Melbourn lost 3-12

The Seconds opened their Herts Summer League Division 4 campaign with a home match against Nuffield Health (St. Albans) 3rds.

First on Court 2 was the 3rd strings, Melbourn’s James Storer taking on one of the trickiest players around the Herts scene, Julian Craxton.
The opening game was a tight battle. Neither player could take control, with frequent service changes and long rallies. It remained close throughout, with Julian edging it 15–13.
Julian stepped up in the second game, showing the full range of his skills. James tried a few different approaches, but nothing was able to disrupt Julian’s rhythm, and the game went 15–7 to the visitor.
The third game was evenly matched again. James adjusted well and began to understand how to play Julian. His arm relaxed, and his shots became more effective. Despite the improvement, Julian once again edged the key moments to take it 15–13 and close the match 3–0.

Court 2 was then set for the 1st string match, with Moises Estrelles Navarro facing Alexander Craig — a Spaniard against an Aussie, both bringing a similar style of play.
The hot conditions led to long, physical rallies, and a tough battle that lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The first game was very close, staying even right to the end, with the visiting player taking it 17–15. Moises responded strongly in the second, playing his best squash of the match to win convincingly 15–5.
That high pace began to take its toll as the match went on. The third game featured more long rallies, especially towards the end, but once again the key points went against the local player, with Alexander taking it 15–13.
Moises came back strong in the fourth, winning 15–11. He focused on backhand rallies and took the ball earlier, using volleys to keep the pressure high.
The fifth game turned into a mental battle. Both players were clearly tired, accuracy dropped, and rallies were often decided by errors rather than winners. Moises had three match balls but couldn’t convert them. Alexander took his first opportunity, winning 17–15 and sealing the match, with another tie-break going against the home side.

Meanwhile Matt Walker (2) was facing off with Douglas Hudson on Court 1. Sometimes less is more on match reports, so let’s just leave this one with Matt’s post-match comment “I’d forgotten what it’s like to play Squash in a sauna with a Racketball”. Matt lost 7-15, 15-13, 13-15, 8-15 and was last seen heading in the direction of an ice bath.

Melbourn lost 3-10

After a month off following the end of the winter league, one might have thought the 1sts would be fit and raring to go for the start of the summer. Well, that isn’t quite how things panned out. Finding three players to travel was tricky, with teenager Will called up from the 2nds (the skippers have top string for the 2s in mind for him this summer), and of those planned to be the 1s squad Jan was playing despite taking to the court somewhat concerned about a groin strain (sustained playing Cricket, of all things), whilst Miles was nicely uninjured… but that was because he hadn’t actually touched his racket since the last Cambs game! Into the unknown we sallied forth.

Jan (2) was the first to try his luck, up against Nick Cooper. It was quickly apparent that this wasn’t going to be a match of extended rallies and draining movement, much to Jan’s relief – Nick’s game was definitely of the All-or-Nothing school. In game one this worked in Jan’s favour as the warm court and new bouncy ball meant Nick’s heavily cut crosscourt drives were not dying as short as he wanted, allowing pushed counter drop kills into nicely vacant front corners. That won Jan the opener comfortably, but in the second he got a little fixated on this and began to tip his hand to Nick, who was now able to get forward to power the drops away for counter-counter kills, pushing him on reach game ball first. However, some tense exchanges when errors were more numerous than winners saw these chances go past, Jan emerging after an extended breaker two-love up.
A big psychological blow, right? Well maybe not as the fixation on counter-dropping persisted, with the ball now being hung up to dry as well. Nick built a solid lead in the third and though things remained scrappy with an error from either player just around the corner, this was enough to see him over the line to pull one back. Game four was a return to game two as Jan produced a little more control and patience but still found himself facing game balls at 12-14. A good tight straight backhand drop won the first, and then a risk-reward serve was too tempting for Nick on the second (tin). A longish rally at 14-all ended with Jan pushing another backhand drop longer than he wanted but finding cling on the sidewall instead. Nick couldn’t scrap it off, match ball. This was converted with a backhand overhead volley-kill to seal a 15-7, 19-17, 13-15, 16-14 win.

An excellent start for the team but could Will Bradshaw (3) continue it? Will had been bullish on the journey up, talking up his determination to run and run. However, he forgot “and run and run and run, and then run some more” which is exactly what it would have taken for him to get the better of Karen Mills. Will’s defensive game is superb, with the crowd marvelling at some of his retrieves, but Karen’s attack was also excellent (Will was already worried about this after the knock-up, when she blasted three straight shots into the nick). There were moments when Will’s pick ups got under Karen’s skin, leading to tinned balls, but overall the chasing involved was just too much, especially as Will was struggling to put it away when he had a loose one – as he commented mid-match “It’s like playing a more skilful version of myself”. Will went down 9-15, 8-15, 9-15.

At one string all it was down to Miles Jeanerret (1) to try and topple Nick Rodousek. Game one featured some long, drawn out rallies… which almost exclusively Nick won. Miles was trying to adapt his shot pace to the bouncy, summer court, taking pace off the ball in search of a dying length, but all this was doing was allowing Nick to volley-hunt and hold the service line. There was also the issue of ring-rust, being Miles first time on court in a while. He seemed to have shaken this off in game two as he was much sharper with his movement and therefore to pounce on his chances; tighter driving lines were also pushing Nick more into the back corners. This put the home player under more pressure, resulting in errors as Miles battled to a tie-break. He even had a game ball at 16-15… but wasn’t able to convert it (Nick saved it well in fairness) and two points later was two-love down. This was decisive, Nick always having command of the third as Miles baulked at the scale of effort needed for the comeback. He lost 4-15, 16-18, 9-15.

And that meant an overall 3-10 reserve to start the season for the 1s. We will get better from here… hopefully!

Melbourn won 17-3

The final game of the season for the 1sts was an odd affair as they faced a Peterborough side seriously struggling to get people to play for them at the moment. The visitors had forfeited twice, and not long distance away games either but a home one and then one just down the road in Stamford. This had cost them 30 points and put them in danger of relegation… which despite only having three people willing to travel they still turned up for this match.

The number shortage meant Melbourn were close to victory before a ball was even struck. Not many minutes later the match was over as a contest after Vinod Duraikan (3) had far too much for Franek Smith, winning 11-5, 11-3, 11-8. Another straightforward win soon followed for Matt Sampson (2) against Courtney Burke, Matt coming through this one 11-2, 11-1, 11-6. Both results were very close to Squashlevels predicted outcomes… as was Chris Shaw (1) losing 4-11, 7-11, 3-11 to Peterborough’s Head Coach (and aspiring pro player) Diego Pita.

A very rapid evening and a slightly bizarre end to what has been a good season for the 1sts – indeed a best ever one; after other results rolled in the boys found themselves 4th in the final Division 1 table. As far as we know that is the highest Melbourn have ever finished in the Cambs County League.