Sunday 9 January 2011

Who Ate All the Pies? Grange 5 Barbarians v David Lloyd 2, Thursday 6th January

The Barbarians did !

This week saw a hastily arranged match between the Barbarians and David Lloyd 2 as we played our snowbound call-off from before Christmas. A suggestion to play at 48 hours notice saw a credible team of Colin Williamson, myself, Richard Nisbet, Pete Young and Brian Sloan take to court.

First up was Brian who was clearly too busy for pies this festive period (obviously got what HE wanted for Christmas). Brian took to court and was soon 7-0 down, but just like last year rallied to bring up 7-7 before (unlike last year) he closed the first out 9-7. The second followed a similar pattern as he went 6-1 down before taking that 9-6. His opponent had clearly had enough, and Brian closed out the match for a 3-0 win. Great start.

Meanwhile, on the other court, things were going well for Richard too. Up against Neal, a very competent opponent, Richard played superb squash to take the first two games. The third game was tighter but Richard was still managing to dominate and had match point at 8-6 which Neal saved well however Richard won back serve only for Neal to again save well. Third time lucky Richard won back serve and this time caught Neal at the back and only required a simple drop to take the glory. Unfortunately while Richard was working out his celebration dance he tinned the ball!! A miss on similar proportions to Chris Iwelumo’s miss for Scotland v’s Norway 2008!! This gave Neal the chink of light he needed and he took the game 10-8. Fitness was now a huge contributing factor and Richard’s Christmas pie eating took its toll and although hard fought he lost the final two games. Very hard on Richard who played some sublime squash and was so close to securing an excellent 3-0 victory against a strong opponent.

Peter Young was next on court against an opponent who clearly had eaten no pies at all. Pete dug deep with his controlled play and found himself 2-1 up in a tight match. But Christmas was by now taking its toll on the Barbarians, and Pete was slowly ground down by some amazing retrieving and lost 3-2.

So, having hoped to have been 3-0 up, I went onto court at 1-2. The best thing to say about my game is that we definitely know who had the most pies. The first was tentative, if poor quality, to 3-3 before it was lost in a blink 9-3. The second was equally bad as the pies seemed to affect my right arm and prevent me hitting anything past midcourt. At 8-4 down, a brief rally of concentration brought up 8-8 before two weak shots saw the game lost 10-8. The third was much the same, 8-4 down, rally to 8-8 then two shots in the tin for a 10-8 and 3-0 loss. The game was good news for Rab McGill though, as he’ll have to restring the two racquets that I broke on the night. Just about sums it up really.

Last up was Colin Williamson in his Barbarians debut. The first went to Colin as his mobility got the better of his opponent. But as the game moved into the second, his opponent’s drives deep into the backhand corner were causing Colin problems and he was unable to move him from the T; 1-1. In the third, Colin found a better length and took the game 9-5 to lead 2-1; our third 2-1 lead of the night. But again strong drives to the backhand saw Colin pinned to the back corners and despite some valiant retrieving the game was lost 3-2.

So, a 12-9 loss; 12-11 if we count our ref points. Not a bad score away to the team second in the division, but a bit disappointing given our start.

Barbarians team training this Sunday from 12 noon to 8pm.

Mike

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