Broadberry Sports

Well Hamilton are in 3rd place in Division 1 so I was wondering where the points were going to come from this week.

An early start saw Sara and I go on first and I didn’t see much of Sara’s match (v Colin McGeady at No.5), apart from one enormous rally where both players were getting everything back and playing great squash (the mis-match in the physical size of both players was amusing to see and if we took a photo of them I’m not sure they’d get both in the same shot!). However Colin won the tie 3-0 and seemed to be in control with his great reach and pace on the ball. Sara was disappointed at her own performance but everyone else felt the opposite and was quite impressed with her tenacity and court speed!!

I was on at the same time as Sara and was fully expecting to be out-run at number two by Kenny Boyle and in the opening exchanges I was. However as the match unfolded I managed to sneak a few cheap points and a few great length shots and then, what do you know, I sneaked the 1st game! Kenny turned the power on in the 2nd and won easily, but I was now more confident (we even got a marker at this point! Not that we used him much; we just made our own decisions and completely ignored Doug, much to his amusement. In fact when Kenny asked for a let in the 3rd Doug just said ‘Well what do you guys think?’).

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 The big games just keep coming and coming for us, another 6 pointer last night against Giffnock 2. Could this be our chance?

Sara once again helped out the first team and she was on first at number 5 (looking fabulous in the all-black outfit that is fast becoming her signature!) against Patrick O’Sullivan; now if you look up some of the Patrick’s results this season you, like me, will probably be very impressed (he’s only lost one match – against his own 1st team, which is a great record for any junior to admire in Div 1 – in fact for any player at all!) so Sara was really up against it and so it proved. It was a good tough game however and Sara had Patrick moving up and down the court, but Patrick was more than happy to do the running and always had plenty in the tank. It was difficult to put the ball away against him and this was ultimately the difference, as he won 3-0.

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Playing at Newlands this season is almost like a home tie with all those teams in one Division! And not just in Division 1, as tonight we had 6 Newlands teams (numbers 2,3,4,5,7 & 8) all playing at home on 5 courts (one off which was also being used for a spin class) so with 0.8 courts per team it was looking like it could be a long night!

Sean (Norris) was on first at No. 5 against David Fallis and with the length of the rallies they were having, we expected this to go on for hours. However at the business end of each game David was in charge and he took all three of them. Good fighting performance from Sean and with a back problem as well, but David was just too difficult to put away.

I was on next and this tie was probably one of the few matches I thought I’d have a good chance of winning at No.2 (v Brendan Forrister). However after a massive 1st rally I was thinking the opposite and things didn’t get any better as Brendan wrestled the 1st game away from me.

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 Well this match against Glasgow University was always going to be a real 6 pointer! And it was away as well which means we had to play on those really strange courts. But what do you know the courts have been refurbished so all my excuses were out of the window!

 
I was on first this week against a fit looking bloke from Hong Kong called Alfa Au (where do teams pick up these guys from, out of nowhere?). He was wearing bright orange shoes and a luminous yellow top so I thought “If you’ve got the bottle to wear that you must be a decent player!” and as our number 5 said ‘He has the best knock up I’ve ever seen!’. But I know I can be quite a handful to play against if you’ve never seen my game before (don’t laugh that’s very rude!!).
I was able to move Alfa well, especially to the front and this gave me the advantage in the 1st game as all my drops were tight. So first blood to me but I felt far from confident as Alfa looked like a really dangerous player. The second was even tougher and I had to move much quicker has Alfa was reading my drops now. But hang on! He was now wearing red shoes!?! Maybe he had some traffic light system going on? I managed to sneak the second game, but needed to concentrate hard to do it.
I was now fully expecting Alfa to be wearing green shoes in the third game; maybe it was a distraction tactic! The third was another tough game and once again I really needed to focus. Alfa didn’t speak much English, but when he tinned an easy drop at 8-6 up he certainly knew that s**t was the correct thing to say! Fortunately I managed to shore things up just at the right moment to sneak back into the game and then win the match 3-0. I was delighted with this win as I think Alfa will be a real handful when he gets a bit fitter (especially if he works my game out! Stop laughing!!)

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Well it was tough playing Newlands 2 last week, so it was going to be even tougher playing their 1st time this week. Still we did have our new team shirts sponsored by ‘Paul Hannah Solicitors’ so we looked the part.

Newlands needed help this season with so many teams in the 1st division so they called on the Equalizer – Angus Woodward. Angus went on first tonight against Sean Norris at number 4 and he is making a comeback after sometime away (who know’s where he’s been? Maybe working for the Company?!?!?) and so was keen to prove he still could provide his services as a trouble-shooter. This would be a good test for Sean and we would see if he could start making some in-roads back into division 1 squash. I thought Angus played well and largely controlled the game, Sean lacked his normal sharpness and maybe needs to get a few more games under his belt. Angus hit a much better length and Sean was often left floundering at the back, he was also a bit one paced which played into his opponents hands. So a good 3-0 win for The Equalizer.

Next on at number 1 was Doug Macmillan against Peter O’Hara. Now Peter is a real handful and plays the game like no other person you’ll see. The main thing you’ll have to contend with is the ferocious pace, then there are the excellent angles (where he appears to be able to hit nics at will), after that you have to contend with a very deceptive front court game including drives that look like drops and vice versa. And all that doesn’t even include the bizarre drive boast he seems to play with amazing accuracy and amazing speed. For a first attempt at playing Mr O’Harrow (!) it was a great learning curve for Doug; he was a bit bamboozled after the 1st game, but then he seemed to get to grips much better with a lot of Peter’s shots………………….

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