10/6/10 – Wellington: Simon (5) was up first against a very useful opponent. You would say not the worst number "5" in the league. Unfortunately not much really happened for Simon and he lost 3-0.
Rob (4) used the "Quaver" technology racquet & tried to hit his opponent off the court "Ashley style". However much like Ashley he lost the first. A few words of advice from Stefi to “slow it down” worked to some extent but he still lost the second. Whether it was his opponent’s tiredness or something else, Rob then took charge and stormed the next two games 9-2, 9-0. At 8-2 in the decider, Rob played a lovely reverse boast to win the match. However, the ref called its down & Rob, in shock, lost 5 easy points. Fortunately there was another chance & he made no mistake, winning 3-2.
Gareth (3) unusually made too many mistakes against his opponent, who dominated and ran out a comfortable 3-0 winner.
Chris (1), fresh from his holiday in Cyprus was looking anything like up for a game of squash. Whether he was still thinking about cocktails round the pool or casting his eye around for the topless women on the beach, he was never in this game and lost comfortably 3-0.
Last up Stefan (2), looking determined to get Hart 3 more points. There was no stopping Stef, totally dominating his opponent, and never took his foot off the gas. His opponent made too many mistakes and Stefan won this comfortably 3-0. Overall a 3-2 defeat, but not close as the previous match was.
We had been warned that Uni were going to be strong and so it proved. Elliot’s priority of late has been exams, knocking his usual fitness, so a 5 game match would be a challenge. Well Elliot prefers to do it the hard way, and he found himself 0-2 down, so 5 it would have to be! With all his usual gusto, the 3rd and then the 4th were won. His opponent was still not finished, but Elliot was showing signs of exhaustion, and despite a valiant effort, the 5th was 1 game too far. A 3-2 defeat.
Meanwhile, Zul was playing superbly against a very steady opponent. Zul had the edge in the 1st but the problem was maintaining a very high standard of good quality squash, including numerous long rallies. Again, the fitness factor was the difference, with his opponent having the edge to take the next 3.
Rob W was making a rare appearance at 3, and taking on a conventional and steady opponent. That will be a clash of styles then! Rob took a game to warm up (as usual) before imposing some of his renowned shots on the match. He reached game point but was unable to convert – it could easily have been the turning point – but as it was, the match did not turn and the result was a 3-0 loss.
Rick was not at his best at 4, still suffering a little niggle in his groin, he was unable to threaten his opponent, going down 3-0.
Finally, Paul at 1 was again playing an extremely strong opponent who gave Paul no chance to get into the match – another 3-0 defeat and a heavy 5-0 pasting by Uni.
10/6/10 – Beechdown:- Tom (1) arrived late having visited Bounty amongst many other venues in Basingstoke and was pleased to see both Pete (4) and Paul (5) looking fresh faced as Ashley (3) was starting to warm up. So the story goes, they both already won their matches but no one else was there to verify this and not a drop of sweat! Score card for Pete read 9-2, 9-0, 9-0 and for Paul 9-1, 9-1, 9-1. Good start boys.
Tom went on court against a ‘tricky’ opponent. ‘Tricky’ because he could play squash and the first was ‘conceded’ 9~3 whilst Tom worked out his strategy – making his move in the second. Moving into a 6-1 lead things looked good, only for the tin to “join forces” with the opponent and he ended up losing the 2nd. The third, and the crowd, disappeared quickly with Tom cursing the mighty tin and reflecting on what might have been, if only he had hit the ball a little higher!
Ashley meanwhile was still warming up by the time Tom had finished. He was playing a guy who should have given up wearing sleeveless yellow tops a long time ago, & it probably contributed to Ash losing the first 9-3. But with some steady squash and a good length, he won the second, dropped the third, won the fourth and so…to the decider. Going 5-1 down, things did not look good, but greater consistency won the day, slowly taking it 9-5.
Phil (2) arrived minutes before last orders to play his match and appeared confident. Unfortunately, the pre-match talk was led by Tom and soon enough, Phil found himself 2-0 down. Despite further words of advice from the team, his opponent played very steadily and Phil was unable to turn things around.
Still an excellent 3-2 win overall.
27/5/10 First up to the task on very hot courts at LA Fitness (with a broken racquet) was Rob (4) against the coach from Marlow. He sneaked an early lead, wobbled and lost the second, took the third and then using Stefan’s words “choked” and dropped the fourth and fifth. 2-3 loss.
Meanwhile Stefan (2) had both started and finished his game against a youngster who had to leave early to revise for his SATs the next day. Stefan breezed through the first 2 games, went off the boil a bit in the 3rd but still managed to close it out with an impressive 3-0 win.
Gareth (3), whose body clock was telling him that it was about 6am, had an equally impressive 3-0 win. He just seemed to sit back, play tight, steady, uncomplicated squash and waited for his opponent’s mistakes – which came. He had to leave early, heading for a greasy spoon breakfast before digging some holes in the M25.
Simon’s (5) physical form was in attendance but his brain was not. At 2 games and 8-0 down, he played a couple of good points and got back to 5 but ultimately succumbed 0-3 against an opponent he should have faired better against. Disappointing.
So the result rested upon Robbi’s (1) broad shoulders. This was spectator squash at it’s best. Robbi made too many mistakes in the first couple of games and found himself 2-0 down, but then decided to try and intimidate his opponent in the following ways:- (a) Rolling sleeves above bulging biceps; (b) repeated self-flagellation with racquet to right leg (Rob’s racquet wouldn’t have survived); and (c) for one heart stopping moment when he turned his shorts-pockets inside-out, the gallery feared that the “Icelandic-elephant” impersonation was going to be used. Robbi took the 3rd game, but his opponent regained his dominance in the 4th and the match was over. It took Robbi a long time to emerge from the showers probably due to having to remove shards of carbon-fibre from the weal’s in his legs.
Overall a 3-2 defeat, but this is one that could definitely be turned around.
27th May – Seconds against Herongate & first up was Elliot. He started well and took the first game with relative ease. Started the second really well and at 6-0 his opponent was suffering from a serious lack of oxygen and used every opportunity to take a rest by chatting to with referee and making comments. Unfortunately Elliot lost concentration and the game 10-9. Third game Elliot was again playing nice long rallies tiring his opponent systematically and won 9-6. The 4th replicated the second game – so to the fifth game in which Elliot upped the pace a bit, taking lots of volleys and he clearly ruled. 3-2 win.
Next game was Zul (2). Unfortunately Zul had a strong opponent who simply picked up all the difficult balls and maintained a high pace at all times. Though Zul played well and lots of good shots the opponent was just a bit to strong to handle. 0-3 Loss
Hilmar was up next. After having traveled a lot in the last week and deprived of sleep, he was not in the best form (official excuse). Hilmar’s opponent played too well and he lost 0-3.
Then we had Mac (5) who had lost even more weight since the last game. This caused him to move around like Neo in The Matrix on court. He showed no mercy and after winning 3-0 his opponent walked off hardly sweating. At the pub Mac ordered a non-alcoholic DIET COKE for the first time this century. Match status 2-2.
Last up was Paul taking on a Ninja that looked like he could do anything he wanted to. Paul showed no fear and decided to tackle this fast mover by playing good drops and lobs. This tactic looked like it was working but Ninjaman was good at running up the wall & hitting the lobs into the nick!. After losing the first, Paul had his mind elsewhere in the second and lost that game just before he woke up. Third game Paul walked into the court with a ninja suite on and played some amazing squash. But from 0~6 down the Ninjaman returned with his wax on wax off tactics and proceeded to take the game and the match.
Overall 2-3 loss.