GRG2s Vs Waverly 2s (07 Mar 2012

Blog courtesy of Sloan Ranger!

Close but no cigar
Grange 2nd team outing to Waverley on Wednesday promised much and didn’t fail to deliver but it’s a case of same old story for the embattled side this season. With Pete & the Sloan Ranger the first on the scene, we decided to get the night underway at positions 1 & 2. Peter playing New Zealand’s finest in the form of Niven, Peter had a tense start to the evening: losing the first, cruising the second, stumbling again in the third and coming good in the fourth. Pete’s intensity held out in the final game for a comfortable end to the match – not his finest hour but doing the job and leading by example.

The wee man (aka Sloan Ranger) also kicked things off with a win over Mike Read. The shiny new racquet - Titan Voodoo available from all good stockists (and Christy) – impacted straight away as he raced to a 7-0 lead. Despite the prospect of a come-back, the wee man held out to race 1-0 up. Mike took the second but G cut down on the errors and took it 3-1 in the end.

At 4th position, Alan Stokes found it hard-going in the re-vamped courts, losing in straight sets to Richard Nettleton. On at number 5, Allan Wallace had a tough match v. Peter and it was evenly matched in the first 4 games as it see-sawed 6-9, 9-6, 9-7, 6-9. Final game asked a lot of both players and despite some good running from both sides, Peter sustained his good performance for a Waverley.

Finally, at 3rd position, we had Ian Forbes on versus local good-guy, marathon runner, part-time celebrity and sports education guru, Dr. Andrew Murray. For Ian, a chance to swing momentum back in Grange’s favour. For Andrew, a chance to equal (??) his recent running achievements and slay Grange at home. Full balcony witnessed some very entertaining squash with both players enjoying the hot courts. And it couldn’t possibly have been any tighter in the end. In the fifth match it went to 7-7. Ian crept forward only for Andrew to bring it back 8-8. The call was made for Set 2 with Andrew pushing ahead quickly to 9-8 match-ball only for Ian to regain serve. This happened 6 times before Ian actually made it 9-9. Sadly for Grange, Andrew closed out 10-9 with a total score of 37-36!

Once again, Grange 2 actually managed more points (151 v. 149) but couldn’t convert these into actual games losing 15-10 overall. Good scran, Barcelona’s brilliance and some healthy economic debate followed. GS.