Melbourn 2 vs Peterborough 3 (20th October 2025)
Melbourn won 16-7
The third match of the season pitted the 2nds, with two wins out of two, against Peterborough 3rds, who had lost both their opening two matches. An easy home win in the offing then? Not at all… which we knew wouldn’t be the case when we saw the head-to-head match ups for the evening.
First on were Gareth Jones (4) against Jose Carlos Correira and Sean Hamilton (5) vs Pierre Caruso. Gareth looked in decent control against Carlos for the first two games, as he benefited from the game-style match up – his powerful hitting to length was driving Carlos back, opening up the front half of the court for kills. Just about Carlos’ only points in the opening game came from Gareth’s mistakes, and though the Peterborough man upped it in the second Gareth was still well in command. The third saw more mistakes coming from Gareth’s racket… but when it mattered he got his length right, key rallies ending in deep nicks with Carlos bemoaning his luck to the gods. What was that Gary Player line? “The more I practice, the luckier I get” wasn’t it? Well, that. It took Gareth home despite the wobble for a 15-8, 15-6, 15-13 win.
Meanwhile next door things were not going as well for Sean against Pierre. The style was anything but contrasting here as both players looked to get up front and hit short crosscourt winners. It came down to execution, and in the first game who would hold their nerve as it reached a tie-break and then went on and on. In the end it was Pierre, with Sean losing confidence and the second quickly as a direct result. He picked himself up for the third to make it close once again, but this broke to Pierre as well as Sean went down 16-18, 7-15, 13-15.
In a break from the usual order the top strings went on next, which pitted Jan Brynjolffssen (1) against Tim Millington. The first game was tight, with Jan having his nose in front for most of it. However at 12-11 he got tentative on what should have been a straightforward forehand put away and Tim took the rally and then built on the momentum to claim the game. The second saw the situation reverse, at a crucial time to boot. This time Tim had the lead through most of the game, getting himself to game ball at 14-11. He was well on top of this rally, but failed to be decisive enough in putting the ball away, allowing Jan to race and scramble around and somehow turn the tables. This time Jan built on that by taking the next four points to somehow find himself at a game-all. This lifted confidence, and Jan took the third as well with the late comeback falling short on this occasion as Tim saved two game balls but then lifted the third out. 2-1 up, could Jan seal the deal? Well, no, because now Tim got focused at the start of the game, established the first significant gap of the evening and saw his confidence in his kills grow. Jan was also probably a step slower by this stage, which was also a key change as he fell 3-2, 12-15, 16-14, 15-13, 6-15, 6-15.
That meant Melbourn needed to win both the remaining strings. The first of these pitted Matt Walker (3) against hard-hitting Filip Kaya. Very hard hitting – Matt admitted afterwards that some of Filip’s kill shots he just hadn’t even seen, they were thumped so hard. But dynamic range was a little bit lacking; Filip only has one setting and that is smash it. Sometimes it works, often it pops out or even heads randomly into the tin. Matt’s game is much more controlled and he took rallies when he could, but mostly he was hanging on in there to try and give Filip long enough to hand him an error. This worked for two games, which increased Matt’s confidence and drained that of the Peterborough man, the third going to Matt easily to complete a 15-12, 15-12, 15-6 win.
So that meant everything fell on skipper Colm O’Gorman (2). He was up against Renzo Rozza Gonzalez, and initially everything seemed fine for Melbourn as Colm rallied until Renzo erred, which gave the home player a commanding 10-2 opening game lead. At this point, though, Colm started to feel comfortable and tried to go for more winners… which played into Renzo’s hands as the visiting player’s strength is his movement and retrieving; what he struggles with is putting the loose ball away. Colm saw things changing on him and refocused for the opener, and then kept the focus for the second to move 2-0 up. However, the situation really wasn’t what he wanted – a hard grind and outlast your opponent is a tough gig. Game three saw Colm trying to shorten the rallies. Result: Renzo won it! That meant a reversion to counter-punching for the fourth, which worked as it generally does against Renzo (… if he improves his kills he is going to be a nightmare to play) to allow Colm to complete a 15-9, 15-10, 10-15, 15-10 win.
After the match Colm commented “It was a gritty performance by the team against a strong Peterborough five. I’m delighted to continue our winning start to the season.”
