|
|
 | Fixture Details | |  | | |
Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 8 | Ron Terry | 2 | Bob Cowan | 3 | 1 | 9/6, 4/9, 9/3, 9/6 | | 9 | Tom Morgan | 6 | Justyn Perkins | 3 | 0 | 9/3, 9/4, 9/1 | | 17 | Mark Fuller | 7 | Mehmet Yusuf | 1 | 3 | 9/7, 5/9, 6/9, 7/9 | | 22 | Tim Smith | 9 | Pat Coyle | 0 | 3 | 3/9, 4/9, 3/9 | | 23 | Ray Goldsmith | 12 | Tim Gratwick | 2 | 3 | 9/7, 9/2, 5/9, 2/9, 5/9 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 9 | 10 | |
|---|
| | | Bonus: | 0 | 5 | |
|---|
| | | Result: | 9 | 15 | |
|---|
| Report: | Keen to be first out of the starting gates were Mark and Mehmet who were level, point for point, for the first half of the match. Mark tended to win the long drives but, crucially, Mehmet made most winners from attacking boasts. If Mark had seen those coming the result might have been different, but both players put everything into the match. At the same time Ron and Bob were testing each other out on Court 2 - or that is how it seemed. They knew each other's game and were pretty hot on anticipation, but Ron just pipped Bob on execution at critical times.
Tim (S) and Pat next in a one-sided affair that had as much to do with playing styles as form. Tim did not know where the left-hander's next shot was going whereas Pat was mostly in the right place for Tim's and consequently had plenty of time for a choice of placements.
So, with the score 1-2 in favour of OE it was up to Ray to level it in time for Tom's arrival, late from London. All went well (from the BLTSC perspective) in the first two games. But Ray is a kind old soul and so changed his game to suit Tim (G) and bring him back into the match. It has to be said too that Tim's was a gritty performance and he dug in with determination. Ray recovered his poise, and his sliced drop, at the start of the third when, at 5-2, Tim broke a string. Whether it was the magic replacement racket, whether it was a lapse in Ray's concentration, whether it was because he came to similar grief in a previous encounter with OE, whether it was because his name is an anagram of 'I'l drag my shot', who knows. But he produced more tins than Andy Warhol, and (of course) landed BLTSC in the soup.
The final match between Tom and Justyn was not the thrilling decider that this captain had intended but a demonstration of quality squash nevertheless. Justyn was not allowed to play his own game as Tom powered him into the corners or wrong-footed him, usually with a cross-court drop.
Well done OE, with strong performances from the lower rankings and some well-deserved points that hopefully will help them in their relegation battle (oops - patronising git). |
|---|
| Author: | PRM |
|---|
| |  |  |  |
|
