Ashley Keeps his Nerve
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.