We all piled into my big Mazda and rolled out in the dark. Conversation was fairly minimal as most of us were still asleep, some of us staying that way all the way to Inverness!! It finally started to get light just after perth giving us a fairly pleasant drive up through the snowy highlands to our final destination. Grange were first to arrive!
We were welcomed up to the bar area where we slumped on the big leather couches enjoying the view over the tennis courts a we watched as the rest of the teams assembled one by one. Before long the bar area was full of a whos who of scottish squash. Dougie was enjoying the banter, Kev had the poker face on, Aoife seemed unfazed while I hid behind a newspaper!
Before long bodies statred moving and the first round of matches got underway. Our first opponents were Dalgety Bay who were fielding a particularly strong team of Alan Tasker, Iain Tennent, Neil Bennet and Elspeth Young.
It was one match per court so it was the ladies up first Aoife vs Elspeth. The young Elspeth had been on devastating form against us in the first fixture. Could Aoife restore the balance. Thins looked good as Aoife took the first with some pin point volleying and dropping leaving Elpeth stranded on many occasion. Elspeth came back with some good drving to take the next 2. The third 16-14!! Elspeth took the lead in the fourth to go 10-6 up with a match ball. Aoife saved this and powered back as she had down in the previous games and levelled 10 a piece only to serve out and then miss the next return of serve to lose out 1-3.
Dougie took on Tasker next in a high octane battle. Tasker really putting everything into it to produce some stunning squash. Unfortunately Dougie seemed to be really enjoying this and just lapped it all up and powered through to a fairly confotable 3-0 victory.
I was on next against Neil Bennet (former Grange Open finalist may I add). I didn't play too bad but didn't have enough for Neil. Think I got 8 points in the last game. Lost 0-3.
Last on was Kev in what would be the decider against big Iain Tennent. A tasty one this turning into a right ol' battle. Tennent was on top form with his touch up the front not to mention his brutal hitting leaving Kev on the chase and the back foot alot of the time. Kev struggled to get into as Iain really seemed to be on form. Iain took a 5-0 lead in the first as Kev finally started to play his way in. Iain held on though to finally take it 11-8. Not a happy Kev. Kev levelled by taking the second and then took the lead going 2-1 but Iain was not going away as he battled to take a second game and win the team match!! Not a happy Kev!!! The tie was gone along with the bonus points but ever the professional Kev powered through to take it 3-2.
DBY win 11-6
At half time we were treated to some fine food by our hosts. Chicken curry! Just what you need to set you up for some afternoon squash!!
In the afternoon sesh we were playing Inverness. Dougie needed to exit sharply and was on and off court before most of us knew what had happened. Who he played I do not know but short was made of this one.
I went onto the show court against Ian. Feeling not to bad after my brief enbcoutner with Neil in the morning I was quite up for this one and raced out to 8-4 lead. Feeling confident which experience tells me is the pride before the fall. So it proved as I lost it on extra points, I didn't make the same mistake when the situation repeated in the third but that was the tank emptied and never got into the fourth. Aoife had a right battle on her hands and with an injured foot, she still managed to bring home the bacon in the fifth.
Kev was untroubled as Inverness sportingly shuffled the order to give a few more of their club players an experience of the big time.
GRG bt INV 3-1 (13-5)
This probably will be a double header as Inverness can't make a return match at Grange so a 13-5 results helps our cause no end.
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