The last time we played Edenvale we got seriously klapped and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Happily we managed to turn the tables and recorded a victory against the Valeians and had a pleasurable evening to boot!
No: 3 – Karel came out all guns blazing against Mark - whom he played and lost to in Masters. Brilliant length’s and boasts that left Mark standing and looking somewhat perplexed. In the second Mark smashes the ball so hard that it almost seemed to intimidate our intrepid Afrikaner and his game falls apart and with his boasts suddenly being picked up and returned with booming interest, Karel is suddenly down 1-2. Captain’s encouragement at the break must have had an impact because Karel finally started showing the fight that I have been longing to see on the league circuit and slowly and steadfastly claws his way back in a nail biting fourth and digs even deeper in the fifth to secure a fantastic first rubber. Some calls that went against Mark in the later stages saw him storm off court but the match was played with great sportsmanship. I have never seen a player ‘serve-out’ after having been awarded a point that he believed was incorrect. Impressive! (3-2)
No: 4 - Steph played and lost to Mike in the first round and that was a most entertaining pairing and I was keen to see how this return bout would turn out. Unfortunately for squash but fortunately for Steph the revenge match was pretty much a one-sided affair this time round. Steph played some inch perfect boasts, nice tight drives and a couple of well controlled drops that were just too good for Mike who seemed a little at sea. The entertaining bit in this match was watching Steph reprimand himself for some of the unforced errors that he made, he gets this gruff voice and normally shouts “come-on” which is somewhat uncharacteristic from our gentle giant. At the risk of repeating myself - I want to meet anybody with a stronger wrist than our Steph. What I would give for half that strength – but not sure what I would look like with a wrist bigger than my hand. Good decisive win Steph. (3-0)
No: 2 – I would prefer not to remind myself of my dismal performance against Greg who rattled me in the first and I went down wondering what game I was supposed to be playing. Although I managed to come back and win the next three games I never enjoyed my game at all and never settled into any semblance of a rhythm. I was fortunate to have an old experienced eye (a.k.a. Karel) give some sound advice which was simply “Stroke the ball” and this made all the difference. Thanks bud! (3-1)
No: 1 – Paul up against the ‘super-sub’ Barry and Paul launches into a lead and was steaming ahead toward a first game win and then Barry starts to find his feet and makes a fantastic comeback and beats Paul to the finish line. This guy is a Comrades runner as well and was wearing his Comrades shirt as an intimidatory tactic - a bit wasted on our “In for the long-haul Paul”. The second sees Barry hitting the ball so sweetly that Paul is left playing a game of retrieve-the-ball. Paul has the ability to remain positive and calm and will continue to fight and this sees him dictating the terms in the third and we saw some great squash. Unfortunately Paul could not stretch Barry and had to concede defeat in the fourth. Would have been fun to see who had the endurance to prevail in a fifth – but not to be. Once again, good sportsmanship exercised by both players made it a pleasure to mark. (1-3)
Great half price steaks at Q-Ba rounded off a most enjoyable evening out (all except for my pathetic game of course) and only managed a ‘pumpkin-turning-time’ departure.
Quote of the day: - “Whatever advice you give, be brief.” HORACE, Art of Poetry
“Ear-Ear”
Gary
Overall result: Won 13 - 6
