Border Reivers 15-3 Waverley 4s
Del Sharratt 0-3 Dan Makharinsky
Waverley started the match with full points, putting them in a buoyant mood for the rest of the ties. Althouth Del didn’t really do anything wrong, Dan just seemed to do it better. But Del’s main downfall was the crucial points he gave away in each game just from serving out, this went 15-11, 15-11, 15-8 in Waverley 4s favour.
Graham Gillie 3-0 Alex Ross
Graham Gillie has cemented himself as a regular in the Reivers line-up now as he remains unbeaten with 6 wins in 6 games. Gillie, dubbed “Ronnie”, by the Squash Club uses his unorthodox style of swapping the racket from his right hand to his left hand during rallies to win most points – as Ronnie O’Sullivan is famous for in snooker! Ross couldn’t get to grips with this as Gillie rarely played a backhand shot and Gillie romped through this one 15-9, 15-9, 15-13.
Iain Laing 3-0 Werner Kittell
Laing was a bit nervous going into this one as Kittell boasted a decorated squash career and now plays in the Masters Circuit in the over 60s up and down the country. But Kittell wasn’t his usual self in this game, and didn’t enjoy the cold courts at Galashiels as his home courts at Waverley are arguably the hottest in the league! But it just didn’t work out for Kittell in this one and Laing came out all guns blazing, this was a fairly straight forward 15-2, 15-6, 15-6 for Laing to take the Borderers to a 2-1 Lead.
Adam McKay 3-0 Akash Chopra
This one wasn’t quite as straight forward as the score suggests, Chopra made McKay work for the points in this one – but the experienced McKay would change his game and vary tactics to keep Chopra from reading the game. This game boasted the best rallies and McKay took it 15-9, 15-4, 5-10. This won the match for Reivers 3-1 in rubbers.
Tony Elliot 3-0 Gordon Scott
The Battle of the top seeds was a repeat of the said tie in the first leg at Waverley – but the result was the same – A convincing 3-0 win for Elliot. Tony Elliot remains unbeaten this season with only Tyne 2’s Shane Pressley taking a game off him. Scott started off meaning business and tried t omatch Elliot for shots and movement but he eventually ran out of puff and ideas, Elliot won 15-10, 15-3, 15-5.
Reivers Captain Sharratt said “That was a convincing victory! We are currently on 6 wins in a row and my squad are full of confidence. We welcome the current runaway leaders down to Gala next – Grange 5s and they have quality throughout their line-up so none of us will have an easy game. I’d expect close matches from 1-5. Elliot, McKay and Gillie have unbeaten records to defend so we will certainly be up for the match!”