Monthly Archives: November 2016

Leprechaun brings Chantry no luck at Luton

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A long trek to Luton (in Bedfordshire!) for the latest Herts league fixture for the Chantry First team.  For the first time in over 9 years, Dave Baldwin was back representing Chantry in a special guest appearance.  For the extra-nerdy reader – Dave’s last appearance for Chantry was on 13th November 2007 – as string 5 against Harlow, losing 3-2 to Richard Lewis.  That was so long ago that the Chantry #1 was Tom Brady and we were still playing to 9!

Still at String 5 after all those years, Dave turned out in all-green leprechaun kit, perhaps in an effort to bring him some of the luck of the Irish in his match against Scott.  It certainly seemed to work because he effortlessly outclassed his opponent and ran out a 3-0 winner 15-7, 15-4, 15-10.  So one-up for Chantry in double-quick time.

On the other court Paul played the 2nd string early because of late arrivals.  Paul was up against 17-year old Sean.  In the warm-up, Sean – who had been playing at 1 until now – was showing off his “moves”, cracking cross-courts into the nick.  In an unusual leftie vs leftie confrontation, the match started with Sean playing some lovely boasts and drives to build up a healthy 6-1 lead in the first.  But Paul starts to mix up his game and gradually pulls it back and sends the game to a tie-break but can’t finish it off with Sean winning 16-14.  The second game starts and Paul seems to have sussed out his opponent (who, according to his team-mates, “thinks he’s better than he is”) and is picking him off with boasts and drops as Sean hangs back behind the T.  Paul closes out the 2nd game 15-12 and then builds up a healthy lead in the 3rd.  But Sean realises he needs to fight back and picks up his game to eat into Paul’s lead.  At 12-10, Paul pounces on loose a boast to the front left and is going for a drop when he hears Sean advancing and tries to turn the shot into a drive but puts it in the tin.  That turns out to be the turning point of the game and Sean closes it out 15-12.  By now Paul is on his last legs and feeling his extra 30+ years and Sean wins the fourth 15-10 to take the match 3-1.

Meahwhile Vinh is up against Irish Terry, who doesn’t have the skill of Vinh but dominates the court and uses his long reach to pick off balls that most people wouldn’t reach.  Terry also plays a quite physical game and puts Vinh off his game.  The first game is tight with Terry nicking it 15-13, and in the 2nd Vinh starts to get annoyed with his opponent but refuses to adjust his adherence to a pure line and length game – except his length is too long and his line is often not tight enough.  It might look pretty but it’s not being very effective and he goes down again, this time 15-12.  It’s time to dig deep and Vinh starts to channel some of his anger into playing more aggressively and builds up a solid lead in the 3rd – but then he reverts back to bad habits and Terry fights back, but Vinh holds on for a 16-14 win.  Terry is looking pooped so maybe Vinh has now got the upper hand, perhaps he can go for the kill now.  Unfortunately not, Terry rallies and niggles Vinh again who loses his focus and loses the game 15-13 for a 3-1 overall loss.

String 3 is Mark vs John.  The first game is tight and marked by some long rallies, with both players doing a good impression of being squash players.  Mark builds up a good lead and hangs on to close it out 16-14.  So first blood to Mark, but it was all downhill from there as John got into his rhythm and began to float around the court effortlessly picking off everything that Mark could throw at him.  In only a matter of a few minutes, Mark had succumbed 15-5, 15-4, 15-4 for another 3-1 win for Luton.

Finally, in the dead rubber Carl was up against Craig – the new #1 brought in by Luton when they realised they were playing the mighty Chantry.  The match started strangely with the score reaching 6-6 without a rally of any form being played – both player playing killer services returns time after time.  The game barely improves as a spectacle but Carl manages to eek out a 16-14 win.  The second game follows the same pattern but with Craig managing to play more winners successfully to make it 1-1 with a 15-11 win – and we’re still to see a rally of more than 5 or 6 shots!  However, when there is a bit of rally it is Carl who mostly wins them.  Perhaps a change in tactics could help Carl?

In the third game there is finally a rally – a whole 8 shots (yes, the audience really had been reduced to counting shots in the hope of spotting a rally!) which Carl wins, but he gives Craig too many opportunities to play his kills and Craig takes it 16-14.  Both players clearly tired out by that one rally, the fourth game reverts to type (although we do get one 7-shot rally near the end) and by this time Craig has got the upper hand in the battle of the killers and wins it easily 15-8.

So a disappointing 4-1 loss for Chantry which knocks us down to 4th in the table, with Ickleford jumping from 4th to 1st with a comprehensive win over Gosling.

After a quick shower it was down the road to the local West Indian club for a great plate of lamb shanks.  Top nosh – Vinnie has some competition.  Carl even got to sample next weeks jerk chicken  (although I’m not sure how good it will be by then).

Next week is a top-of-the-table clash with 2nd place Haileybury.  But, STOP PRESS, Haileybury can’t get a team out.  Do Chantry either offer them a new date or shamelessly take all 20 points on offer?  Use the comments below to vote!!

 

 

Self-Inflicted Injuries Help Chantry get back to Winning Ways

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The fifth round of the season saw Chantry hosting Nuffield Health 5, who were just above us in the table.  After last week’s first loss of the season we were all keen to keep our 100% home record intact.

We’re joined tonight by a certain Mr Dave Baldwin, late of this parish, who many readers may remember – he hasn’t changed much – but it’s good to have some support!

First up Will is playing Keith Ragg.  Will steams into a 2-0 lead (15-9, 15-11) but starts to run out of steam and is staring down the barrel at 13-4 down but then Keith makes the mistake of shoulder-barging Will “the Wall” Kirkham in an attempt to win a let and in the process damages his shoulder.  After an injury break Keith comes back is barely able to hit the ball and Will rapidly reels Keith back in and takes the final game 17-15.

(The next day Keith goees for an X-Ray and discovers he’s torm ligaments in his shoulder and is out for several weeks;  anyone playing Will should consider that a warning!)

As our opponents are being a bit slow turning up (and Mark has, once more, conveniently scheduled a call so that he’s late and can avoid marking – the big wuss), Paul is next on against another Keith (Winfield).

The first game is nip and tuck until the last few points which Keith grabs to take the game 15-11.  The second game starts in similar tight fashion until at 3-3, Keith pulls up and has hurt his hamstring – Paul was nowhere near him (honest!).  The rest of the game is procession and Paul takes it 15-6.  Keith then runs off his injury and fights back to take the third 15-12.  The fourth is yet another tight battle; Paul is starting to find some chinks in Keith’s armour and is catching him out with sharp cross courts when Keith is off balance.  But Keith fighting back with excellent straight drives when retrieving drop shots on both forehand and backhand sides.  Eventually Paul takes the game 18-16.

Into a decider – every game Paul has played this season has gone to the 5th set and, so far, he’s lost them all.  Both players start to tire in the fifth game and being to make as many mistakes as each other – who makes the least will win!  Finally Paul has a match point at 14-13 but plays a poor shot right onto Keith’s backhand on the tee – easy drop shot to take it to a tie-break – but Keith puts it into the tin and Paul’s finally won a match!

On the other court, Vinh is taking on Ian Taylor.  Ian is long and gangly and seems to get everything back and get in the way of everything too – which leads to a somewhat bad-tempered match. The game starts off pretty evenly, long rallies peppered with lose shots give Ian the opportunity to keep up . 10-10 and Ian sneaks into the lead and closes out the first 15-11. Vinh digs in and carries on with his ‘must rally’ game, disregarding most of the  opportunities for drops and pushes Ian to 14-14 where he cracks and gives away a stroke on game point. Game Vinh 17-15!

Both players starting to tire, the calls are coming in frequently, Ian slow to get out of the way, and Vinh playing some loose shots. The marker calls what he sees, and grumpiness ensues but he’s having none of it and at the end Ian puts together a good string of shots to go from 9-10 to  win 15-11.  But then Ian announces he’s injured his arm – no idea how or when that happened but he has a big lump on his arm.  Another injury break but eventually the game restarts -time is dragging on, what with the late start and the injuries, the chef needs to sort things out and get in the kitchen!   He starts off the fourth game with a new lease of life, running Ian all around the court and tiring him even more… 8-4 to Vinh. Ian fights hard to catch up but Vinny maintains his lead and takes the 4th 15-12.
Its all to play for in the 5th … Vinh takes a strong lead 8-2 up, but then falters and lets Ian work his way back into the game, despite Ian throwing the ball at Vinny after losing a close call. Its 11-8 to Vinh and with one last push, he makes it to the finishing line, winning 15-10. Well played Vinh. Eventually 🙂
So 3 wins out of 3.  How can Mark get on against Andrew, who’s wearing the oldest, tattiest kit we’ve seen in a while – in contrast to Mark’s colour and brand coordinated orange fashionista get-up.  Not sure which was worse actually.
Andrew doesn’t look like he’s interested in running around much, but he has got a pretty good boast.  Mark doesn’t look like he’s interested in winning much, and he’s got an aversion to playing drop shots.  So they cancel each other out and Andrew takes a close game 18-16.The second continues in similar poor fashion and Andrew takes it 15-13.
But now Andrew starts to get even slower around the court.  Even Mark can’t fail to win some raillies now and wins the next two games 15-9, 15-10 to take it to yet another deciding set.
After a couple of games rest, Andrew starts to move around the court a bit again and puts Mark under a bit of pressure.  Mark crumbles, can’t serve for toffee and is 14-8 down.  Andrew thinks he’s got it won and relaxes, Mark starts to make inroads and it’s back to 14-10, now 14-11, now an easy drop shot to make it 14-12.  Oh No! Mark’s gone and put it down to hand the match to Andrew!  That’s not going to do his stats any good is it?
String 1 is the last match on with Carl taking on Rob Clark who recently dumped Carl out of the Herts Closed 3-0.  The match starts with Carl trying (and failing) to play a winner with every shot and is soon several points down.  But he engages his brain (apparently there’s one in there) and decides to start playing some rallies and fights back to take the first 15-13.   The second game is equally tight but goes 15-13 to Rob.   In the third Carl makes far too many mistakes and it’s looking like youth is going to win the day as Rob takes the third in a, more comfortable than it looks, 15-12.
After a good pep talk, Carl plays some good squash in the 4th and goes 13-8 up but then relaxes and then panics and Rob is back to 13-12 but Carl nicks a point after Rob makes a mistake to get two game points.  Rob saves the first game point but can’t do anything about the second as Carl’s mishit turns into a nifty front-of-court boast landing just above the tin. Sweet!
Yet another 5-setter.  Carl is wheezing between points and although he looks much fresher Rob is also tiring.  Carl is now playing the better squash, keeping it tight and down the line and builds up a 13-8 lead again.  As before Rob starts to make a comeback but this time Carl doesn’t panic and closes the match out with a 15-11 win.
So that’s a good 4-1 win for Chantry which should take us back up to 2nd in the table, at least.
For support, Vinh has produced Ginger Chicken Special which is up to his usual high standards.    Dave digs in as there’s plenty to go round.  James Argent also turns up to see the last few rallies and despite @RachelDay having served him up a scrumtious toad-in-the-hole, grabs a plate and helps himself too.  Even then there’s plenty for Carl to fill his doggy-bag – we know what’s being dished up in the Noffki household for the rest of the week!
Despite having got a free dinner, James and Dave stubbornly refuse to take any notice of the not-at-all-subtle hints that they should pitch in and help with the washing up.  Last time either of them get free grub.
Next week it’s Luton & Dunstable (away) who are near the bottom of the table, so Chantry can’t afford to slip up if they’re going to keep up the pressure on league leaders Haileybury.

First defeat of season for Chantry

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On Tuesday 8th November, Chantry were away at Gosling playing at possibly the worst courts on the circuit with craters in all the walls!

Up first were strings 1 and 4.  Carl playing Charlie who quickly showed his class with aome accurate drives and good pickups.  Carl fought hard in the first game but went down 15-11.  The second game started in similar fashion but then Carl realised he was up against it and, according to James, had a sulk and lost the last two games 15-6, 15-6.

Meanwhile on the other court, Vinnie was taking on Adam Norris, considering this was string 4 it was surprising that this match contained the highest quality squash of the night, wioth both players working hard and playing some great shots.

Adam won the first 15-11 and then a close-fought second 17-15, which Vinnie should have won – on game point he stretched and just reached a tight shot at the front of the court playing a lovely drop shot to secure the game. But Vinnie stretched the definition of sportsmanship to the limit by saying that he wasn’t 100% sure he’d reached the ball and asking the marker to confirm – who wasn’t sure either so a let was played – which Adam took and went on to win the game. Vinnie then pulled a game back 15-7 and seemed to be turning the corner but Adam came back strongly and took the fourth 15-13.

Two strings down after two matches.  Now, string 5 James was on court against Chris.  This was a topsy-turvy match with both players making a plethora of mistakes and generally running around a lot.  James took the first 16-14, lost the second 10-15, won the third 15-10, lost the fourth 15-12 so it was into the decider.  Despite (or perhaps because of) intensive coaching in the break between games, James couldn’t hold it together in the 5th and Chris started to get some accurate boasts in to take it 15-9.

Meanwhile Mark had an easy stroll at string 3, playing Oliver (who had played @1 the week before).  This was a one-sided match with Oliver not getting close to Mark and going down 15-11, 15-10, 15-5.  At least Mark had rescued Chantry’s blushes!

The last match of the night was string 2 with Paul taking on Sid.  Paul’s previous two matches had both resulted in tight 3-2 losses and things didn’t look good in the first game as Sid pulled off some great tight boasts, racing into an 8-1 lead before Paul pulled it back to 14-14 but Sid hung on and took the game 16-14.   Paul then carried on his good work in the second half of that game with an easy 15-7 win and was well positioned in the 3rd at 13-8 up but then it was Sid’s turn to fight back to 14-14.  This time Paul managed to hang on and won after 19-17 a tight tie-break.  But Sid had taken confidence from his fight back in the 3rd and Paul was starting to flag and lost the 4th 15-8 to take it to another decider.  The fifth game was nip and tuck but then a controversial call of a double bounce by the marker at 5-all, which was hotly disputed by Paul, swung the game towards Sid.  That call took the wind out of Paul’s sails and, to be honest, he got the hump and went down 15-7.

So a 4-1 win for Gosling knocks Chantry down to 4th in the league – still well positioned but needing a win next week against Nuffield, one of the teams to have leap-frogged us.

 

Chantry make it 3 out of 3

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Chantry vs Active4Less 1, 1st Nov 2016

The Chantry squash team continued their winning start to the season with a good victory over Active4Less, although the match ended up closer than looked likely early on.

Most of the guys at Active4Less have been playing team squash against us for years now, so Martin Miller was underwhelmed to find out he was playing Vinnie at 4.  Sure enough he couldn’t deal with Vinnie’s power and accuracy and was soon muttering and looking to the marker for any assistance he could get.  But that was all to no avail as Vinnie ran out an easy winner 15-7, 15-5, 15-12.

Meanwhile on the other court John G was playing Tim Seaton.   John was still looking for his first ever win at team squash so was the hungrier player as he ran out the winner 15-7, 15-12, 15-12.

So two games up and just one more required from the top 3 strings – surely this one was in the bag?

With Mark once more arranging to be late to avoid having to mark a match, Paul C at 2 and Carl at 1 were next on court.  Paul was up against Paul Drakes, and foolishly decided to use a freshly restrung racquet from the outset.  Paul C couldn’t get used to feel of the new strings and went down 7-15 in the first.  Swapping back to his old racquet helped winning the 2nd game 15-11 before narrowly losing the 3rd 14-16.  Then finally Chantry Paul takes control and wins the 4th easily 15-4.  But his opponent comes back strongly and Paul D takes the 5th 15-11 to keep Active4Less in the match.

Carl is having a tough time on Court 2 muttering something about “ringers” between games as he is outclassed by Matt.  Carl does get a consolation game but goes down 6-15, 13-15, 15-12, 7-15.

So all to play for in the final match as Mark turns up just in time to take on Rob St Ledger who has been ill for some time and this is his first team game for over 6 months.  His lack of match fitness shows quickly as Rob is gasping for breath midway through the first game.   Mark puts the first game away easily 15-7.  The second game should follow in the same way with Rob stuck at the back of the court, but Mark proves stupidly generous and steadfastly refuses to win with easy drop shots and keeps driving the ball back to where Rob is standing.  But eventually Mark manages to win 15-12.  After a good talking to in the break, there is hope that Mark will win the next easily, but he continues to make life hard for himself and the whole game is nip and tuck.  Eventually though he runs out the winner 16-14 to take the game and match for Chantry.

Afterwards, Vinnie treats us all to his new madras-spiced chicken noodles and dumplings, which is met with much appreciation and disappears quickly, so that there’s only enough leftovers for Carl to take one helping home with him.

Chantry aren’t the only team with 3 wins out of 3, with Haileybury 3 sharing top spot with us.  Next up for Chantry is Gosling away on 8th Nov.  Gosling won their first two matches but then got thrashed by Nuffield, so it could be a chance for Chantry to continue their winning streak.