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| Report: | The is the final Dulwich match of the 1st half of the summer so Dulwich were looking to go out with a win.
The Park Langley 3 team turned up with one player missing - it turned out that he had been on a works jolly all afternoon downing a bottle of wine and more so he was surprised to receive a phone call from the team captain asking when would he be arriving at Dulwich.
1st up where Greg and Kevin and it was Kevin who started the better. Greg was looking a little bit out of practice. Kevin cruised to a 5.1 lead when Greg began a recovery and started to look on a par with his opponent but at 4-5 down Kevin took the serve and strung together 5 winning rally's to go 1 up. The 2nd saw Kevin in charge and Greg did not have an answer to Kevin's shots. Greg mustered a bit of a recovery from 7-0 down but Kevin had time and was able to finish it off to go 2 up. The 3rd was looking bad for Greg as Kevin raced away again to a commanding lead. This time however Greg's recovery brought him level at 6-6. Kevin was finding it tough and seemed to be wanting it over ASAP. Greg hung on in and managed to sneak it to make it 2-1. The 4th had Kevin with a quick early 3-0 lead but this time Greg's recovery started early and he moved ahead at 5-3. Kevin tried to stem the flow but Greg had the answers now and his drops and boasts where paying dividends and soon he had it won to level at 2-2. The 5th saw as usual Kevin moving ahead early only for Greg to recover back to 3-3. The game was tight now and moved through 4-4 and 5-5 and 6-6. Greg was able to move ahead showing more fitness out of the two players and that was what told in the end and what looked to be a 3-0 defeat was turned into a 3-2 win for Greg.
Next up where Andy and Stuart and this one was a struggle to pick a winner in the first as it was tight all the way. Stuart was ahead from the start and kept himself ahead by one or two points until Andy levelled at 7-7 only to see Stuart win the two points he needed to go 1 up. The 2nd was all Stuart and despite a number of handouts Andy could only scrape 3 points before Stuart finished it off to go 2 up. The 3rd saw Andy much more determined and although Stuart got a couple of early points Andy was then in control and marched away with it to get it back to 2-1 down. The 4th was close again with first Stuart in the lead then Andy then Stuart again. Andy forced his way back from 6-5 down to grab a game point and although Stuart tried he could not level and Andy needed just one more chance to win it and make the game 2-2. The 5th set saw Andy in confident mood and he was quickly up 4-0. Stuart pulled it back to 5-3 down but Andy then finished it off with a couple of bursts to take the match 3-2.
Next up where Ian and Andy and this one was too and fro with first Ian taking a lead then Andy levelling then Ian going ahead again only for Andy to pull it back and go ahead. Ian got to game point first but could not finish off and after a number of handouts Andy levelled at 8-8. Ian eventually killed it off when he secured his 5th game point with Andy complaining of an injured foot. The 2nd seemed to confirm Andy having some ailment as once Ian worked out how to make Andy feel pain it was quickly over with Andy looking likely to retire. The Park Langley number 3 (Dr Harris) was on call (was paged earlier with the message - "where the fook are you!") to provide physiotherapy in the break and this seemed to do the trick as once the 3rd game began all of a sudden the injury seemed to have cleared up and Andy was much more in the game. Some solid squash was now coming from Andy's racket and he was playing well and he took a lead of 5-2 then 6-4. Ian was finding it difficult when serving as Andy was picking off the volleys and slamming winners down the line. Andy reached game point but needed 4 goes before he was able to convert it and walked off court claiming it was Ian must have felt sorry for him. Dr Harris was on hand again to give more treatment to the dodgy foot and this was clearly having the desired affect as there was no sign of it in the 4th and Andy was playing some of his best squash and he was in charge all the way and soon wrapped it up for the loss of just 2 points. The 5th was tight all the way with both players interchanging the lead. Ian was having a little more success but Andy was still playing errorless squash which was making it hard for Ian to get on top. With scores of 4-4, 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7 no one really knew who was going to win this one so it came as a bit of a shock when Ian strung two winning rally's together at the end to take it 9-7.
Next up where Dave and Dr Harris who claimed he was either going to be awesome or not as a result of the medicine he had been drinking earlier in the day. The 1st was tight early on but Dave put together a string of winners to move to 7-3 up so you could say he was looking awesome at this stage. Dr Harris however did some awesome stuff of his own by pulling it back to 6-7 only for Dave to grab a game point. Dave levelled at 8-8 and Dave called 1 and he got one chance at a win before Dave saw it out to go 1 up. The 2nd saw Dave in charge whilst Dr Dave was looking for a magic potion to help his predicament. Dave did not let up and an awesome display resulted in a 9-0 in quick time. The 3rd was a little closer in the early stages but a marking decision caused Dr Harris to lose his cool and that affected his play with Dave making off with the rest of the points to move from 3-3 to 9-3 and an awesome 3-0 win.
The final match saw Andy and Simon get it on. Some unfriendly barracking from the away side was not doing the trick for Simon as Andy put him to the sword and sped off to an early 3-1 lead then moved swiftly to game point and the game for the loss of just 2 points. The 2nd saw Simon much more competitive and he had leads of 2-1 and 4-2 and 5-3 but once Andy levelled his superior agility and court coverage began to tell and he moved ahead and again swiftly to game point and a 2nd game. The 3rd was close in the early stages but Andy's ability to get to anything Simon did often resulted in Simon being at one end of the court whilst the ball floated to the other end of the court. More barracking from the away team did not have the desired affect and Andy wrapped it up for the loss of 3 points to make it 5-0 to Dulwich on the night.
A call to our new sponsors Dulwich Tandoori during the final match met with a "no idea what you are talking about" response which was a bit of a worry until they called the owner/manager and discovered he was on route with the goods.
After match banter involved Dr Harris spending some time giving a marking seminar to the marker (Greg) who disallowed a let/stroke during the docs match followed by another seminar (again to Greg) on how to behave at the birth of your child - essentially the advice was to stay up the top end and never venture past the waist!
Thanks to our new sponsors Dulwich Tandoori we had a great curry afterwards. |
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| Author: | Ian Armstrong |
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