SSRC at the Home Internationals O50’s. Report by Martin Sullivan
We all arrived safely at the Squash Club, which is in a very attractive setting. It was hard to believe that it was just a 10 minute walk to the city Centre.
They have 10 courts of which 6 are glass back, all very well maintained.
Play in these matches is in a specific order, 5-3-1-4-2.
Our first match was against Wales and fittingly we went into battle with our Captain Clark Adam (Brussels) on first, who took a quick 3-1 victory.
Colin Grant (Edinburgh) dragged his match out but won 3-2.
And so to the crunchmatch, No 1 Boyd Kidd (Montrose) had a heavy 3-2 win over the Welsh Number 1 - bit of a testy match where I thought if the Welshman was not going to get to the ball his route for a let seemed to involve bumping into or brushing against Boyd - a bit of a gamesman.
We had now won the match, but David Taylor (Forres) laid waste to his opponent 3-0. At No2 I was on last and won the first game comfortably against Lynn, a former Welsh international footballer - feel asleep in the second, but took the next 2 games comfortably. We were elated with our first win 5-0.
Next morning was England - no point in saying too much about this apart from the fact that we got trashed 4-1, with Peter Shivas (Hamilton) at 2 winning by default as his opponent withdrew through injury.
England were a quality side. I think the key feature was that they hit the ball tighter and moved opponents around the court effortlessly. I played a chap called Mo Sarwar- his name was familiar and I think he was a former professional player.
Our last match was against Ireland, we went into this one confidently but very, very determined not to slip up, despite overhearing a remark that Scotland had brought out the big guns this year.
Colin was first on and seemed to repeat making a meal of the match. However, some strong coaching after the first game turned the tide and he won 3-1. I was next on and made a hash of the first game, got an earful from Boyd and went straight into a 1-5 deficit in the second. Pulled myself together and won that game 9-5 and the next two 9-0. Boyd went on and put paid to their no 1. With the match won David and Peter were able to go on in a relaxed fashion and win 3-0.
So overall we came second to England. This was an excellent performance, where the team played as a team and worked very well for each other.
