Tuesday 20 March 2012

Firsts home v Waverley (Tue, Mar 20)

Last match of the season, last chance to avoid the wooden spoon. Supersub Mark Dutton played #5 againsd Neil McPhee and got a run of points toward the end of the first to make for a respectable score but after that was under the kosh: 0-3. #4 Mike Hall had a thriller, experience against youth in the shape of Scott Tulloch - it went 2-2 before Mike got a lead in the fifth that he never relinquished: 3-2.
Nick Wood against Iain "Marathon man" Murray was 6-9 6-9, 7-9 at #3. Will Kerr faced a Scotland U-19 champion in Doug Kempsell
Down 2 games, Will started mixing it up with more patience and different angles to take the third in an uber-performance. Normal service returned as Doug imposed his game in the fourth: 1-3.

By now a crowd had gathered in the balcony for the main course, 2 world-ranked players in the shape of Kevin Moran against Chris Ferguson.

Chris played sublime drops glued to the wall and a hairs breadth above the tin which got him the first game 9-2. Kevin buried himself to dig up a higher percentage of these drops in the second and ground it out 9-6. In the third, the error count from Chris went up as Kevin continued to run everything down: 9-4. Kevin was clearly in the ascendancy now as some of Chris's shots were either exhibition or desperation: 9-2. Kevin won 3-1 after an hour of breathtaking squash and great sportsmanship from both.
Overall 2-3, 7-15 on points to leave us with the wooden spoon with which to eat the pizza.
One of the discussion points was the "further attempt" rule which was applied on the night but neither of the elite players were aware of it.
All credit to the players throughout the season, never dropping their heads and well done to Kevin Moran for going unbeaten. Well done to Capt. Cockburn for an enjoyable team season in the face of the teams not being as competitive as previous seasons. Time to regroup for the club championships and prepare for next season in Div 2. (Loob)

1 comment:

Pete (cockburnator) said...

Tough season for the ones! Majority of them are still smiling though. Pushed a few teams this half with Kev on board. Four 3-2 losses I think although the wooden spoon was already engraved with GRG by xmas! Cracking match to finish with though!