Mens Results 26 May 2009 Part 2

Div 6 at home against Collegians
Lost on points.....Julian reported:

• I lost 3-1 to a D2 and showed everyone how to dolly up half court shots combined way too many cross courts gimmes.
• Alan started with a hiss and a roar winning the first against a junior. Despite a brave fight he lost the next 3.
• Matt stepped up at short notice (thanks Matt) to take down a fit lefty in 4. Lots of great rallies with plenty of guts from the older lefty to keep up with Matt.
• Helen played last and was pushed at times by the D1. Helen's superior shots cleaned up her opponent 3-1 in the end though.

New team away to Wainui
Lost 3/1.....Dikesh reported :

• I played a D2 player and lost in 3.
• Andrew played a D2 player and went down in 3.
• Tom played an E1 player and went down in 3.
• Ajay played an ungraded player and won in 3.

So overall result we lost 3/1 to Wainui.

Three of what will be Dikesh's regular players were unavailable so thank you to Tom and Andrew for helping out - especially considering the travel required :)

Mens Results 26 May 2009

Morning all,

Only two men's teams in action this week. My team had to win to stay in Div 6 by beating a young and determined Collegians team. It was 2 matches and 8 games all at the end but we lost by 4 points.

The only other team in action Tuesday night was our new team captained by Dikesh Parmar. They played a grading match against Wainui losing 3/1. This probably means they'll be div 9. More detailed results below.

Rules and refereeing evening
A great turn out last night - good to see so many of you (and the juniors) down there. Hopefully everyone learnt something.

The WindowMan had a solid run on the quiz scoring 49 out of 50. However, he was usurped as the rules king by Mr Batchelor. Dan scored a very impressive 100% on the quiz. Don't worry Al - we know that you still know it all!

If there was a prize for the most questions asked then junior Sam Allen would take that out hands down. Poor Sandra Tinkler was trying to leave the building to head home and Sam could be heard still asking "....Is it a stroke if......". Got to love that boy although willing to trade him for a deaf mute if anyone is offering.

No interclub next week however there'll be a number of us at the club on Tuesday night if you're keen for a hit. Enjoy your long weekend.

Julian

Mens Results 19 May 2009

Reports have now come in from the Men's teams.

• All 3 men's team had a count back scenario. Unfortunately only Tony's team came out on the right side of the ledger.
• As Tony reports below, the Men's 1 team had a good win to avoid a relegation match. Unfortunately the Men's 2 team can't say the same -we have a relegation match against Collegians next Tuesday night. We can kick some butt though I'm sure. Men's 3 fought hard but had a narrow loss to Island Bay.
• Tony has written the next novel in the Dan Brown series (his report below). Although full of drama and suspense, it is unlikely this one will be a big screen smash though (like The Da Vinci Code and Angels andDemons). A very good read though Tony!
• Rules and refereeing evening is still next week - Thursday 28th May at the clubrooms starting 7.30 pm. See you there.

Julian

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Men's Div 10B team were at playing away and lost against Island Bay..... James Hippolite reports....

• Dikesh, our one and only D2 player, just back into the fray after a period away, played an opponent of ungraded but roughly comparable skills. Dikesh won 3/0.
• Bruce, our E1 senior, played Steve, another ungraded but skilful player. Bruce lost 3/0.
• Jordan, our E1 junior, played Josh. Jordan lost 3/0.
• Werner, our E2 junior, played Brian. Werner won 3/1.

Island Bay won 7 games to 6.

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Men's Div 6 team were at home and lost to Mana..... ring in Dan Batchelor reports....

• With the Northern men's 2 team cemented firmly at the wrong end of division 6 they had to get the big guns in this week for the clash with Mana, but unfortunately to no avail, going down 2-2 on matches and 9-7 on games...Promotion relegation now beckons next week.
• I played at number one against Brent Smyth, a similar graded player and in the end was lucky he ran out of steam after he had me on the ropes early. A dodgy call from Brent for set 1 in the second game lead to a 9-8 northern win and was the turning point.
• At number 2 Andre went the same way as Brent, running out of puff after fighting hard throughout to go down in 4 close ones against John Poppleton.
• Meanwhile, Alan had the misfortune of coming up against an improving Rob Greene and the superior fitness of the youngster once again proved to be decisive.
• Finally, the match of the night was between the number fours and was certainly a game of two halves with Matt taking on the higher graded Chris Mundy. Chris took out the first two games fairly convincingly, but at last Matt sprung into action in the third game, (spurred on by a few dodgy calls from the ref) he pulled out two skunkings in a row followed by a fairly lop sided score in the final game to win in 5 and pick up a bundle of points for his efforts.
• Squash was the winner on the night.

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Men's Div 3 team were at home and beat Fraser Park.....Tony Blackler reports....

• We went in sitting in relegation spot, knowing we probably needed to win, and win well to avoid relegation - in fact it was possible that we could still be on the bottom of the table after winning 3 of the 5 weeks!! - go figure !!
• We took on Mike Leigh and has Fraser Park cohort ...
• 1st Craig D playing at #3 - started the match with precision drives and artful drops to take immediate command - won the 1st and then went on to chase down a big lead to take the 2nd - clearly on our way to our 1st victory ... NOT ... the other guy came back and turned the match into a great battle and after 3 games that went long pulled off a win in 5 ...darn! - but Craig played well and we had our 1st 2 points in the bag...
• 2nd Jason S playing at #2 - he has been playing really well of late and utterly controlled the match from beginning to end running his poor opponent ragged in the process. 5 points now and looking good ...
• 3rd was Andrew P playing at #1 Vs past Northern club champion Mike Leigh- this was going to be the tough one - Andrew protecting a pulled muscle and really up against it - we needed him to get at least a point or two to help us avoid elimination ... Andrew out to a quick lead, his combination of length and deft drops keeping him on top of the game, and keeping Mike scrambling, an easy win in the 1st, great stuff. On to the 2nd and it was only a matter of time before Mike warmed up and we were nervously anticipating that 1st big stretch he would force Andrew into -that could be the end of things ... however Andrew continued his dominance over Mike and again easily took the 2nd ... could it be?, might Andrew get away with playing injured?, into the 3rd in this now crucial match, again total dominance over Mike and an easy win - Well done #1, great effort and beyond our expectations.
• We had now secured the nights win and with that bonus point we now had 9- possibly enough but if either team above us scored more than 6 points that night we would still be on the bottom - still needed just a few more to try to make us safe ...
• Last to play was Craig H - he's been playing well lately and he was our 'ace in the hole' positioned down at #4 - our confidence was starting to glow ... 1st game, full of confidence and his cheeky grin (which normally means lots of little drops and fancy shots coming up -sometimes not all good ...) his opponent admittedly looked as if he would be more comfortable in front of a computer screen or in the frontrow of a "star trek" convention, however looks were deceiving and this boy could hit the ball hard and clean, possibly catching Hoppy by surprise (as with the rest of us) as he went down initially before mounting a comeback - things now even at 1-1, Hoppy showed a little more precision and poise in the 3rd to take the lead before coming out in the 4th with .... yup, that cheeky little grin was back ... oh, oh ... down again in the 4th but a really good close game, now 2-2 and heading into what was probably the longest game of the night (well it certainly felt that way for us watching it anyway) .. another really close one but unfortunately not in our favour as Craig went down in 5. We will remember this guy for next time - he isn't what he looks like ... he's actually a pretty good player ...
• At nights end we had secured the team win and a total of 11 points -probably enough we thought, but still no guarantee ...
• With the posting of the initial results early Wednesday morning we finally saw the outcome of our efforts, we had avoided the dreaded relegation playoff spot through the marvellous efforts of our players and of Martinborough (our new best friends) who destroyed poor Waikanae placing them now in the relegation seat.
• Well done to all the team - you have earned a weeks rest.

Men's Interclub 12 May 2009

Men's Div 3 - Tony Blackler didn't play but did report a 3-1 loss at home against Martinborough...... Hi all, Not so flash last night ...Started well with Dewsy back to some good form in winning 3/0. Then Dan went on fight valiantly in 5 very even games to narrowly go down. Then a reportedly 'broken' Andrew went down in 3 to a another B1 - tough match up. Then Hoppy lost in 3 to a high B2 who after a few long rallies, outlasted him and pulled ahead to win.

Men's Div 6 - Alan Lavery briefly reported a 4-0 loss away againstMitchell Park...... Rex Mar was beaten by young Scott Galloway 3-0. Andre Neill lost to Greg Gambitsis 3-0. Alan Lavery lost against Big Owen 3-0. John Conroy lost to John Brooking 3-0.

There were a couple of skunkings in there where two of us (Andre/John) lost a game 9 zip. We had clean undies on though! Rex was always up against it playing young Scotty. Andre had to face another up and coming junior. Alan felt he didn't play his best and Owen is a good player when he puts his mind to it. John played well for most of his match and his recent coaching/practice was shining through - just needs to throw the right knock out punch after his hard work pinning his opponent in the corner :)
By contrast, here's what Rex reported.....I played Scott Galloway. 0/3. Strong start but followed up with 2 silly games. John played John Brooking. 0/3. Many unforced errors, couldn't pull it together. Andre Played Gregory Gambitsis!?! 0/3. Old drunk guy against younger sober guy. Alan Played Owen Ngarewa. 0/3. Sneaky out of shape guy against dodgy older guy. Sneaky won on the day.

Men's Div 10 Pool B - James Hippolite reported a 3-1 loss at homeagainst Tawa....... Due to the flagitious behaviour of others, I was forced to make a call, and change the members of my team for our home game against Tawa:

• Jordan Bailey won against James, 9/6, 2/9, 9/4, 9/4.
  Looked strong from the start.
• Fletcher Tay lost against Malcolm, 9/0, 9/0, 9/6.
  He got better toward theend there. Just needs some more practice, and he'll be back to hisformer Malaysian champion best.
• Graham Commins lost against David, 9/5, 9/3, 9/2.
  Not a bad first outing for Graham.
• Bruce Gray lost against Kevin, 8/10, 9/6, 9/3, 9/0.
  Just lost some fitness towards the end there.

Lessons from Masterton

Masterton was an education; an education I would now like to share with you for the benefit of future captains, and others.

The first lesson was it takes 1.5 hours to go from Newlands to Masterton normally. It takes slightly longer if you're leaving at 5:30pm, because of peak hour traffic on the motorway. It takes slightly longer still, if a traffic cop decides to pull over a car, and the entire three lanes of Hutt traffic decides to slow down to take a look. And finally, it takes just a little while longer if some people in your car demand to be driven to the new MacDonalds 24/7 drive-through in Masterton.

The second lesson is, "don't have a Mac Attack before a game." Both juniors (age, not rank) have now learned this lesson, and will never do that again. Their original aprosexia was alleviated, but at the expense of their inability to get to the ball.

The third lesson is, go as a team in one car. It makes the long trip fun and worthwhile.
The fourth lesson is, if you don't want to add stress to your lives, then don't leave the organising of your team until last thing on Tuesday!

All of this verbosity is designed to hide the fact that the scores from our matches were abysmal: Sam Oldfield vs. Bruce Gray: 9/5, 9/0, 9/6. Mitchell Hammond vs. Jono Cunningham: 9/0, 9/7, 10/9. Tim McKay vs. Werner Schulz: 9/6, 9/7, 10/8. Baden Grey vs. James Hippolite: 9/2, 9/0, 9/4.

So far and yet so near

We ripped through Tawa as if they weren’t even there and watched Island Bay do the same to Mitchell Park as if they weren’t even there. Given the high energy levels and time on our side we declared war on Island Bay and took them out winning by one game. That would effectively put us in third place.
Russell won his first without any real pressure and then succumbed to a beating in the next 3 games
Andrew took his game to 5 , mighty battles losing the last 10/9
Bruce massacred his opponent with clever lobs and power drives 3-0
Jordan played hard and well, won in 3 , last game 10/9
The doubles afterwards did not go well with Jordan and Bruce dominating Russell and Andrew
The food was brilliant, especially that fish pie and our South African hosts were magnificent.

Real Winners

We beat Mitchell Park B 4 zip to take out the Div 4 title but it was anything but easy.

Playing Angelos Gambitsis (D2) first up, I lost the first game and then decided to play proper squash to win the next 3. I had match point to 5 in the 4th and squandered the lead to be game point down. Sense prevailed and three quick rallies later I had the game and the match.

John was up next against Scott Tiler (D2). John saved his best for last. After losing the first game, he too switched on to win the next 2 games. A momentarily lapse in the 4th made it a 5 setter. John kept his head, applied pressure through good straight, long shots and let his opponent make lots of mistakes.

Alan felt like he needed a good run so allowed his opponent Bruce Neilson (D2) to stretch the match out to 5 sets. A change of racquet at the end of the 4th game saw a change in attitude from Alan and he won the 5th easily. The racquet he changed to was actually broken before he went on court. Observers were gob smacked that with a bag full of racquets Alan had declared the only broken one to be the best for the job. He proved his point!

Matt continued his unbeaten run downing Shane O'Grady (E1) easily in 3. There were a number of great scrambling rallies where both players retrieved the ball from very unlikely positions. A number of times the person doing all the scrambling won the rally. Just shows you should never give up. Was nice to have Matt's parents there to see him play well and secure a good win against a player who won't be in E grade for too much longer.

Well, we looked unlikely number 1 seeds after out first round loss to Tawa. We didn't loose a tie after that.

So near and yet so far

A loss by 9 points on count back! 103 to 112!!

Helen got her revenge against Mike James beating him 3/1 .. Justice eh Helen! ;)

I managed a win against John Brooking 3/1. First game was a shocker with the trailing 3 being a little better :\

Dan and Scotty Galloway were first up. Dan was not playing to his usual form and lost in 3. Warm up’s over Dan, winter interclub’s the real season eh :D

Geordie had a cracker of a game against Gregory Gambitsis and was clearly the match of the evening. Geordie wormed his way into the junior’s mind early in the game and fought bravely to only very barely lose in 5! A fine effort and a suitable end to a well fought final!!

Thanks to the team for their efforts and displays of sportsmanship throught-out! Well played!

Cheers,
Rex

Autumn Semi Finals

Hi de hi

Are you up with the play?.......

1. Men's Autumn interclub semi finals were held last night. Three of our four men's teams made the semis and of those two out of three teams won to make the final next week.

The final games for each division will be held in one location next Tuesday night. As there are about 6 teams per division, it is highly unlikely that any of our teams will be playing at home. I will let you know more info when it comes to hand.

Team Captain reports at the bottom of this email (as usual).


2. Winter Interclub entries are due 3rd April. We have enough players for 3 teams but not quite enough for 4. Later today I will email the teams as they stand. It's important that you get back to me asap if you've been omitted or (boo hiss) you want to withdraw.


3. The latest grading list is out and seems to include all games up to mid-March. No grading changes for any of our members at this stage but i'm sure there are plenty to come this year. Hopefully in the right direction too eh Alan (soon to be a D1 again after letting Mike O'Sullivan skunk him in the fifth set last night).

http://www.squashnz.co.nz/gradelist/


2. Check out the new squash stats site to see details of yours and others' squashing feats. And there is plenty of detail to see. All your 2008 recorded matches are in there; sliced and diced a number of ways. 2009 data will be added within a couple of days of each month end.

http://www.squashstats.co.nz/club_list.html?id=WNNT


3. Subs were due yesterday (31st March 2009). Don't forget to get your renewal form to Alan Lavery (alprop@paradise.net.nz). The early bird special of $130 was available to those who paid by 31st March 2009. The usual sub of $150 payable from here on.


4. Entries for the upcoming Northern Squash tourney close Friday 10th April. Poster attached with all the details.


5. National squash weekend seemed to be a success thanks to the many people that contributed time and effort. Well done and thank you to all. Always good to get new members.

That's all I can think of for now. Have fun.




Julian


Men's Div 5 - captain Russell Foley's team didn't make the semis so didn't have a game last night. They'll be in a play off for 5th and 6th next Tuesday night though.
Men's Div 4 - winning captain Julian Allen had heart palpitations during their win over Mitchell Park A last night....
It was tough but we got there 8/6 on games. This was a repeat of the last round robin match up last week. I was first up and beat Wayne Eltringham (D2) fairly quickly 3-0. Matt Beighton had a tightly fought match beating Scott Bolton (D2) 3-1 with the first two games going to 8 all! John Conroy fought hard but went down 3-0 to Mark Fade (D2). Alan had a scrappy match against Mike O'Sullivan (D1) losing 9-0 in the fifth set. Alan's 2 games were enough to get us into the final against Mitchell Park B though :)
Men's Div 3 - captain Rex Mar is rightly elated with their win over Tawa...
Team did well to clinch this victory with little effort against Tawa with a match score 4-0! Geordie beat Rex Verry 3-1, Dan beat Duncan Heath 3-0, Helen beat Kaushik Patel 3-0 and Rex beat Tony Nelson 3-1.
What Rex failed to mention is that poor Tony is recovering from an operation that saw one of his eyes removed. Tony must be mending well if he picked up a game from Rex though. Or, Rex kept hitting to the wrong side of the court! (Sorry, bad attempt at humour)
Men's Div 2 - losing captain Tony Blackler was looking for a reversal of form from last week and got it (Tony lost 3 zip, Jules won 3 zip)....
Mana took us out 3-1. We play Island Bay next week for 3rd!

1. Tony#2 Vs Ross - Won the 1st 9/2 only to fall into a cross court duel which I couldn't find a way out of ... lost in 4.
2. Craig D#4 Vs Martin - a couple of close games and one not so close ... down in 3.
3. Julian O#1 Vs Hamish - needing a big win, Jules went on with determination to end it quickly ... however since he left his squash shoes at home the first took a little longer than planned with Jules presenting his version of 'slip sliding away' on the court ... he hung in there after a couple of tumbles and took it out 9/5 before borrowing a bit of grip and killing the match off 9/1, 9/1 to win in three - an excellent #1's knock !
4. Hoppy#3 Vs Chris - as usual Hoppy needed to win in 3, or 4 if he was really economical (thanks to Jules VERY economical match), he went down narrowly in the 1st in a great game, (now needed to win the next 3 without giving away more than 10 points... total) won the 2nd 9/3 ... on track ... but unfortunately went down in the 3rd ending our semi chances ... however Hoppy picked up and won the 4th before dropping the last to lose in 5. A great effort against a fast improving junior and easily the match of the night.

Remininisces of squash in the garden city

Hayley

Enjoyed your post about your recent experiences squashing in the canterbury province.

Shame there was no doubles as clearly you and Helen are a formidable force on the road.

I'm not really one to live on past glories but I played in an Open tournament at the christchurch club in the season of 2002 (The only reason I remember the year was that we were in chch for my lovely grandmother Beryl's ninetieth and Marieke was in foal with Annabel).

I struggled first up, arriving in a poor mindset, and was out played by a youngster with promise from mt pleasant. rounds 2 & 3 weren't memorable although one of the matches was transferred to the chch rugby club's courts and i did enough to scrape a couple of wins.

The plate final was an interesting match-up against a former radio talk-back-jock who some of you might be old enough to remember in george balani. I was useless, as the cagey balani artfully maneuvered me around the court with his touch game. Helped by the presence of my brother in the gallery i gradually wore my more experienced opponent down winning in four or five games.

For some reason i remember being mightily relieved afterwards at getting over the line.

I think Charlie Mayhew won the men's open title but the player who left an indelible impression on me was a wily, veteran (with a john mcenroe like headband) come coach by the name of Hayes.

Can't remember what was in the prize pool and no bbq's or fire alarms.


NB: balani's daughter was one of the top players for her gender in italy at the time.

Someone has added a logo to "The Northern Court Circular" heading.

What's more when I clicked on this logo I ended up in a place curiously called the dominican republic.

Is this a breach?

PS:

Why is it [the ball] only a single dot, I'd have thought at least a minimum of three.

H & H Awesome in Christchurch

From the pen of Hayley:
As some of you know Helen and I went to Christchurch to fly the Northern flag at the Christchurch Open Tournament.
Helen won her first match convincingly, then moved through to have to play Eliza Sims. For those of you that don't know, Eliza is about 17yrs old, and is probably one of NZ's most promising women players. She is coached and trained by Nick Mita, and is a very sharp A2 grade. Helen did an awesome job and certainly held her own, but did not win the match. Helen then won her 3rd game easily and went into the speical plate final I think it was against Renee Walkinshaw. Helen took the first match off the higher graded Renee, and run gallantly through the next 3 matches, but sadly did not get the match, going down 3-1. Helen was in the top open ladies division and was matched against some very talented players, so I think that she was happy with her wins.

I had a very good weekend, despite battling a persistant cough which made my breathing somewhat difficult! I was in Division 2, seeded 3rd from 16. I was susccessful in winning all 4 of my matches to take the Div 2 Championship. My final was quite a battle. I played a 15 yr old who has clearly received coaching! Luckily for me, her attitude was not quite 100%, and when put under pressure she dropped her bottom lip and started to make mistakes. Our match went to 5, and I managed to win it 15-10 in the 5th set. All matches were American scoring to 15. I was really happy with that, being my first tourney of the year.

Christchurch Squash Club is certainly one very impressive place. They have 5 courts, ALL glassback! Downstairs and upstairs viewing areas are amazing. Bar, lounge area is huge with a big projecter TV. Very friendly and well run tournament, except for when the president of the club decided to cook sausages on the bbq INSIDE the club rooms during the finals, smoked out the courts and set off the fire alarm! Had to evacuate building and wait for fire brigade to arrive to reset alarms etc! Some of the finalists were not happy as they were half way through matches, then had to stand outside in a 12 degree southerly for 20 minutes!

Squash weekend Update - you can help

Hi all,

Well, thanks to a mighty effort and "outside the square" thinking by Ann-Marie we are getting 500 flyers !! - for free !! - Awesome stuff Ann-Marie well done. She has managed to do a deal with a printing company to do a special run for us, and all it cost us was making a minor change to show "sponsored by Service Printers, Wellington" and maybe sticking up a placard at the club during the weekend (which they will provide). So if you (or your business) has any printing needs, the committee would like to recommend you use these guys, and say you are from Northern if you do - Lets support those who support us !!

So, now we have a REAL plan for the Squash Weekend (March 28th & 29th), here it goes ...

1. 500 Flyers will be printed and possibly available tomorrow to be distributed (by the way, they also have our club name and address on them now!) - those of us happy to spread some around can do so and i suggest we also take some down to the club so ALL members can help do likewise (even if only 10-15 each). I suggest we may get better coverage doing car parks, etc rather than streets - that way they are scattered to a wider area. (and its quicker)

2. 500 Business cards will be delivered and we will set up a time/place/person/s to attach stickers to them with our club name and address before distributing to all who can help to distribute even further via friends, work, etc

3. Gibby has kindly offered to grab some of the posters and have them put up in some prominent places - again these will need to have our club name and address written on them beforehand.

4. Those available to help on Saturday should report at 2pm to help put up some signage pointing to the club. We may need to write name/address on these 1st.

5. Members/Players available at the Club from 2.30pm - 5.00pm on Saturday 28th (or parts thereof)

6. Members/Players available at the Club from 2.30pm - 5.30pm on Sunday 29th (or parts thereof - you will need to take signage down before leaving)
7. Those coming down on Saturday/Sunday should ALL try to bring SOMETHING in the line of refreshments, tea/coffee for VISITORS ... though i say anything still left after 4.30pm is fair game !!

Further information will be made available when possible - how/when to get business cards/posters/flyers, etc

Lets do this !!

Tony.

Well it was a mixed result for the women's interclub teams this week.

Women's 1 had a good win over Collegians. Steph started the winning run in a very gutsy and admirable fashion. She turned up to play despite having woken that morning feeling considerably unwell and having a fever. That's true team spirit for you! She had to guts out 5 games though, to finally take the win 10-8 in the 5th set! Ann-Marie followed suite with a well fought 3-0 win over a fellow C2. Ann-Marie was chasing down everything and running amazingly well, so great to see her getting back to some of her good form! There are no doubt exciting things to come from Ann-Marie this year! Hayley P then had a 3-0 win after a somewhat mistake-ridden start. Winning the first game by a very small margin, completed the 3 games with a 9-0 and 9-1, thanks to some helpful advice from Ann-Marie at game intervals. Yolanda finished the night with a 3-0 loss, which in no way reflected the brilliant game that she had.
It was one of the best games Yolanda has played and the rallies were long and hard fought. It is awesome to see Yolanda also returning to some of her best form.

So quite encouraging, we are using Autumn to build a good team platform to start out winter assault in April and I know that all of us are going to produce some great form this year!

Women's 2 also had an encouraging evening. Whilst the results on paper were not what they would have wanted, all of the players were able to take away their own positive achievements.

Playing Island Bay, the girls were up against a team of experienced players who have all been playing for a while now. Rochelle took the court an incredible 7 weeks after giving birth to the very gorgeous Leila Jane! What an amazing effort Rochelle, it is cool to see you back on court and no doubt things will go from strength to strength for you!
Young Vanessa Larsen also played admirably against a very seasoned campaigner, who was over 700 points above her! Vanessa won the first 2 games, then bravely fought out the remaining games to unfortunately go down in 5. But what an awesome and encouraging effort from one of our youngest and up and coming stars! Elaine then also played well to take her opponent to 4 games. Elaine is often hard on herself, but I think that she played really well, and has made quite an astounding come back after brain surgery last year! Keep up the good work Elaine! Finally Fiona was able to secure a great win over her junior opponent. Sheer determination saw her through, knowing that she may not have the legs to play 5 games, she wrapped it up in 4 to secure a good win and valuable points for the team!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Another fairly good week for the Northern Men Interclub teams. Three wins and one loss.

Russell's team had a tough ask (and lost) playing a bunch of C & D graders.
My team is one division up from Russell's and we generally play teams dominated by high E graders. That Kapiti team must have pulled in a few ringers Russell!

One more week of round robin to go. Best of luck.

Julian
p.s. don't forget your subs.

Mens Div 2 - winning captain Tony Blackler is still injured but did pass on....
We had a 2/2 win over Khandallah. Jules and Hoppy both won. Geordie and Craig D went down in 5.

Mens Div 3 - winning captain Rex Mar reported that...
A win is a win, even if it is only by 6 points! Tawa 108, Northern 114!
Dan - Lost 1/3, Rex - Lost 1/3, Alan - Won 3/1, Andre - Won 3/1.

Mens Div 4 - winning captain Julian Allen was surprised to be the only home team against Mitchell Park B last night....
With only our team at home, we got two courts going and finished squash by 9pm beating Mitchell Park B 3-1. Matt had a ding dong battle with another up and coming junior (E1) winning 3-1. I played a D2 and won in 3. I tried to run everything down so he couldn't get any momentum.
Despite a bad back Murray grabbed a game off another (E1 Gambitsis) junior and keep each game's score close but did end up losing 3-1. John played another E1 and came back from losing the first game to beat him 3-1.

Mens Div 5 - captain Russell Foley is considering a move up the coast.......
Nice drive out to Kapiti, nice people, nice drive home. When pressed further it was revealed that they played high D graders and an ungraded Junior (often the worst kind). They lost 4-0.

Tuesday night results

flippin heck ... how did you get them in your grade !!!>>> "Russell" <Russell@ebs.org.nz> 18/03/2009 9:36 a.m. >>>
I played Jordan at one and he managed to get 5 points off a C grader 3-0
I played a recently dropped from C to D grader soon to be C again and took one game off him. 3-1
Graham did what he could against a D grader 3-0
James scrambled hard against an ungraded junior 3-0

Inter Club Result

How did you guys get on? We had a nice early night........

With only our team at home, we got two courts going and finished squash by 9pm beating Mitchell Park B 3-1.

Matt had a ding dong battle with another up and coming junior (E1) winning 3-1.

I played a D2 and won in 3. I tried to run everything down so he couldn't get any momentum.
Despite a bad back Murray grabbed a game off another (E1 Gambitsis) junior and keep each game's score close but did end up losing 3-1.

John played another E1 and came back from losing the first game to beat him 3-1.

Supper wasn't bad either :)

Opening The Doors - Volunteers Required

NATIONAL SQUASH DAY

On the 28th and 29th of March we (along with clubs across the country) will be opening our doors to the public from 2.30pm - 5pm for them to come in, see some squash in action, maybe have a hit around themselves and generally find out about the brilliant sport of SQUASH !

Make contact with Tony Blackler 'if you can put something back in'

Kumar Collapses In A Screaming Heap

Northern's Lakesh Kumar, the very popular, effervescent and sartorial shoe salesman's season could be over after suffering another set back in what has been an injury plaqued season.

I was not witness to the occasion, so will have to use some editorial licence on this one.

In a critical match against the old foe Mitchell Park, the rallies where long and intense but the silky Kumar was gaining the acendancy. Then after a long rally Kumar stretched for a ball and turned over on his ankle and lay in a screaming heap on the ground winching in considerable pain.

With no zambucks on duty Jules and Dewsey carried him home and quite possibly onto the hospital.

We can only wish Lakesh the best in his recovery, I hope his squash days are not cut short and we don't see his resplendant eye wear for sale on trade me.

Feedback

The feedback seems pretty positive.

Just need to establish the simplest and best way of doing it.

Thats where you guys step in.

I haven't looked at our website for a while but it never appeared to a riveting read without much new stuff posted.

John

Good idea!

Sweet! Get this linked into the northern website and we're away! Is there an option for a forum also?
Rex

Initial Intro Blog Post Resurected

Forgot to publish the thing.

Scroll down a bit and you'll find it.

NB: I also think any posts etc should be signed by the author and no pseudonyms etc.

John

Teething Problems

Seem to be incurring a few problems with my set up, with the plethora of possibilities, options and boxes to tick anavailable.

I also seem to have tragically lost my first welcome/introduction blog.

I'll have another play later.

Have an enjoyable club night tonight as I'll be once again absent and not taking on all-comers.

John

Interesting idea !

Welcome to The Northern Court Circular

This blog is intended for Northern Squash Club members as a newsletter and forum.



I'm new to this game and are very much a digital luddite. So any suggestions, ideas will be very welcome.



The blog won't be moderated as such, but I would expect users maintain similar etiquette and renown court demenour to Mr Alan Lavery Esq.



Colourful language (you've been warned Hayley) and incorrect spelling, especially text speak, will not be tolerated.



I encourage you to sign up as a follower (I'm not really sure what priviledges apply to that status and write a brief Bio.



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