Castle Conquered

Border Reivers 13-9 Colinton Castle 5

 

Andrew Dowlen-Gilland 1-3 Mark Crease

A winning start for Colinton Castle, Crease has been a regular at 5 this season and always seems to have close matches. Reivers Sir Andrew had been out of action for a couple of weeks prior to this game and it showed as the edge was with Crease. The first two fames went 15-12, 15-7 to Crease although he didn’t have it all his own way. Sir Andrew was pretty fast despite his years and it was just the odd nick and boast that was proving successful for Crease. Sir Andrew won the third game 15-10 just by controlling the rallies and keeping his opponent behind him. But Crease didn’t tire and rattled off several points on the trot in the fourth for a 15-7 victory.

 

Del Sharratt 1-3 Bob Blaikie

This was a bit of a rivalry, as each of the teams previous meetings have yielded a 3-1 victory to Blaikie in this tie. Sharratt was starting to think he was jinxed against Blaikie as again he couldn’t get closer than 3-1. Blaikie won the first 15-7 as both players had a slow starrt and Sharratt brought it back to 1-1 with 15-12 in the second. Blaikie tried to serve to Sharratt’s back hand but Sharratt managed the cross court volley on almost every return to keep Blaikie from scoring heavily. The third and fourth games went 15-7, 15-2 to Blaikie as he changed his serve to a lob and this seemed to flummox Sharratt as he struggled to control the return and Blaikie killed the ball for the points.

 

Pat Spence 1-3 Adam Hill

Spence was slightly frustrated during this game, as several of his usually dependable drop shots would hit the tin, Spence thought he should be beating Hill but this was an off day for the Borders Veteran coupled with Hill having a Good day and this won the rubber 12-15, 15-10, 15-5, 15-12 to the City Man.

 

Adam McKay 3-0 Michael Gibbs

Borer Rivers Debutant Adam McKay started his campaign with a victory. McKay has recently set up his business in Galashiels and joined the squash club in the last two weeks. McKay is a former Northumberland youth champion but has been out of the game for 3-4 years. The first game was a close 15-13 as the borderer was just getting used to the courts and the ball. The second game was a cracker as Gibbs managed to go 14-9 up but this spurred McKay on and McKay brought it back to 14-14 with some tight shots and managed to find the corners when it matters, this went to 18-16 in the end; the third game was relatively easy for McKay as he found his squash head and showed his prowess with 15-2.

 

Tony Elliot 3-0 Phil Nickells

This was an awkward match for Elliot, Elliot hasn’t dropped a game all season, but Nickells 6’5” frame meant Elliot found it difficult to get the ball past Nicholls and couldn’t find much rhythm to his game. Elliot just plugged along and won 15-10, 15-9, 15-7.

 

Captain Sharratt said “We always have a close match with Colinton Castle, this was 9-9 in games but they won 3-2 in rubbers for the bonus 3 points. I’m going to have to try to avoid Blaikie in the return – I seem jinxed against him! McKay will prove to be a great Asset to the team and indeed the squash club and I’m looking forward to the second half of the season”.