Melbourn lost 9-18

Melbourn 1sts suffered a very significant blow in their battle to avoid relegation from Cambridgeshire Squash League Division 1 after they were beaten 18-9 by the side one place above them, Cambridge 1sts.
Back-to-back wins had got Melbourn to within five points of their hosts at the start of play, and hopes were raised they could reverse that when skipper Mark Oppen claimed a remarkable 3-2 win at fifth string, the match going to a deciding game tie-break which saw both players have multiple match balls before Oppen won 17-15. Cambridge responded by winning the third and fourth strings, Vinod Duraikan and Mike Herd falling 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.
Melbourn struck back by taking another string that went the full distance, Chris Shaw (2) taking clinching a 13-11 success in another deciding game tie-break. The visitors couldn’t make it three 3-2 wins out of three though as Matt Sampson (1) was ground down and beaten by the same score.