The first league night in cold weather and this was noticeable by lack of bounce in the ball.
First on was Des at No3. Looking remarkably like a Super15 rugby player in his beautiful Nike two-piece shorts, you know, built-in (ballerina) tights under a gents pair of shorts, in his usual casual fashion under-estimated his opponent and lost the first game (15-17). Then, again in his usual fashion, took the match seriously and was too powerful for Yoav (now a regular in the Eds team) taking the next three games fairly easily. (3/1)
Next on was John at No2 playing their captain, Patrick, who should honestly play at 4 but, well, he is the captain and thinks he is good enough to play 2. John took a while to acclimatise and in the first game succumbed meekly winning only 6 points. A little scolding from the team shook him into reality and we saw a different player take the next three games (with some sweat it must be said) dropping only 20 points to win 3/1. All looking good so far.
Then on was Keith promoted to No1 as a result of a call-in by a sick Brian earlier in the day. Sick! Dear Reader, is a boil on your balls really an excuse for not pitching to play your league match? Nevertheless Keith played Jahinger Khan (alias Atish Ratangee) who also beat Brian 3-zip in the first round, and did put up a strong fight in the first before losing 10/15. Mr Khan was too good for Braveheart and Keith was soundly whipped 15/8 and 15/8 to go down 0/3.
Not a problem, we were 2-up, 6 games to 5 and 137 points to 128. A little pressure?
Bob on at No4 against another Old Eds regular, Justin, who Paddy soundly whipped 3/0 in the first round, so Bob felt very confident. Ahah! Surprise, surprise, Dear Reader, young Justin has been playing squash while Bob has been exercising his beer-drinking arm and a game was on! Bob took the first 18/16; lost the second 15/17; injected some life into his failing body to take the third 16/14 and was completely whacked in the fourth and lost it 6/15. Pressure, did someone say? At this point we were 8 games to 7 and 192 points to 190! Now this was pressure. Fortunately Bob’s mental arithmetic isn’t so good and he didn’t know this, in fact his brain was in a neutral state of exhaustion. The last game was crucial and fortunately for Bob, young Justin cracked at 11-all and Bob managed to win the game 15/11.
Good win – 9 – 7 giving us 12 points to place us third on the log.
Final result : 9 - 7
