Simon Fairburn 1-3 David Thomson
Gala Debutant Fairburn gave a great account of himself in his first league outing for Gala. Indeed Fairburn got off to a great start takig the first 15-8. It was a case of Thomson getting into his stride, as Simon was leading 8-6 in the second before David Thomson started finding good length and rattled off several points to take it 15-10; In similar style the full length shots seen David motor away to a 9-1 Lead in the third before Simon, who was covering every inch of the court, started to get back into the game. But David just wouldn’t relent and never lost his precision or length and triumphed 8-15, 15-10, 15-5, 15-4.
Ruaridh Kohler 0-3 Duncan Cleat
Ruaridh just found himself against an in-form opponent tonight, Cleat didn’t do much wrong, he was focussed, fit and had the clinical finishes that were too good for Kohler. The Gala man, despite trying several different tactics couldn’t get Cleat to make any errors and it was 15-6, 15-10, 15-13 to The Dean Captain.
Del Sharratt 0-3 Andrew Robson
This rubber sealed the match for Dean, although Del who scored points with tight full length shots found a formidable opponent in Andrew, Andrew was good at switching the game from front to back and Del found little time to think about movement and shots and although the game had many long fast rallies, Andrew’s consistency was the key and he was too strong for Del 15-8, 15-8, 15-7
Andy Gill 2-3 Marc Ivory
This was the tie of the night. Both players were closely matched and there wasn’t much separating the players skill, fitness or movement. Whenever either player managed to get on the they would dominate the rallies and make the opponent run about. This happened game about and it went 7-15, 15-4, 4-15, 16-14, in the end Gill just ran out of steam and although made a valiant effort in the fifth Ivory took it 15-5 for the match.
Adam Oliver 3-0 James Birkhead
Both players were obviously the top seeds in the respective teams as the standard of squash was top drawer, the spectators enjoyed the demonstration and Gala’s Oliver remained the most focussed and took a pretty convincing 15-5, 15-4, 15-8 victory.
Captain Sharratt said of the match “Very exciting tonight, The Dean are arguably the strongest team in the league just now and seem to be beating everyone. The boys put up a good fight, and Fairburn’s performance will maintain his place in my team for next week.