The Port Report: Hunts County 3 vs Melbourn 2 (7th November 2024)
Appetiser – Thai green curry and rice
Biscuits – ample, and varied, with a number of restocks
Butter – in those little packets
Cheese options – a strong cheddar, and a soft blue. Soft blue in particular was very nice. Was it that Welsh one? [Ed – Perl Lâs]
Port – Yes. Of course. I’d like to tell you which one from just the taste, but I ain’t a connoisseur.
Melbourn players on the port – 5 played, 4 drivers (3 went direct), 4 at teas… and 4 drinking. Hmm.
Oh, and the Squash? Well Melbourn lost 5-18.
You want more detail than that on actually sport?? Picky, picky…
OK, so Kate Bradshaw (1) was first on court as she had her daughter with her and needed to scoot after playing. Charlotte may even have looked up from her device to cheer her Mum on once or twice… This was Kate’s first match for the teams this season as she has been out for a long while with a wrist injury. She had returned to Masters Tour play, defending her crown in the West of England regional in Cheltenham the previous weekend (her 4th Masters Series title) dropping just one game along the way, and had played well – Kate felt she was in good nick.
However, form can fluctuate a lot on the comeback trail and this is what happened as Kate was not on it against Sean Broderick, making a number of mistakes trying to force her attacks in. Sean put her under considerable pressure it should be noted (he is a fine player at Div.3 level and rarely loses) so these were unforced errors of the ‘forced unforced’ variety. Still Kate came off court disappointed with herself after a 9-15, 8-15, 8-15 defeat.
On the next door court Moises Estrelles Navarro (5) was taking on Marcus Lattimer. This was anything but a contrast in styles as both are hard running… but a bit loose. This makes for a frenetic game, sometimes verging on the chaotic. The player who could best imposed order on the match was going to win and in this case it was Marcus as he put the ball away cleanly whilst Moises touch had deserted him. He also struggled with the length as it died into the back corners of the court, preventing him counter-attacking. Greater patience in trying to turn rallies around and get in front was the answer and this nearly worked in game 2, but once that had escaped the road back looked too long and Moises lost 7-15, 13-15, 7-15.
Moises was followed on court by Gareth Jones (3), who was always going to have his work cut out against Paul Goodwin, as the Hunts player is annoyingly clever. Paul’s counter-punch style was precisely what Gareth could least cope with as his attacks from deep were reached and a countered with hold drops and boasts. That exposed Gareth’s movement. Unable to dictate Gareth instead tried to play the sort of patient defensive game that is his best Squash… but only when he is on hot form. One of those things that when it works, its brilliant, but when it doesn’t it looks really rubbish. Here today he was under too much pressure, and this led to shots popping out and chances snatched at (or rather stabbed at). This all contributed to a 12-15, 9-15, 10-15 defeat.
Matt Walker (4) had actually started his match against Kevin Hewitt before Gareth, but this one finished somewhat later so the evening was already tipped in Hunts favour before it’s conclusion. This was the case as it went the distance. This hadn’t looked likely as Matt cruised through the opening game, controlling matters, forcing Kevin back and closing off rallies with apparent ease. However Matt was thrown early in the second game by an incident when he dragged a forehand from the back corner and smacked the ball into Kevin’s head. Unfortunate, with both players making misjudgements to allow it to happen (the line of Matt’s shot wasn’t as he intended… and Kevin was arguably too close to planned line for safety), but a nasty moment that led to a pause in proceedings as Kevin waited for the ringing in his ears to subside. Once play got back underway Matt’s rhythm was off as he was clearly worried about a repeat and this in turn harmed his timing, mistakes seeing game two escape.
A chance to regroup between games saw Matt re-find his game one form to control the ‘T’ and force Kevin into chases he wasn’t going to make. This saw Matt move two games to one up. He seemed comfortable again, but this once again presaged a loss of focus to make things two games all. Matt looked like losing when more errors saw him fall 9-4 behind in the decider, only for determination to take over as he clawed and scrambled his way back. All the way to 14-all… followed by losing the next to rallies to lose anyway! D’Oh… or words to that effect. Games scores (Matt first) were 15-9, 12-15, 15-12, 12-15, 14-16.
That was two points in the bag ahead of the last match of the night which pitted Jan Brynjolffssen (2) against Emily Fuller. Jan started this by being too careful, looking to play nice Squash rather than effectively. Emily was moving well and dictacting matters, suckering Jan into front corners and then moving up behind her shots to counter-punch away Jan’s attempted cross court responses. This led to Emily building a 10-2 lead at which point Jan told himself to play lower, harder and just with greater intensity. Four quick points brought the game back to competitiveness at 10-6 and Emily started to get nervous, making errors trying to force the game instead of her previous game plan. This allowed Jan to complete a comeback and lead 1-0. Great. Now don’t do it again, OK? Not listening, 7-2 down in game two before a near reprise. The end of the game was pretty nervy before Jan claimed it on a breaker to go 2-0 up.
If Jan hoped Emily’s head would drop he was to be disabused as once again she came out flying in the third. This time, from 7-2 down, Jan was able to tag along but never quite get on Emily’s heels. She won the game and the match was back live again. The fourth finally saw Jan start a game decently, with points traded. He saved his time out spell for the mid-game instead as 6-all dwindled to 12-8 down. However, from here, Jan played some of his best Squash of the match, keeping the ball tight and wide as he ground his way back to 13-12 up. Emily made things interesting by winning the next point and then flew around the court to defend her position as Jan attacked and attacked and attacked at 13-all. He eventually won the point thanks to an all-out backhand overhead kill – the time on the Badminton court has value after all! Match ball, then. And another drawn out rally with Jan probing for the kill until he finally found a length that Emily could only pop short to allow a drop shot that clung to the wall and wasn’t retrieved which completed a 15-12, 16-14, 11-15, 15-13 win.
5-18 on the night was somehow enough to keep us second in the table, albeit now a long way behind leaders Hunts. And likely to slip some places when the other teams catch up with the 6 games we have played to date. We need to win one again soon, really…