Melbourn lost 5-9

The seconds were beaten 9-5 by a second team for the second week in a row. This time it was Ickleford 2s who were the nemesis.

First on were the third strings, which pitted Moises Estrelles Navarro's game of blood and thunder up against the smooth stylings of Tony Dean.

1sts
The first game was a microcosm of what was to come. Moises using pace and power to try and overwhelm his more mature opponents game of manoeuvring his man around. A very back-and-forth game saw Moises edged out 15-11 with one too many loose balls and errors.

2nd
Wise words from Jan saw Moises calm down, but perhaps El Toro relaxed too much? Playing slower fed into the hands of his opponent and Moises struggled to find his rhythm. However, playing better length and width meant he could move Tony around. Errors found Moises again and after recovering from 13-5 down, Tony just edged the game 15-13.

3rd
Moises was really now starting to hit his straps and his opponent started to tire, with Moises racing out to win the third 15-8

4th
The slog fest to end all slog fests. Tony found his 5th wind by this stage and in the business of finishing this one off. However, Moises wasn't having any of it and by keeping himself in the rallies he marched his way towards what looked like an inevitable 2-2 and into a decider. As we all know the squash gods are a cruel bunch and some ridiculously good shots from Tony saw himself level to 14-14. Like two heavyweights in the 12th round, they were swinging for the fences but Tony prevailed with a body shot that KO'd Moises to take the game 17-15 and the match 3-1.

Next on were the second strings, which pitted Liam Murphy against Andy Phillipson.

1st
Liam started rapidly, quickly opening up a 6-2 lead in the opener, but then appeared to lose his early focus and made some unforced errors to let Andy back level at 6-all. From this point Liam focused on consistent play and did it very well as he rattled through the rest of the game 15-8. Quite a number of these points were won with perfect lengths which died in the deep corners, especially Andy’s backhand. One would claim local knowledge… but this was at Ickleford, not Melbourn!

2nd
Could Liam back that up in game two? Could he ever! What was delivered was a masterclass of controlled Squash and length hitting. Time and again Liam pumped the ball hard towards the back corners and time and again the ball curled up a died once it got there, leaving Andy completed exasperated. The opening half of the game was pure perfection, Liam racing into an 8-0 lead. Andy did register a point eventually, but only after a long and lung-busting rally – this was also the case of the other two points he was to claim in the game as Liam made precisely zero unforced errors.

3rd
Staying on such an elevated plateau was going to be challenging, and Liam didn’t quite manage it. Even so he was in control, cruising into a 12-4 lead. The focus wavered briefly again, but having allowed three points against Liam produced a crushing and wall-hugging short forehand kill on the return of serve at 7-12 to move to two points from victory. He swiftly added the two further rallies needed, rounding off a highly accomplished performance that saw him victorious 15-8, 15-3, 15-7.

That sent things to the top string, where Jan Brynjolffssen faced off with Kevin Waring

1st
Irresistible force Vs the immovable object, I'll let you decide who's who. The metronomic game of Jan pulled Kev into areas he'd rather not be with Jan consistently finding length and line. He subsequently ran into an 11-5 lead. However one missed stroke call by Jan saw him lose his focus and squander his lead to end up 14-14. Kev eventually winning out 16-14.

2nd
The second saw Jan getting dragged into Kev's game, very un-Jan like. He started to tire quickly and tried to keep a high tempo which meant errors crept in and Kev took advantage to take it 15-8.

3rd
With the third saw the return of the Jan we know and love. The wall was his friend and slowing the game down saw Kev struggling to find rhythm and as a result saw his error count creep up. Jan was showing real court craft and took the game 15-8.

4th
Kev raced into a 6-0 lead in game 4 with Jan looking all at sea. However Jan zoned in and found his game very quickly which meant Kevin attempted more high risk shots to get back in the game. It looked for all the tea in China that Jan would be taking this to a fifth but some miraculous stuff from Kevin dragged him back level. The game was now at 16-16, gladiatorial would be the word for this battle. With Kevin having a strong kill game saw him edge out Jan 18-16 and take a very even game 3-1.

Jan saw skipper for the evening. He commented afterwards “So close! It felt like both Moises and I had the momentum after winning our third games, but the Ickleford boys dug in to grind out the fourth in each case. If either of them had gone to five… Sadly, we couldn’t back Liam up, which was a really shame as he was in imperious form tonight.”