Galashiels 6-11 Watsonians 4
Ruaridh Kohler 3-0 Charlie Hill
Ruaridh Kohler started off the 2nd half of the season with a massive victory over Charlie Hill. Ruaridh ran away with it 15-8, 15-9, 15-8. Ruaridh’s fitness proved key as Charlie found himself lacking the extra yard needed to reach the ball and Ruaridh’s trademark front court boasts ensured a fairly straight forward victory for the Gala man.
Del Sharratt 0-3 Michael Macari
Boroughmuir High Pupil and Watsonians Junior Starlet Michael Macari won 15-13 in each game in this one, the match couldn’t get much closer. Del was kicking himself for letting a 13-8 lead in the third game slip away and had no-one but himself to blame as he found himself snatching at a lot of shots and lacked fluency. Del said “It’s fantastic to see 15yo Macari strutting his stuff in the East Leagues, there are several Junior competitions in Edinburgh at Squash is getting more and more popular in the Schools these days and it is encouraging to see the kids progressing so quickly. Michael thoroughly deserved his victory tonight”.
Luis Molero 0-3 Peter Thomson
Luis couldn’t shake off the Christmas Cobwebs in this one and found himself chasing the points in every game in this tie. Peter Thomson was more focussed and Luis lack of concentration and rustiness from the Christmas break showed. Luis made a valiant effort in the third but was just too little too late. Luis, normally a banker for some points, said afterwards “I’m extremely disappointed with my performance, it’s below par for me and I feel I’ve let the boys down tonight. I’ll have to focus and work on my sharpness for next week.” Thomson took it 15-10, 15-4, 15-13.
Ian Chalmers 3-2 Gordon MacDonald
With seasoned veteran McDonald travelling with Watsonians it meant more than 40 years separated City Teams youngest and oldest players. Gala’s Chalmers started slow and just concentrated on keeping the ball tight to the wall and not trying anything spectacular. McDonald certainly didn’t lack anything in fitness and took the first a tight 15-13, the score was reversed in the second and this match was proving to be an absolute cracker and certainly had the best squash of the night. Gordon took the third 15-11 and at 2-1 up must have fancied himself to hold on for the victory. It was this point that Ian started speeding the pace of the game up and Elder Statesman McDonald just couldn’t keep up as Ian proved victorious and took the last two games 15-4 and a close 19-17.
Andy Gill 0-3 David Hutton
This was a rematch of the top seeds as in the Reverse fixture Hutton had triumphed 3-1 at Myreside in the first match of the season. This time Andy, who was another who hadn’t really played much over the Christmas Break found himself snatching several shots he would normally get back and as the game progressed and the shots were coming from every angle Andy tired more and found his shots going wayward at key points. In the end Hutton took it 15-13, 15-9, 15-6.
Captain Sharratt said of the night “ We had hoped for victory in this tie, this was a winnable match and several of my team, myself included, would normally have been a bit sharper, but we’ve now blown the cobwebs away from the Christmas Break and will work on our game before next weeks match with Bridge of Allan.”