The 2nds have struggled since Christmas, in part because of a slew of injuries business trips and the like disrupting us from the consistent side we managed to roll out in the autumn. However we were back close to full strength for this one… which was handy as it was second vs third, Spalding having taken advantage of our recent run of reverses to move above in the table. A potentially good, tight match was in prospect.

The first games on pitted Roger (5) against Daniel Deprez and Matt (4) against Jason Hadland. Roger had his hands full with Daniel, who is fairly new to Squash but brought considerable fitness and determination from his previous sporting experience to the party. This went alongside a “don’t die wondering” attitude that saw Daniel go for winners from the very get go of rallies. This wasn’t ideal for Roger, who took a while to adjust to Daniel’s dynamism, seeing the first game go fairly quickly. Games two and three were tighter, but Roger struggled to get up to speed at the start of each and this left too big a mountain to climb. Despite moving Daniel about the court more as the games progressed, Roger lost 6-15, 10-15, 10-15.

Meanwhile Matt got to grace Spalding’s glass back as he makes his way back into team Squash after a bunch of injuries stopped him playing for much of the past three years (other issues limited playing time for everyone over that period as well of course… but even if we could have played all the way through Matt’s elbow and back would have stopped him doing so!). Things initially looked good for Matt as he moved into around a 10-6 lead, but at this point Jason began to find a pattern that challenged Matt’s anticipation and movement at this point of his comeback. This saw game one slip away, and game two join it.
Game three seemed to be escaping fairly tamely as Matt dropped 8-2 down, but at this point he suddenly found his mojo and won 6 straight rallies to level things up. Matt was doing this as he had found his game, stepping up the court to cut out volley drops. The rate of rallies wins slowed up a little from 8-8 but Matt stayed strong in the clutch and edged the game on a breaker. Could this be an inflection point? No, not as it turned out as game four saw Jason keep the ball far enough away from Matt’s deadly volleys to draw away and send the Melbourn player to a 11-15, 11-15, 16-14, 10-15 defeat.

Second on the glassback was Colm (3) against Martin Pettitt. The first game saw Colm making hay when he pushed Martin back, particularly deep into the backhand corner, leading to a 15-12 claim despite a mid-game wobble when Colm came briefly away from his strategy. However the Spalding player struck back as Colm dropped deep himself allowing Martin to command the service line and play his kills. The third produced another upswing for Melbourn as Colm reasserted his position and once again got Martin digging out of the back corners, which was still productive (this may class as a momentous discovery in Squash tactical circles! 😉).
The switchback continued though as game four saw Colm looking tired, his footwork slowing up leading to skewed balls which once again allow Martin to control the mid-court. There was also a suspicion that Colm semi-deliberately let it go given that 9-5 rapidly turned into 15-5! We were therefore into a decider, which didn’t initially look promising for Colm as he fell a number of points behind but then a key error from Martin gave a point away he should have won, and that woke the dog inside Colm (you can take the boy out of Limerick…). Things got really tense, with especially when Colm was 11-9 down and twice rallies ended with let/stroke decisions for Martin that went for the former when either could have been the latter. Colm built on this let off to level up and get ahead to be the first to match ball at 14-13. This was saved as Colm got passive, hoping for a mistake. But it came at 14-all rather than match ball, Martin tinning a boast that was a probable winner. Rinse, shake and repeat at 15-14, this time the mistake at 15-all on a drop shot. And this time around Colm managed to be more dynamic in the rally, eventually getting the mistake to win the match in… yep, you’ve guessed it, the deep backhand corner! Game scores were 15-12, 7-15, 15-12, 5-15, 17-15.

Whilst all this was going on Jan (2) was taking on Spalding skipper Gary Slator. This was a match up that also occurred in the reverse fixture, Jan winning 3-0 on that evening as Gary never found his game. The home player was in better touch this time, whilst Jan initially struggled to have complete command of his length on unfamiliar courts, but even so the essential pattern from the first clash of Gary going for early kills, which Jan anticipates and chases down for a counter-drop still held. There were wobbles towards the end of each game, with the one in the second that saw it come all the way back to 14-13 looking potentially a turning point, but Jan held firm to win that 15-13 and also put a poor missed drop at 13-8 in the fifth behind him (eventually) with a good depth to the backhand corner and one final backhand drop shot to complete a 15-12, 15-13, 15-12 success.

Mike (1) took the court against Scott Chuter before Colm’s match had finished, so not knowing if he was playing for an overall win or merely consolation points. The first game saw Scott have slightly the upper hand with his nice movement and shots, edging out Mike 15-11. However there is a large risk-reward element to Scott’s play and this went the other way in game two as a string of errors saw him fall behind, which both embolden Mike and pushed Scott to go for ever more. This led to the Melbourn player rapidly running away with things to level up at 1-1.
By this point Colm’s match had finished and everyone knew this was now the decider of the evening. The game that followed was suitably tight for the situation, with never more than a couple of points between the players. In the end-game Mike edged ahead at 14-13 after a consistent, solid rally, but then didn’t quite find the killer touch on game ball as two forehand drop shot chances went begging to be pegged back. Scott then got to game ball instead… and converted it to go 2-1 up. That appeared to inspire the home player who took his game up a level in the fourth. Mike played well, but still fell 15-10 for an overall 11-15, 15-5, 14-16, 10-15 reverse.

Melbourn skipper Colm commented afterwards “The team put in a mammoth effort and fought for every point, just coming up short against a strong Spalding team who have their sights firmly on promotion. It’s great to see players like Matt coming back from injury and competing so well”