ESSA Leagues

2009/2010 Fixture #1 : Abercorn 1 -v- Dunbar 14.10.09

Well played to all last night. A good 3-2 win against Abercorn.

Murphy played well against a young pup who ultimately had too much gas in the tank. Murphy was more than competitive in the rallies but the younger legs told. A close 3^rd game where Alan had game ball but couldn’t take it. Alan lost a competitive 3-0, and Dunbar are one down.

Graeme Jones then came on court. I can’t call it his debut for the 1^st team (not sure if it was anyway – may have played last season) because we are no longer Dunbar '1’ as I nearly wrote on the score card – merely ‘ Dunbar ’ Anyhow Graeme played extremely well at 4^th string. The first game looked like getting away from him, being I think 6-8 down. However Graeme ground the guy down, picking up some ridiculous shots, and took it 10-8. His opponent needed that first game, and Graeme was more dominant in 2&3 for a well deserved 3-0 win. Match now tired at 1-1.

Alistair ‘metronome’ Nichol then set about reminding us all of his excellent basic game, line and length, and amazingly, more than a few drop shots! His opponent was very useful, but error prone at the end of long rallies. The score of 9-1, 9-1, 9-4 looked easy for Al, but there were lots of Hand-outs and the 3-0 took nearly 40 minutes. Dunbar lead 2-1…

Evan then put in – for me – the performance of the night. Played the wily old Ian Ross (ranked 150 places above Evan!) who is a real touch player, drops from everywhere, and will kill you if you don’t keep the ball away from him. He took the first game and had Evan scampering to all four corners. After that however Evan hit any number of winners – particularly backhand serve returns into the opposite nick. I know from personal experience how well Evan plays this shot, but his success rate last night was probably better than I’d ever seen, and it demoralized his opponent. Evan has also been watching Squash on Sky and his James Willstrop patented straight backhand drop from the back of the court also got him lots of points. A very well deserved win in a match that he could easily had lost had he not played at that level.

I then played Bruce Russell, who I think may prove to be the best player in Division 3. I chased the ball gamely for more than half an hour, and could possibly have sneaked the 3^rd, having a game ball. However I tinned a backhand volley kill and it was soon over, 10-8, 9-3, 9-8  (I had called set one!). Beaten by a better player but pleased with my performance.

All in all, a really good win for us, and particular credit goes to Evan and Graeme.

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