Station Tankard - Season 2000-2001

Mr S Egan, of the Station Hotel, has sponsored a new competition for Thurso Squash Club. The Station Hotel Tankards will be contested roughly four times per season, with all matches played on the same day and off handicap.

Miller Steams through for Station Tankard - 13/01/01

THURSO Squash Club kicked off the new year competitively with the second staging of the Station Hotel Tankards handicap competition. The essence of the event is that all matches are played off handicap and on the same day.

L to R - A Miller (Winner), L Sinclair (P-Winner)

P Gunn (P-Runner-Up), J Sangster (Runner-Up)

picture from J 'O' G

The plate competition saw Pauline Gunn (plus 10) defeat Richard Sharp (minus 6) and Linda Sinclair (plus 10) oust new-comer Alan Ruiz (plus 8) to set up an all-female final. The match was very close, with Pauline doing well to take the second game, but Linda finished strongly to clinch the decider.

In the first semi-final of the main competition Alistair Miller (minus 23) beat Donald Pollard (minus 24) in one of the most energetic matches of the day which featured long, fast rallies, powerful hitting and determined retrieving.

In the other half of the draw the rapier-like reflexes of Dougie Sinclair (minus 40) twice seemed to have pegged back his large handicap against Jim Sangster (minus 3) but Jim produced his best squash both times to emerge victorious.

Alistair won the first game in the final with relative ease, 15/11, and looked to be cruising to victory when he pulled the handicap back to stand at 10/10 in the second game. However, Jim again rose to the challenge and the game went to 14/14 - match ball to Alistair, game ball to Jim. Alistair held his nerve to take the game and win the competition.

Sandy goes loco to win Tankard - 04/11/00

The first staging of the competition attracted a full entry of 16 players, ladies and gentlemen, with handicaps ranging from minus 42 to plus 10.

L to R - J Gibson (P-Winner), S Stewart (Winner)

M Cook (Runner-Up), B Maltman (P-Runner-Up)

picture from J 'O' G

The consolation tournament for first round losers was won by John Gibson, who defeated Bruce Maltman in a close final.

The main competition saw a lot of very tight games which bore testimony to the accuracy of the handicapping.

Sandy Stewart and Donald Pollard fought out a very tight semi-final, with Sandy just managing to squeeze through in the third game. In the other half of the draw,Martyn Cook edged out Carole Cameron, again in the third game.

In the final, Sandy used his considerable advantage and experience to pull the handicap back and prevent Martyn from winning his second handicap tournament in a row.

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