With the East of Scotland Squash League Season fast approaching; Gala Squash Club arranged a pre-season friendly against Lockerbie Squash Club, from the West Leagues, Lockerbie were playing at Home; this would be the first game either team had played since the Return To Squash post-COVID.These teams had never met previously so no players knew exactly what they were up against, and it proved to be a close fought match. Both teams lost there top seeds to injury earlier in the week, David Lindsey (Lockerbie) and Tony Elliot (Gala); so the match was played with teams of 4.In the first match Up, Gala Club Captain Del Sharratt was against Sean Crolla; Del won the first 2 games 15-13 and 15-7 and thought he had the match in the bag. But Sean found some extra form from nowhere and brought the game back to 2-2 by taking the next games 15-8, 15-12. The decider proved tough for both players, as lack of match fitness showed and this gamed proved t obe more about a War of Attrition than spectacular squash as both players relied on the serves and returns for the points as the legs just wouldn’t seem to run anynore! But Del took it 15-10 to take the first rubber for Gala.Next Up was Piers Wilkinson (Gala) v Stewart Wylie (LSC), this was a similar match up to the previous one as this also went the distance in the best of 5 scenario. Althoush this was more to and fro as Piers won 3-2 with 15-9, 13-15, 14-16, 15-13, 15-10.The Second Seeds were up next and this meant Graham Gillie (Gala) v Craig Bourner (LSC); this was a bit of a grudge match as this pair had locked horns a couple of years previously in the Edinburgh Open – in that occasion Lockerbie’s Craig Bourner triumphed 3-1; This time it was a far more exciting match, Graham Gillie went 2-0 up, but this was far from straight forward as this match had some long rallies as both players had excellent court coverage and this meant long rallies; although Graham went 15-9, 15-13, Craig turned on the skill in the third just as Graham’s focus wavered and Graham’s shots found the tin more and Craig brought it back to 2-2 with 15-11, 15-12. The Decider in this match was just as long and close as the first 4 games and match refereee Del Sharratt found the fast pace challenging to follow and had t omake some critical calls as the players got in each others way on more than a few occasions. Graham held on for 15-10.In the Final Match, featured Jordan Reid (Gala) v Ronnie Carter (LSC) – this one was more one sided as Ronnie Carter seemed to be head and shoulders above Jordan in this one; this was 15-2, 15-8, 15-5 and Jordan described Ronnie as “The best player I’ve ever played a match against”, which was an apt compliment as Ronnie’s skill shone through.
RESULT: LOCKERBIE SQUASH CLUB 1-3 GALA SQUASH CLUB
Gala Club Captain Del Sharratt said after the match “This was a tricky tie, most of the matches could have gone either way. This is the first Team Match we have played in over a year, and although we have some friendly matches between ourselves at the club; team squash is a step up a level and our fitness and sharpness isn’t quite there yet. We will hopefully get another Pre-Season match under our belts before the Leagues start in October and try to work on our fitness for then. It was a great experience and none of us had played at Lockerbie previously so that’s another Club ticked off the list.”