Another week, another loss for the 1sts as this time the side went down at Saints 1sts (Huntingdon).

Despite the name of the opposition the match was played at the Saints other venue, St. Neots, as the Hunts courts were out of action. Which was probably a good thing as the St. Neots ones are better (warmer) according to the home side. We (Miles) did manage to take a chunk out of a side wall during a knock-up though, and not by doing anything particularly extreme – if just feel out. Re-plastering time might only be slightly around the corner… here’s hoping OneLeisure will stump for it for the Saints sake (they have already lost their best venue in St. Ives, converted to a sad and mostly empty gym).

First on was wall-destroyer Miles (3) who took on Marco Pita. Marco is extremely fast and fit, but overall quite a defensive player. This should have produced a pretty grinding match with Miles who is a bit similar – he has more to his attacking game, but still basis his approach on his silky movement. However on this night Miles head seemingly wasn’t there, as he kept to trying to attack the player looking to counter punch. Not a recipe for success, Miles losing 5-11, 7-11, 5-11 and generally looking all-at-sea and rather deflated by the experience.

Things were rather tighter next door. Much tighter in fact as Mark (4) matched himself up against the power hitting of Grant Mankee. These two have met many times before and it has always been tight – this one was no excepton. Mark had the better of the majority of the opening game, but having got himself to 10-8 up he was clearly struggling for air and looking for a rapid exit from the game. This lead to over-striving, which gave away the two game balls and saw him lose the breaker instead. Dang. However Mark responded with a superbly controlled second where he maintained his play to the death, and then edged Grant out in an extremely nervy third that went to another break. A bit of a let off followed, Grant taking full advantage to level, but Mark upped his intensity in the last to come through an epic 11-13, 11-8, 12-10, 7-11, 11-8.

As this was going on Chris (1) took the court against former Melbourn player Mumin Bilen… who Chris has also coached. It’s now a few years since Mumin featured for us at fifth string in Division 1 (that was pre-pandemic) and those matter given he was in his early teens back then. Now into his later teens Mumin has moved up to play at 2 or 1, and is doing well there generally. However Chris still had his number in this one, keep things tight and look to ask Mumin to make the play. This worked to draw errors, giving Chris the first game reasonably comfortably. Mumin attempted to dig in for the second, but whilst this was closer Chris again pulled away at the death and with that Mumin’s head went down a little for the third. Chris won 11-6, 11-8, 11-4.

Mark’s game was so long that Jan (5) took to the other court to face Johnny Nelmes, as the two matches on that were completed before the one next door concluded. Jan and Johnny had met a couple of times before, both pre-pandemic, with the head-to-head at 1-1… but the first time Johnny was rusty after a spell away from the sport and clash two had seen the Saints player win handily. Johnny was definitely the favourite, but Jan battled well in the opening game to keep things close. However Johnny still got to 10-8 up, only to hand Jan a lifeline with two unforced errors… that Jan handed straight back with two of his own. D’Oh! 12-10. Unfortunately for Jan this lead to a let down in game 2, which he lost rapidly. The legacy of that (and the previous meeting) was carried into game three, along with Johnny’s extra speed and sharpness of shot. The margins were still relatively fine, but overall it was too much for Jan who lost 10-12, 3-11, 8-11.

That meant the evening went to the second string game, which pitted Vinod against John Dewis. Unfortunately Vinod arrived at it carrying an Achilles injury suffered at a recent Masters tournament, which meant he had to adapt his game to try and cover for mobility which declined as the match progressed (and the injury worsened again). John initially appeared a bit tight, making some atypical mistakes, but from ~5-5 in game one the Saints player clued in that Vinod was operating at under full throttle and that he should be able to come through. This relaxed John in turn and led to Vinod going down 6-11, 3-11, 5-11.