ESSA Leagues

2009/2010 Fixture #4 : Dunbar -v- Edinburgh Sports Club 4 : 12.11.09

Dunbar are seemingly not alone in their troubles when it comes to fielding squash teams, with the mighty ESC, despite a vast playing membership, struggling to get three players to play. A flurry of phone calls during the day seemed to be leading towards a rearrangement of this fixture – or even the dreaded ‘double header’ after Christmas. Thankfully ESC eventually managed to scrape together a team of four, unfortunately meaning Richard Baty would need to wait a week for his debut appearance this season!

First up at No.4 was Graeme Jones, who got off to a flyer. Whether ‘achieving a Granny’ is something to be happy about all depends upon context & detail I suppose, but in a Squash sense it’s always nice to deny your opponent a single point. Certainly ESC must have wondered how many black cats they ran over on the way to Halhill (they must have had some excuse for being so ******* late!), because Graeme was on fire as he won the opener 9-0. Squash is a strange game though, and he got a wake-up call in game two, easing off a little too much and needing something of a recovery to eventually sneak the game 10-8. A slightly demoralized opponent sensed that he needed that game, and Graeme eased through the gears (he’s unique in our team in having more than one…) and comfortably took the third 9-4 to get Dunbar off to a perfect start. Another good win for Dunbar ’s Wunderkid, who was spotted in the Bar afterwards busily plotting his inexorable rise up the Dunbar Squash Ladder!!

On the adjacent court Alistair Nichol was in the trenches as usual, blasting his way to a comfortable win. I was marking this match, and although I think I saw a drop shot, there were no witnesses, and no record exists to prove the fact. None of the Dunbar Team believe it to be possible, and so I can only think that I was concentrating so hard on the game that I imagined it. You may recall from last week’s report that I thought I had witnessed the very definition of a ‘back court’ game – I was wrong!! That match was a mere precursor to this one – a kind of ‘back corner squash lite’ if you will. These two hardly made a forward movement in 30 minutes, and if running sideways was an Olympic sport then we would be boasting a serious Medal contender in Alistair. The real skill in this match lay in the nifty sidesteps required to avoid each other in a crowded strip of wood within 6 feet of the back wall – if our Rugby boys can display footwork like that on Saturday the Fijians will be in trouble! At least they didn’t have far to go to get to the exit door when each game was over, and Alistair took all three of them with something to spare to put Dunbar 3-0 up on the night.

Evan was by now involved in his game against Shane Pressley, the diminutive No.2 for ESC who tears about the court in terrier like fashion, and doesn’t give much away. On a warm court, these are the opponents you don’t want. The ball was lively and difficult to put away, and the player who gets everything back in these conditions will often benefit from eventual errors from the opposition. Evan was ‘in’ every game, particularly the second, but was often left frustrated in losing rallies where he was seemingly in control. This is every squash player’s nightmare, but it’s a scenario we’re all familiar with, you do all the hard work – the opponent digs the ball out time and time again – only for you to tin the winning shot. When Evan lost the 2^nd 8-10 it was always a long way back against a ‘runner’ like Shane, and the 3-0 loss didn’t reflect how competitive this match was. Our Zimbabwean warrior will return next week determined to get back to winning ways!

Last up was Dave Legge against JJ Tait, who he had a 2-0 record against in ESSA Matches. Remember my previous comment about ‘Grannies’? Well they may be niece to dish out, but when you’re on the receiving end it’s not so pleasant. This was not David’s first Granny, as anyone who witnessed his famous ‘triple bagel’ thrashing at the hands of Alan Tasker will testify. It was his most unexpected though, but JJ tends to be a world beater for a few minutes and then utterly useless the next. David’s game plan seemed to be to hope that JJ was the former for two games and the latter for three – and happily that strategy worked out perfectly!  In fact, JJ won the first 11 points, and David the next 14 – a very odd match going one way then the other.  David led 2-1 in games,  JJ got ‘hot’ again in game four, but then capitulated in the fifth – which David won 9-1 thanks to about  7 tins from his opponent.

On the night then an excellent 17-5 win for Dunbar . The league is beginning to take shape now, with three teams – Grange, Musselburgh and Mamma’s looking particularly strong. Dunbar are well positioned just behind these three.

And so we move on to Table Toppers Grange 2 next week – phenomenally strong after an influx of players from other Teams this season. Our cheerleaders – Weissgerber et al, will be missing, but he and Murphy have apparently promised “a Pom-pom routine you’ll not forget in a hurry” for our next home match – tickets on sale behind the Bar!

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