On the 5th & 6th December, two players from Gala Squash Club made the trip to Grange Sports Club in Stockbridge, Edinburgh for the Close Brothers Asset Management Grange Open 2015 – Club Championship Runner Up Luis Molero and Club Captain Del Sharratt. The Grange Open regularly attracts big names from the squash world and is Open to Players of ANY club. A recent winner of the Grange Open is Scotland International Dougie Kempsell who, due to squash commitments, was unable to enter this year, but the draw was full of other players of similar standard.
The event was graded and Gala’s Luis Molero was Runner Up in the Secondary grade; his matches included a 3-0 (15-9, 15-2, 15-6) victory against Andrew Chrmka (Grange), and Luis took the scalp of the grade’s top seed Jamie Dalrymple (Grange) in an epic 3-1 (16-14, 6-15,15-9, 15-8). In the final, Luis was against the youthful Tom Clark (Watsonians) and the youngster’s fitness and speed proved too much for Luis as he as won 3-0 (15-11, 15-8, 19-17).
In the same grade Del Sharratt crashed out to eventual champion Tom Clark in the opening round 3-2 (15-10, 16-18, 15-8, 13-15, 15-8); therefore Del entered the plate tournament, which he won with notable victories over Edinburgh Waverley’s Samir Nizam 3-0 (15-6, 15-7, 15-13) and in the plate final Del triumphed against Luis’s first round victim Andrew Chrmka 3-0 (15-11, 15-5, 15-10).
In the Main Event the final was contested between Heriot Watt University’s Michael Ross and Edinburgh Sport Clubs Canadian player Jaques Laas. The match went the distance and both players had their chances in a thrilling 3-2 (12-10, 11-13, 11-7, 9-11, 11-2).
Del Sharratt said “It was a great experience just to rub shoulders with some of Scotland’s best, these guys are an inspiration to some of the younger players in the country and hopefully more of Gala Squash Club members will participate in this event next year.”
