ESSA Leagues

2009/2010 Fixture #3 : Linlithgow 2 -v- Dunbar : 03.11.09

Dunbar made what will be their longest trip of the ESSA season, to Linlithgow, to try and get back to winning ways. The Team had a chance to redeem themselves, being unchanged from the line-up that had lost 4-1 to Watsonians the previous week…...

First up was Philip Revell, playing a veteran (I almost said ‘fellow’ veteran there, sorry Phil…...) Dougie Raeburn. Dougie is a regular on the Masters Circuit, and his extra competitive edge showed in the first two games, often finding the winning shot in closely contested rallies. Phil, who has been struggling with an injury lately, showed clear signs of a revival in game three, keeping the ball away from his opponent, and finding a few winners himself, and won that game comfortably. Unfortunately Phil’s movement was by now visibly troubling him, and an inability to chase the ball down effectively ended any hopes of a comeback. The fourth was quick (and probably not painless) and Phil now looks like being unavailable for some time until his knee trouble can be resolved. (Dave W / Richard / Ewan /Neil B /Neil J/ anyone else?? please note!!)

Graeme Jones, uber confident following his elevation above Phil in the Team, took to the court eager to display his improved squash game. His opponent was one of those ‘haven’t really played much lately’ types. What he didn’t say until later was that when he had played as a Junior, he was Scottish Champion!  Although not as fit or quick as he would have been in his youth, the years away from the game hadn’t affected his squash intelligence or technical ability. Any time Graeme played a loose shot the ball was dispatched for a winner. Having watched most of this match I think Graeme can take a lot of credit from the game that he took off a classy opponent. Although he lost 3-1 he will have learned a lot. Tight squash is a must against players of that level, and Graeme will next take to the court as a better and wiser player.

At third string, Alistair Nichol was just relieved that he wasn’t playing Jim Dougal again this week! Clearly enjoying his squash, he played fellow ‘slugger’ Joe Andrews, and the entire match seemed to be played out in the back two corners. I did see Alistair venture to the front at one stage but then realized he’d just left his kit bag there and the match was over!  Unfortunately for Dunbar , injury concerns again arose in this match, and a clearly struggling Alistair was having difficulty with a Hamstring. As the game wore on, his lack of mobility became increasingly apparent, and very possibly made a difference to the outcome, as Alistair fell to a 3-1 defeat.

With the match now beyond Dunbar , Evan tried to get us on the scoresheet against a very hard hitting Ian Bannister. In all three matches so far Evan has faced higher ranked opponents. As he showed in the season opener against Abercorn however, he faces such odds in a similar fashion to a Hunter who stares down a Rhinoceros, with a ‘come on then if you think you’re hard enough’ defiance! Unfortunately - if I continue with this crappy analogy – Evan missed with a few early shots which resulted only in the Rhino gaining in confidence, taking dead aim itself, and spearing Evan up the **** before turning around and stomping on his poor lifeless corpse! Anyway – it all ended without any real blood on the court (just) and although Evan took a game, Ian closed the match out in four. As an aside, I think Evan will win against opponents like this if the error count is reduced, which of course is easier said than done…..

The frightening prospect of a 5-0 whitewash was now facing Dunbar , something which could only have been made worse had Dave Legge lost the 1^st string match to either a ten year old, or a Woman. Imagine his delight then when he found out he was playing the lovely Ashley Mears (who at least wasn’t also ten)  Ashley was undoubtedly the most technically correct player on either team, but she lacks a little physical presence, and so Leggy just bullied her for three games. Of course that didn’t happen, as David is the perfect Gentleman (as evidenced by the fact that every time Ashley served ‘out’, Dave returned the compliment by doing the very same thing on his service – you couldn’t get more polite could you!)  Other than that, David managed to avoid last week’s litany of errors (a whole season’s worth hopefully) and ran out a comfortable 3-0 winner on the night.

So everyone won at least one game, but the overall score was 9-17. We now have 32 points after three games, and are sitting exactly where we would like to be I suspect – mid table!

Next match is at Home to Edinburgh Sports Club next Thursday. All members are welcome to come down and lend support/add to the atmosphere!

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