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Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 3 | S.London | 4 | T.Jeal | 3 | 2 | 7/9 9/2 9/1 2/9 9/7 | | 6 | C.London | 5 | D.Harris | 2 | 3 | 6/9 9/4 7/9 9/2 5/9 | | 7 | S.Pratt | 10 | T.Grant | 3 | 1 | 3/9 9/6 9/7 9/0 | | 13 | S.Grey | 12 | J.Miles | 3 | 2 | 9/2 10/8 2/9 1/9 9/2 | | 17 | A.Davies | 14 | A.Blackman | 1 | 3 | 9/6 2/9 3/9 6/9 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 12 | 11 | |
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| | | Bonus: | 5 | 0 | |
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| | | Result: | 17 | 11 | |
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| Report: | Anyone thinking that squash lacks passion should have been present at Langley Towers last night to witness the clash between PL1 and PL2. A lot has been said about the politics of the PL teams, and PL1 had elected to "rest" star no.1 James Robbins for the night. This very nearly turned out to be a mistake ...
First up London snr v Dangerman.
This match went pretty much according to recent (or as DM would have it, 7 years worth - possibly overstating the case a bit, but still too long) form. All the shots from DM while the author tried to keep it going with steady squash. As usual the whole thing hinged on the end of the 3rd game, with DM finishing off with a "straight down the wall" nick. An enjoyable match (for me anyway), but despite a rearguard action in the 5th to come back to 5-8 from 1-8, DM ran out the winner to get PL2 off the blocks.
Out in the wilds of court 4 meanwhile, Davies v Blackman.
Didn't get to see any of this. Judging from interim reports from Ted, this seemed to be a longish match, with Andy B managing to extend the PL2 lead, and leave things looking grim for PL1 at 2-0 down. My sources tell me that this was a very tight match with the scoreline not necessarily being a true reflection of the match as both players fought gamely to impose themselves on the match.
This was followed by Pratt v Grant.
WW looked about the happiest I've seen him in some while last night, particularly when things warmed up later on. Once again, I didn't see any of this, but judging from the scoreline, WW overcame the loss of the 1st game, got the rust out of the system, and put in a workmanlike performance to consign Trevor to a 3-1 defeat. Bearing in mind some of the reports of Trevor's recent outings, he must have wondered what was going on last night. He seemed to be a model of restraint, even playing guardian of the court in the later fun.
Now on to the meat of the evening, London jnr v Jeal.
This turned out to be an epic match. Ted seems to have improved dramatically over the last few weeks and was looking to extend his impressive run of results and prove his position isn't entirely tactical. The game got off to a fast and furious start with both players showing the sign of things to come with great retrieving. Rallies extended forever, but Ted sneaked the first. Steve maintained good focus after this and reeled off the next two games for the sake of a few points, as Ted alternated between decent squash and determined cussing.
At this point Steve's racket broke, and the change didn't seem to do him any favours, as he lost the control and spent a lot of time scrambling to get shots from all over the place. 4th to Ted. So to the decider. Steve got off to a good 4-0 start. Cue fireworks. DM marking (up to that point pretty well it has to be said), gave what was felt by some (notably Steve) to be a contentious stroke decision. A (very) frank exchange of views ensued, culminating in PL's "senior coach" storming onto court to indulge in a major finger jabbing / multiple final warning session. It transpired later that both players felt it was a Let - but there you go.
The large, partisan crowd (the PL3 v PL4 match having finished and all come to watch the fun), were somewhat perplexed at this turn of events and DM2 (elder brother and seeming chief henchman) had to be forcibly restrained from going onto court (to do who knows what) by that new recruit to the diplomatic service - Ken Cotton. In the end, good sense prevailed and the match continued as before with Ken at the marking helm. Steve got himself to 8-4 but had to work very hard to eventally run out 9-7 winner and take the match to the decider.
While all this was going on Grey v Miles was taking place next door.
As the previous match wound up (literally), last orders were being called and Simon and John had reached 2-1 to the former. The fun wasn't entirely restricted to the London v Jeal match. John was apparently left feeling suitably miffed at the lack of attention being paid on occasion to his match by Sly in the marking chair, who (as he later confided) was getting drawn into next door's proceedings. A couple of vociferous appeals were rewarded with "best guess" decisions. Still, John comfortably took the 4th as Simon backed off and made the mistake of slow-balling. All down to the last. Fortified with advice from the PL1 "senior (in years anyway) coach", Simon stepped the pace up again and mixed some tight lengths with ultra-tight boasts to cruise through and save the day for the 1st team.
Feelings seemed (thankfully) to have subsided by the time we hit the bar some time after 11:30pm. A great match marred somewhat by elevated testosterone levels.
From the sly fox.--- Just to add to clives match report, what a great evening of squash we saw and that is what matters. PS and when adding up the scores we actually got 11 and not 7 clive -- do wonna take this outside?. |
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| Author: | Clive London |
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