Ollie was sticking in the rallies well (although he was hitting cross-court far too much). Niall “what’s a drop shot” Morris was moving the ball around really well himself and there were some great (and long) rallies where you just didn’t know if Niall was going to slot in another good length, or if he was merely going to hit one to the back!! 😊  

Ollie played well to pinch the 3rd game, but he seemed far too happy with himself at this point, so Niall finished things off a bit too easily in the 4th for my liking. But a good team point from Ollie 1-3.

Next on was Cammy (Colquhoun) v Stuart Pitt at No.3. Although it was really Cammy Pitt v Stu Colquhoun as both players’ styles, were a mirror of each other! This definitely had 3-2 written all over it!! So after the first game and a half I thought, I’ll play my match and come back to watch the 5th!

I was up against an old advisory in Owen ‘Haddaway’ Hadden and although he’s been better than me in the last 15 or so years, there was a time that I could beat him! And tonight was reminder of those days, as I wrestled a tight 3rd game off him and was close in the 4th, but ultimately Haddaway remembered “What is squash? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more!” – 3-1 to Owen (it always hurts!).

Straight back to the 3-2 match next door and what do you know, it was the 5th game and match ball! Niall was regretting taking the markers chair as his muscles were in atrophy, and apparently Cammy had a big chance at 9-8 up in this game, but could only find the floor with his drop! So a good 2 points to the cause and time to hit the back-bar for burgers and chips.

Someone had put an old Man City game on the telly (the Agueroooooooooooooooo! one) which was played in 2012 ….. during the day …….. and James asked if it was on live! Stick to squash big-yin! Just then there was large ‘clang’ on the floor as Ollie dropped the biggest name he could with his ‘pint with Neil Lennon’ story. Everyone was gripped as they’d never heard it before, well not in the past 20 mins anyway! Match result was 18-5 but it was against the Division leaders so could have been worse.