Melbourn's 1st Squash team played away this week against Swavesey. The evening didn't get off to the best of starts with skipper Mark Oppen (string 3) and Ed Aspeling (string 5) loosing both their matches 3-0. Things improved however with Kate Bradshaw's match as she played an excellent third game calmly and with precision, that although didn't result in an overall match win, it did earn the team its first point. Vinod Duraikan at string 2 had a tough match that almost could have gone to five sets, but alas, as per Kate's match Vinod had to also settle with a 3-1 loss. Last on was Matt Sampson at first string playing Swavesey's world 76th ranked Ali Loke. Matt's opponent from the outset was playing a different style and tactic to minimise rallying as well as playing to the courts strengths that made retrievals for Matt difficult. The rallies were high quality and entertaining but it seemed the teams previous results were replaying for Matt as he also lost his match 3-1. 

 

Skipper Mark Oppen commented: this was a tough loss for the team against a side we statistically should have had a good chance against. We could blame a combination of factors but in the end our consistency and accuracy on court was not there this week. I am positive that with some work we will come back from this setback.